I have always had a think for discussions of philosophy, and wondered if there was a divergence between those people who self-identify as Progressive versus those that would not in which philsopher they most agree with.
There is no way I would go to Redstate and administer this same quiz, and of course the small number of people who take this is not going to be a representative sample, shoot the quiz itself is not perfect.
Rather I hope it starts a discussion on the topic of two great loves of life....politics and philosophy.
So the quiz is at This website and it is made up of about 12 questions in which you select 'the best answer' to the questions that it asks.
I already know that yes not all the questions are the 'best' nor are all answer choices the 'best' but again I write the diary using it just to prompt what I hope will be an interesting discussion.
At the end you get a plot of how far/close you are to very famous philosophers, based upon their agreement/disagreement with your views.
Mine, for example came up with the following
Which philosopher are you?
Your Result: W.v.O. Quine / Late Wittgenstein
There is no provable absolute truth. The way you see things is dependant on your language. Truths exist only within a language, and change as the language does.
This was then followed by a graph which I cannot seem to put in here which showed that in order after Quine I had the next most in common with Aristotle, then Kant, etc.
Aristotle
Immanuel Kant
Early Wittgenstein / Positivists
Nietzsche
Plato (strict rationalists)
Sartre/Camus (late existentialists)
So....what do you all think? Of the quiz? Of Philosophy? Of differences between progressives views of philosophy vs. non-progressives?
I cannot say I am shocked by my result of Quine though it was fitting and I think people that know me in real life also agree.I read several of his works long ago and enjoyed them.