Philosophers & Psychologists Trivia

1. René Descartes was born in a small town in the Kingdom of France called La Haye en Touraine. When he was 22, Descartes enlisted in which army?

From Quiz Putting the Horse Before Descartes

Answer: Dutch States Army

René Descartes was born in 1596 and his mother dies shortly after his birth, so Descartes was not given much of a chance to live. Despite this, he survived and grew, especially in knowledge, as he was considered wan and sickly. Nevertheless, his ambition was to become an army officer, so he enlisted as a mercenary in the Dutch States Army commanded by Maurice, Prince of Orange. When in the army, Descartes was selected to study military engineering. This furthered his interest in math.

From Quiz Socrates: An Examined Life

Answer: Athens

Socrates was born in 469 B.C. and was a major contributor to the period in history known as the Golden Age of Athens. His father, Sophroniscus, was a stonemason, and his mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife.

From Quiz Philosophers and Their World

Answer: Thomas Aquinas

Thomas was big for his age, and didn't talk much, but when he got started, he wrote some of the foundational philosophy of Catholic thought, by weaving Aristotle's logical and natural philosophy into the Christian theology.

From Quiz Philosophers à la Monty Python

Answer: Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was born in Königsberg, Prussia in 1724. His philosophy of mind, epistemology, and ethics have come to be known as Kantianism - based on the concepts of duty and rationality over emotion. In the song, the reference to Kant being rarely stable was a nod to his theory of a stable universe. The University of Königsberg, where Kant taught, was renamed the Kaliningrad State University after Soviet annexation in 1945. In 2005, the university was again renamed, this time in honour of Kant: Immanuel Kant State University of Russia.

From Quiz Utilitarians and Consequentialists

Answer: Jeremy Bentham

In his work "The Principles of Morals and Legislation" (1789) Bentham argued that man is controlled by two masters - pleasure and pain. As a consequence, man should, therefore, look to take actions that provide the greatest pleasure. To extend this to the broader community, these actions should provide the greatest pleasure to the greatest number of people. Bentham takes this hedonistic approach further by providing a list of twelve pains and ten pleasures covering man's spiritual and physical aspects. His theory extended that these actions could be turned into an equation to provide them with a 'happiness factor' on which they could be assessed. Bentham's plan was not without criticism, the most poignant being that justice would be much the poorer under such a regime - for example, it would be considered acceptable to condone lying if the outcome of that lie would produce a greater good.

From Quiz Who Should I Call?

Answer: Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Lorenz described a process known as imprinting, which is a sudden, virtually permanent learning process that occurs in geese during their critical period of development. During this time a gosling will attach to the first thing they see that moves - a dog, a cow, or it can even be a box being pulled along by a string. After attachment, the baby will follow whatever they attach to, and run toward it when they are frightened. His advice: Don't worry. This is perfectly normal for geese.

From Quiz Philosophers In Their Own Words

Answer: Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche remains one of the most controversial and misunderstood geniuses in history. A great number of human tragedies such as the Holocaust and the Columbine shootings have been linked to his philosophy and yet anyone who reads his words finds wisdom, hope and a profound love of life that are light years away from the nihilistic atrocities associated with him.

From Quiz Still More about Philosophers

Answer: Kaliningrad

It was the former East-Prussian city of Königsberg. The Russians having after the Second World War annexed the city, renaimed it after Kalinin, who as president ruled the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946. Better said: who as president did NOT rule the Soviet Union. (That was done by another man, whose name I have forgotten.) Wroclaw is the former German town of Breslau in Silesia, now Polish. Praha is known to the Anglo- and Gallophones as Prague.

From Quiz Mencius and Epicurus

Answer: Mencius

Mencius VII-1, IV:2 (translation: James Legge). Mencius' only known work is a collection of sayings bearing his own name. In later centuries, millions of Chinese revered this follower of Confucius as a secular saint, second only to Confucius himself.

From Quiz Famous Philosophers

Answer: Thales

Thales believed that the fundamental element was water. He lived in Miletus, Asia Minor.

From Quiz Philosophers and Their Oddities

Answer: Kant

He never ventured more than few miles from his native city.

