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Philosophers Behaving Badly Trivia Quiz

The humorous side of some of the world's greatest minds.

A multiple-choice quiz by ingilby. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
ingilby

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
90,310

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
2145

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Which philosopher spent the last ten years of his life insane after being discovered in Turin embracing a horse? Hint

Wittgenstein

Nietzsche

Marx

Engels

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Question 2 of 10

2. This philosopher would spend all day in bed. When callers enquired what he was doing he would reply: "Thinking..." Hint

Pascal

Locke

Plato

Descartes

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Question 3 of 10

3. This great thinker recommended one should swallow a toad every morning as an insurance against disappointment. Hint

Schopenhauer

Nietzsche

Marx

Spinoza

4. Which great thinker believed all women should be held in common, listed eating figs and sunbathing as his favourite pastimes and always sat at the end of a couch in order to avoid society ? Hint

Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Citium

Plato

Socrates

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Question 5 of 10

5. Once suspected of being the true author of Shakespeare's works he suffered perhaps the first recorded death caused, albeit indirectly, by a frozen chicken. Hint

Kant

Descartes

Bacon

Marlowe

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Question 6 of 10

6. Marx led a fairly exemplary life but he did have an extra-marital affair with.... Hint

His housemaid

Engels

Engel's wife

Florence Nightingale

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Question 7 of 10

7. The foremost of a school of cynics, he eschewed all social systems, performed all private functions in the street and eventually resided in a barrel. Hint

Plato

Diogenes

Euripides

Epicurus

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Question 8 of 10

8. Our next awesome thinker founded a school which prohibited (amongst other things) the following: eating beans; touching white roosters; allowing swallows to nest in your roof and looking in the mirror beside a light. Hint

Pythagoras

Socrates

Archimedes

Hippocrates

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Question 9 of 10

9. This popular American philosopher's chauffeur had heard him lecture so often he boasted he could do the job himself. The philosopher obliged and at the next lecture the two men swapped roles. The driver delivered the lecture with aplomb, but afterwards a student asked him a tricky question about Aristotle, morality and the soul. "Oh that is a simple one... it's so simple even my chauffeur would know it - why don't you ask him ?" The philosopher ? Hint

Kurt Russel

Wayne Chomsky

Sigmund Freud

Mortimer Adler

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Question 10 of 10

10. On his death bed Hegel complained: "Only one man understood me." After a few moments of silence, what did he (allegedly) say next ? Hint

Myself

And he was crazy

My analyst

And he didn't understand me.

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which philosopher spent the last ten years of his life insane after being discovered in Turin embracing a horse?

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!"

2. This philosopher would spend all day in bed. When callers enquired what he was doing he would reply: "Thinking..."

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.

3. This great thinker recommended one should swallow a toad every morning as an insurance against disappointment.

Answer: Schopenhauer

Perhaps the most miserable philosopher of them all even his own mother refused to let him visit, so morbid did he make everyone feel. However, he was a fascinating conversationalist - visitors would listen to him rapt for hours on end as he talked seemingly endlessly. His favourite companion in old age was a pet poodle.

4. Which great thinker believed all women should be held in common, listed eating figs and sunbathing as his favourite pastimes and always sat at the end of a couch in order to avoid society ?

Answer: Zeno of Citium

Not to be confused with Zeno of Elea and his famous paradoxes. The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard held that a philosopher without a paradox was like a lover without passion.

5. Once suspected of being the true author of Shakespeare's works he suffered perhaps the first recorded death caused, albeit indirectly, by a frozen chicken.

Answer: Bacon

On an impulse he decided to take advantage of the cold weather and stuffed a chicken with snow in order to test his theories concerning freezing temperatures and meat preservation. Unfortunately he caught a cold and died shortly after of bronchitis.

6. Marx led a fairly exemplary life but he did have an extra-marital affair with....

Answer: His housemaid

Marx despaired of revolution ever happening in Britain because he thought even the British working class was bourgeois.

7. The foremost of a school of cynics, he eschewed all social systems, performed all private functions in the street and eventually resided in a barrel.

Answer: Diogenes

One anecdote has it that Alexander the Great visited Diogenes while the philosopher was sunbathing. Concerned at the poverty of the old man the great conquerer asked if there was anything he could do for him. "Yes. Get out of my light." Averse to writing down his thoughts, there is even a story that he glued one of his scrolls together on purpose so that it could never be read.

Answer: Pythagoras

Many of these superstitions or customs were prevalent in Egypt where Pythagoras and other Greek philosophers visited as an essential part of their study, since it was seen as the seat of ancient learning.

Answer: Mortimer Adler

Dr. Mortimer Adler described himself as a pagan for most of his life, converting to Christianity in his 80s.

10. On his death bed Hegel complained: "Only one man understood me." After a few moments of silence, what did he (allegedly) say next ?

Answer: And he didn't understand me.

Hegel paradoxically (ha!) inspired both right-wing and left-wing thinkers (including Marx). He also negatively inspired Kierkegaard to found existentialism.

Source: Author ingilby

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Lanni before going online.
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