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Quiz Questions

  1. What is the literal meaning of the word philosophy?
  2. Which early member of the American Philosophical Society first used the phrase "All men are created equal"?




  3. Which principle asserts that the universe contains all possible forms of existence?
  4. The philosophy of which Chinese teacher and philosopher emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity?
  5. In the late eighteenth century which German philosopher set forth a groundbreaking philosophical system which claimed to bring unity to rationalism and empiricism?
  6. Which philosopher and statesman was knighted by King James I in 1603?
  7. What does the Latin philosophical proposition "cogito, ergo sum" by Rene Descartes mean, when translated into English?
  8. Which 13th-century Catholic philosopher and theologian stated there were five logical arguments regarding the existence of God in his book Summa Theologica?
  9. Which female writer is best known for the 1792 book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education?
  10. Which well known British novelist in 1924 became a philosophy tutor at University College, Oxford?
  11. Which philosopher in Classical Greece was the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world?
  12. Which branch of philosophy, associated with Jean-Paul Sartre, is primarily concerned with the question of being?
  13. Which German philosopher founded Marxist theory together with Karl Marx?
  14. Which branch of philosophy studies the essence of a thing?
  15. Who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought"?
  16. Goodwin's law states that if an online discussion goes on long enough, regardless of topic, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to whom?
  17. Which philosopher did Aristotle regard as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition?
  18. What name is given to the philosophical view that the world, and especially human existence, is without meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value?
  19. Which English philosopher wrote the book Leviathan in 1651?
  20. Whose 'razor' refers to the philosophical idea that of any given set of explanations for an event occurring, it is most likely that the simplest one is the correct one?




  21. What term is given to the analogy, formulated by Bertrand Russell, to illustrate that the philosophic burden of proof lies upon a person making unfalsifiable claims, rather than shifting the burden of disproof to others?
  22. Who was the most famous pupil of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle?

Answers

  1. Love of wisdom
  2. Thomas Jefferson
  3. The principle of plenitude
  4. Confucius
  5. Immanuel Kant
  6. Sir Francis Bacon
  7. "I think, therefore I am"
  8. St. Thomas Aquinas
  9. Mary Wollstonecraft
  10. C. S. Lewis
  11. Plato





  12. Existentialism
  13. Frederick Engels (or Friedrich Engels)
  14. Metaphysics
  15. Bertrand Russell (in 1950)
  16. Adolf Hitler
  17. Thales (of Miletus)
  18. Nihilism
  19. Thomas Hobbes
  20. Occam's razor
  21. Russell's teapot
  22. Alexander the Great