From Quiz Background of Confucianism

Answer: Kongzi

Confucius is a Latinized name, but in Chinese he is known as Kongzi, or Kongfuzi, which signifies that he is a teacher. He was born Kong Qiu, and also is known by the stylized literary name Kong Zhongni!

From Quiz Philosophers Behaving Badly

Answer: Nietzsche

Famous for believing that pain was good for you, Nietzsche longed for a girlfriend but with his usual self-sabotage grew a fearsome moustache which put them off. After the horse frolics he was discovered pacing around his hotel room shouting that he was Jesus, then Napoleon, then Buddha... apparently he was upset by seeing the horse flogged. Maybe he grabbed hold of it in a gesture of solidarity, whispering in its ear: "Don't worry - whatever does not kill us makes us stronger!"

From Quiz English Philosophers

Answer: Hobbes

The commonwealth that Hobbes talks about is somewhat similar to the laws of Dharmas, laws generally created in order to control the impulses from the chakras. Perhaps the leviathan is the great beast that keeps all creatures in place. "Since men are continually in competition for honor and dignity, which these creatures are not, and consequently amongst men there ariseth on that ground, envy and hatred, and finally war." The 'leviathan' is thus the beastly Titan composed of the civitas that rules over all men.

From Quiz Famous Philosophers

Answer: Alcmaeon of Croton

From Quiz Philosophers

Answer: Levi-Strauss

From Quiz Immanuel Kant

Answer: 1724

Kant lived from 1724-1804. He was a German philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in Western philosophy. Kant made significant contributions to various areas of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, and political philosophy.

From Quiz Socrates: An Examined Life

Answer: Xanthippe

Some sources say that Xanthippe might have been as much as forty years younger than Socrates. Together they had three sons, Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. There is evidence that one of his friends believed that Socrates should flee the city rather than choose the hemlock because he would not have to leave his family behind that way. Xanthippe is portrayed as a devoted wife and mother, although one source quotes Socrates as saying she was "the hardest to get along with of all the women there are." The quote is a bit misleading, however, because Socrates also said that he enjoyed her argumentative spirit.

From Quiz Philosophers and Their World

Answer: Aristotle

Aristotle was Alexander the Great's tutor in the ancient Greek disciplines of art, rhetoric, philosophy. Funny that Alexander took such a military turn.

From Quiz Philosophers à la Monty Python

Answer: Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger happened to be the only philosopher in Monty Python's "Bruces' Philosophers Song" who was still living when it was written. Born in Germany in 1889, he lived until 1976 (the song was first released on 1973's "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" album). Heidegger was known for his work in phenomenology (the study of the structures of subjective experience and consciousness), existentialism (everything starts with the experiences of the individual), and philosophical hermeneutics - a field that Heidegger pioneered.

From Quiz Utilitarians and Consequentialists

Answer: John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) took the view that intellectual pursuits held a greater degree of happiness than the mere contentment one found in physical pleasures. Accordingly, man should first direct his actions toward the intellectual. He summarised this in his, now famous, line 'better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied'.

From Quiz Mencius and Epicurus

Answer: Mencius

Mencius IV-1, XVIII:4. Remarkable words for a conservative moralist. Mencius also called procreation the first duty owed to one's parents, so that marrying without their permission would be better than not marrying at all.

From Quiz Famous Philosophers

Answer: Aristotle

Aristotle's Logic remained unchanged until Bertrand Russell (20th century) improved upon Aristotle's work.

From Quiz Philosophers and Their Oddities

Answer: Wittgenstein

He also worked as a hospital porter in London during the war, but also spent much of his life in the Norwegian fjords, which he loved.

From Quiz Background of Confucianism

Answer: Mengzi

Mengzi was Confucius' most famous disciple, author of the "Mengzi," one of the four most important books of Confucianism.

From Quiz Philosophers Behaving Badly

Answer: Descartes

Descartes' last position was at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden. Unfortunately he was expected to teach her as early as 5 o'clock in the morning... this is perhaps one of the reasons for his death in Stockholm of pneumonia in 1650.

From Quiz English Philosophers

Answer: Bacon

One of the most intelligent and well respected men of science and philosophy, but he was no Birdseye!

From Quiz Famous Philosophers

Answer: Hegel

From Quiz Philosophers

Answer: Ponge

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