The “Which Philosopher are You?” Test – Written by Michael Todd (circa 2008)

Preface:

This is the second of the several personality tests I’ve written.

The concept behind it was to choose several of the most prominent philosophers of all time, then, to “tag” them with words and labels that best identified their core beliefs about reality, the universe … and everything.

The way I operationalized this was to use actual quotes from them… every question in this test is an actual quote from one of the greatest minds earth has ever known.

Having said that, funny anecdote: After I originally wrote it, I got feedback from a woman. She pointed out to me that “my” sentences (questions) were silly and poorly written.

I told her that I hadn’t actually written them … Betrand Russell, Karl Popper … guys like that had.

She did not respond.

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Beyond our natural urges; beyond sex and ambition and materialism – beyond religion itself, lies an urge within man, in his mortality, to understand. This test is for those people who question, who are undecided, who thirst to understand anything; to understand the bizarre moment during the day when we realize we exist. I will try to couple you with a philosopher whose commentary you most closely agree – undoubtedly you will be a mixture of them; much of philosophy overlaps. Please take the test without referring to outside sources if you want true validity – otherwise it is pointless and will be of no use to you.

Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

PS: I’m trying out a bit of a new format here … I’ve put everything in a “heading” format. It makes the writing … big. For some this will be good; others might find it unsophisticated. Please tell me what you think.

Sincerely

– Michael Todd

April  5, 2015