Philosophy Flashcards
Who founded the Academy in Athens and was the author of The Republic which is written in the format of a Socratic dialogue?
PLATO
What is the English translation of Rene Descartes’ philosophical proposition ‘cogito ergo sum’?
I THINK THEREFORE I AM
Which ancient Greek philosopher was a student of Plato teacher of Alexander the Great and the founder of the Lyceum?
ARISTOTLE
The statement “God is dead” is associated with Thus Spoke Zarathustra which was written by which German philosopher?
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Socrates was found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety and sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing which poison?
HEMLOCK
Which philosopher and mathematician born on the island of Samos c. 570 BC founded a movement which prescribed a highly structured way of life?
PYTHAGORAS
Considered the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment whose works include Critique of Practical Reason Metaphysics of Morals and Critique of Judgment?
IMMANUEL KANT
Which school of philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium teaches that people should accept what happens without complaining or showing emotion?
STOICISM
In one of Zeno’s paradoxes Achilles is in a footrace with which slow-moving reptile which he can never overtake?
TORTOISE
Who wrote the 1689 work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding where he describes the mind at birth as a blank slate filled later through experience?
JOHN LOCKE
Which French existentialist philosopher and writer declined the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature saying that “a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution”?
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
Which philosopher born in Sinope and known as ‘the Cynic’ praised the virtues of a dog and lived a simple life in a tub?
DIOGENES
According to The Philosopher’s Drinking Song by Monty Python which German philosopher best known as the author of Being and Time “was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table”?
MARTIN HEIDEGGER
Which ethical doctrine founded by Jeremy Bentham and modified by John Stuart Mill teaches that a morally good action is one that helps the greatest number of people?
UTILITARIANISM
What is the literal meaning of the Greek word ‘philosophia’?
LOVE OF WISDOM
Named after a biblical sea monster which book by Thomas Hobbes was one of the first scholarly works on social contract theory?
LEVIATHAN
The author of Novum Organum who supposedly died after catching a cold while stuffing a chicken with snow as part of an experiment in refrigeration?
FRANCIS BACON
Which 13th century English philosopher and Franciscan friar was also known as ‘Doctor Mirabilis’?
ROGER BACON
What is the name of the 1949 book by Simone de Beauvoir which is regarded as the starting point of second-wave feminism?
THE SECOND SEX
Which branch of philosophy studies the nature of knowledge its presuppositions and foundations and its extent and validity?
EPISTEMIOLOGY
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was the only work published by which Austrian philosopher who was a student of Bertrand Russell?
LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN
Known as ‘the weeping philosopher’ which pre-Socratic is famous for the saying “No man ever steps in the same river twice”?
HERACLITUS
The political ideas of which Genevan philosopher the author of Discourse on Inequality influenced the French Revolution?
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
Born in Copenhagen in 1813 who is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher?
SOREN KIERKEGAARD
Which philosophical doctrine argues that the world especially past and current human existence is without objective meaning purpose comprehensible truth or essential value?
NIHILISM
Which philosopher and Dominican friar author of the Summa Theologiae was also known as ‘Doctor Angelicus’?
(SAINT) THOMAS AQUINAS
What is the name of the prison designed by Jeremy Bentham which allows a single watchman to observe all inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether they are being watched or not?
PANOPTICON
Ontology is a central branch of which area of philosophy which is concerned with the basic causes and nature of things?
METAPHYSICS
Which 18th century Scottish philosopher wrote The History of England?
DAVID HUME
Bertrand Russell wrote that if he were to assert without offering proof that an object orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars he could not expect anyone to believe him solely because his assertion could not be proven wrong. Which object did Russell use in this analogy?
TEAPOT
The fundamental notion of which philosopher’s dialectic described in The Phenomenology of Spirit is that things or ideas have internal contradictions?
GEORG HEGEL
Which French philosopher is best known as the founder of deconstruction?
JACQUES DERRIDA
Theodor Adorno was an early member of which school of philosophy and social theory which is named after the German city where it was founded in 1923?
FRANKFURT SCHOOL
The World as Will and Representation is the best known work of which philosopher who was born in Danzig in 1788?
ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER
What nationality was Baruch de Spinoza who was expelled from a Portuguese Jewish community for his controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible?
DUTCH
The cosmological doctrine of Thales of Miletus held that the world originated from which single material substance?
WATER
Known as ‘the laughing philosopher’ who is best remembered for the atom theory whereby the world consists of an infinite number of everlasting atoms?
DEMOCRITUS
Which philosophical position holds that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents?
REDUCTIONISM
From the Greek for ‘unit’ which term was adopted from Greek philosophy by Gottfried Leibniz who referred to this as an elementary particle?
MONAD
What name is given to the philosophical study of human consciousness which was founded by Edmund Husserl?
PHENOMENOLOGY
Which Irish philosopher’s advancement of subjective idealism is summed up in his dictum ‘To be is to be perceived’?
GEORGE (BISHOP) BERKELEY
The Human Condition is a 1958 work by which German-born female Jewish philosopher and political theorist?
HANNAH ARENDT
One of the most influential theologians and philosophers of the High Middle Ages John Duns Scotus was given what scholastic accolade?
DOCTOR SUBTILIS
An extreme form of scepticism which philosophical idea states that only one’s own mind is sure to exist?
SOLIPSISM
Which pre-Socratic philosopher made the immortal statement “All Cretans are liars” which is a paradox of self-reference?
EPIMENIDES
Also known by his birth name Meng Ke which philosopher is possibly the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself?
MENCIUS
What name was given by the Greeks to ancient Indian philosophers who pursued asceticism to the point of regarding food and clothing as detrimental to purity of thought?
GYMNOSOPHISTS
In which 1959 book does Karl Popper argue that science should adopt a methodology based on falsifiability because no number of experiments can ever prove a theory but a single experiment can contradict one?
THE LOGIC OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY
Which French philosopher who engaged in a debate with Albert Einstein about the nature of time won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927?
HENRI BERGSON
Chaired by Moritz Schlick what was the name of the group of philosophers and scientists who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at a major university in Austria?
VIENNA CIRCLE
