Philosophy Quiz

Philosophy Quiz: 9 Quizzes, 90 Questions to Test Your Knowledge

Welcome to Quizoland's philosophy quiz page. Nine quizzes, ninety verified questions, three difficulty levels. From Socrates to Simone de Beauvoir, by way of Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, Sartre, and Foucault, you'll cover the major schools of thought (Stoicism, empiricism, existentialism, phenomenology), the works that shaped the history of ideas, and concepts central to a philosophy curriculum. This page is part of the general knowledge quiz hub, and you play directly in your browser, no sign-up, totally free.

Major Philosophical Movements

Our questions cover the main schools. Antiquity first: the pre-Socratics (Heraclitus, Parmenides), Socrates and his trial, Plato and the Academy, Aristotle and the Lyceum, the Stoics (Zeno of Citium, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), the Cynics (Diogenes of Sinope), and Epicurus. Then the modern era: Cartesian rationalism, British empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hume), Spinoza, Leibniz, then the Enlightenment with Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Diderot. In the 19th century, Kant and his categorical imperative, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche. In the 20th, the existentialism of Sartre and Beauvoir, the phenomenology of Husserl, the logic of Frege and Wittgenstein, and Foucault's archaeology of knowledge.

Major Works and Famous Quotes

The questions also cover the texts everyone should know: Discourse on the Method (1637), The Social Contract (1762), Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Capital (1867), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-1885), Being and Nothingness (1943), The Second Sex (1949), The Order of Things (1966). You'll also find the most-quoted lines: "I think, therefore I am," "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," "Man is a wolf to man," "No one ever steps in the same river twice." Every correct answer comes with a verifiable source (Wikipedia, Britannica, and other reputable references).

A Timeline Format for a Change

Want to break away from standard multiple-choice? Head over to the timeline quiz hub to put philosophers and their works in order — from Thales to Deleuze. The open-answer format is also available on the open-answer quiz page: you type in the name of the philosopher or work yourself, with no multiple choice.

Score, Timer, Overall Leaderboard

Each quiz is timed, and you get a score out of 10 at the end. Compare your results with other players on the overall leaderboard, updated continuously. For a daily challenge, try the quiz of the day: ten questions refreshed every morning, covering all topics.

Broaden Your General Knowledge

Philosophy holds a central place in Quizoland's general knowledge hub. More pages will be added to this hub in the coming weeks. In the meantime, play all nine philosophy quizzes, note your best score, and come back to try the quiz of the day.