Philosophy trivia

150 Philosophy trivia questions, no sign-in. Review your misses in the LoreUp app.

• Which French thinker coined the word sociology and held that human knowledge passes through theological and metaphysical stages before reaching a positive one?Western philosophy
• Which branch of philosophy asks what knowledge is and how we can come by it?Western philosophy
• Which book by Beauvoir contains the line "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman"?Western philosophy
• A paradox asks whether a ship is still the same ship once every old plank has been replaced, one by one. Which Greek hero is it named after?Western philosophy
• Which major work did Heidegger publish in 1927, though he never wrote the later parts he had planned?Western philosophy
• Among Bacon's four idols, which is the bias that comes from people misusing words as they deal with one another?Western philosophy
• Which movement, stemming from Frege and Russell, tried to settle philosophical questions through close scrutiny of language and logic?Western philosophy
• Which philosopher is said to have taken his walk at the same hour every day, so punctually that his neighbours set their clocks by him?Western philosophy
• Which French thinker described the human being as a thinking reed?Western philosophy
• Which philosopher is widely known for declaring that God is dead?Western philosophy
• The line "What does not kill me makes me stronger" comes from Nietzsche.Western philosophy
• Metaphysics is a branch of natural science that uses experiments to explain how matter moves.Western philosophy
• Schopenhauer saw the world as a good order harmoniously governed by reason.Western philosophy
• The legend of the island of Atlantis first appears in Plato's dialogues.Western philosophy
• Montaigne took the question "What do I know?" as his motto.Western philosophy
• Augustine held that evil is a substance in its own right, standing against the good.Western philosophy
• The saying "Even if the world ends tomorrow, I will plant an apple tree today" appears in Spinoza's writings.Western philosophy
• Pascal's wager argues that, even without certainty about whether God exists, it is better to bet that God does.Western philosophy
• After being sentenced to death, Socrates escaped from Athens with his students' help and saved his life.Western philosophy
• The English word philosophy comes from a Greek word meaning love of wisdom.Western philosophy
• Who wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France and is counted as the starting point of modern conservatism?Political thought
• As the Cold War drew to a close, what was Fukuyama's thesis that liberal democracy is where humanity's contest of ideologies finally arrives?Political thought
• Which 1944 book by Hayek warned that an economy planned from the centre ends up taking away individual freedom?Political thought
• Who wrote in On War that war is the continuation of politics by other means?Political thought
• Which Stoic idea holds that, since all people share in reason, all of humanity belongs to one community whatever country they were born in?Political thought
• After long wars and persecution over religion, what attitude did Locke and Voltaire champion towards people of other faiths and opinions, leaving them unsuppressed?Political thought
• Which view of the state makes it the state's job to provide social security so that citizens can live a decent life from birth to death?Political thought
• What is the name for the policy and ideology of extending rule by turning other countries and regions into colonies through military and economic might?Political thought
• Which major work did Marx devote to laying bare how capitalism works?Political thought
• Who wrote Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, based on a Harvard lecture course?Political thought
• Fascism championed parliamentary politics in which many parties compete freely.Political thought
• Aristotle held that a state is more stable the broader its middle class of people who are neither very rich nor very poor.Political thought
• Popper held that the heart of democracy lies not in who should rule but in whether rulers can be removed without bloodshed.Political thought
• Jeong Do-jeon, who led the founding of Korea's Joseon dynasty, held that real power over state affairs should rest with the king rather than the chief minister.Political thought
• Locke held that property first comes into being when the state hands it out by law.Political thought
• In the Republic, Plato held that democracy, with its excess of liberty, passes over into tyranny.Political thought
• The political labels 'left' and 'right' come from where members sat in the assembly during the French Revolution.Political thought
• Socrates is the source of the maxim 'a bad law is still the law'.Political thought
• Confucius put guiding the people by virtue and ritual ahead of governing them by punishment.Political thought
• The English word 'politics' comes from polis, the ancient Greek word for a city-state.Political thought
• In research misconduct, what is the name for making up data or results that do not exist?Ethics
• Which ethics, associated with Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings, puts responsibility for responding to others' needs within concrete relationships at the centre of morality?Ethics
• Which branch of ethics surveys and records what different societies actually hold to be right, without evaluating it?Ethics
• Which position in environmental ethics holds that each individual organism has value of its own, extending moral consideration beyond humans and animals to plants and microbes?Ethics
• Which view holds that a human life has inviolable value in itself, whatever condition it is in?Ethics
• Bentham held that the question deciding whether animals count morally is whether they can reason.Ethics
• Kant held that you may not lie even when a murderer asks whether your friend is hiding in your house.Ethics
• Peter Singer used the case of a child drowning in a shallow pond to argue that failing to help starving people in distant countries is also morally wrong.Ethics
• For Epicurus, the pleasure that is the goal of life meant indulging in food and drink as much as possible.Ethics
• Socrates held that anyone who truly knows what is right will not do wrong.Ethics
• Which book tells of the man who boasted of a spear that pierces anything and a shield nothing can pierce, the source of the East Asian word for contradiction?Eastern thought
• Which monk of Silla in Korea is famous for the story of awakening on realising that the water he had gratefully drunk in the night had pooled in a skull?Eastern thought
• Which disciple, said to be Confucius's favourite, delighted in learning despite poverty and died young?Eastern thought
• Which early Chinese school is known for the argument that a white horse is not a horse?Eastern thought
• What name is given to the Confucian ideal world in which everything under heaven belongs to all and people help and share with one another?Eastern thought
• In Confucianism, what name is given to the five virtues of humaneness, rightness, ritual propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness taken together?Eastern thought
• Looking back on his life, what did Confucius say he had reached at forty?Eastern thought
• Which book is the source of the saying that if you know the enemy and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles?Eastern thought
• Which thinker argued that human nature is bad and must be straightened out by teaching and ritual?Eastern thought
• Which Neo-Confucian scholar of Korea's Joseon dynasty went by the pen name Yulgok?Eastern thought