Philosophy quiz: which thinker, which idea?
From the allegory of the cave to the categorical imperative, from Diogenes of Sinope to Ibn Sina: match ten famous ideas with the thinkers behind them.
The great ideas of philosophy are often remembered through a single line: an image, a command, a book title. In this quiz you match ten ideas with the thinkers behind them. No contested interpretation questions here; every pair is a well-documented one from the history of thought.
"I think, therefore I am" is the starting point of which thinker?
Chained people mistaking shadows on a wall for reality โ in which work is the allegory of the cave told?
Who founded the school in Athens known as the Lyceum?
Which famous Cynic is said to have lived in a large earthenware jar?
Which thinker argued that morality rests on an unconditional command, the categorical imperative?
Who wrote "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"?
In the Islamic philosophical tradition, which philosopher is known as the "Second Teacher"?
Who wrote "The Canon of Medicine", taught for centuries in European universities as well?
Which Enlightenment thinker argued that inferring the future from past experience (induction) cannot be grounded in reason?
The "Tao Te Ching", the foundational text of Taoism, is traditionally attributed to whom?
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