Philosophers Trivia

247+ Best Philosophers Trivia Questions & Answers

Mike Oberman

Updated: August 29th, 2023

Explore the fascinating world of philosophers with over 247 trivia questions and answers. From Socrates to Nietzsche, challenge yourself and uncover the wisdom of the great thinkers throughout history!

Ancient Philosophers Trivia

Question: Pierre Abelard was born in what year?

Answer: 1079

Question: Plato was born in which country?

Answer: Greece

Question: Plotinus was a philosopher from which country?

Answer: Egypt

Question: Pythagoras was a philosopher from which country?

Answer: Greece

Question: Siddhartha Gautama was born in Lumbini in what modern-day country?

Answer: Nepal

Question: Which philosopher is often considered the last of the Roman philosophers?

Answer: Boethius

Question: Which philosopher is regarded as the father of Daoism?

Answer: Lao Tzu

Question: Which philosopher opposed Confucian concern with ritual and emphasized self-knowledge?

Answer: Mozi

Question: Which philosopher was brought up in the Chinese province of Lu?

Answer: Confucius

Question: Which philosopher was tutor to Prince Dionysius?

Answer: Plato

Question: Who is considered the last of the great philosophers of Islam's Golden Era?

Answer: Averros

Question: Who is considered the most important figure of new Humanism?

Answer: Erasmus

Question: Who is often considered the first of the Scholastic Philosophers?

Answer: Boethius

Question: Whose early dialogues feature Socrates as the main protagonist?

Answer: Plato

Question: Whose masterwork is entitled 'Ethics'?

Answer: Benedictus Spinoza

Question: Wu-Wei is a notion associated with which philosopher?

Answer: Lao Tzu

Question: Zeno of Elea was a philosopher from which country?

Answer: Greece

Question: Which is regarded as the founder of Chinese philosophy?

Answer: Lao Tzu

Question: Which is the correct title of the most famous work by Bertrand Russell?

Answer: The History of Western Philosophy

Question: Where did Aristotle set up his Lyceum school?

Answer: Athens

Question: Where was Ludwig Wittgenstein held as a POW in the first World War?

Answer: Italy

Question: Which philosopher established the Lyceum school?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Which philosopher acted as a tutor to Alexander the Great?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Which philosopher has a name meaning 'Old Master'?

Answer: Lao Tzu

Question: Which philosopher has the first name Anicus Manilus Severinus?

Answer: Boethius

Question: Which philosopher is associated with the quote 'I think therefore I am'?

Answer: Rene Descartes

Philosophy in Years Trivia

Question: In what century did Gilbert Ryle live?

Answer: 20th

Question: In what century did John Stuart Mill live and die?

Answer: 19th

Question: In what century did Karl Popper live?

Answer: 20th

Question: In what century did Lao Tzu live?

Answer: 6BC

Question: In what century did Mozi live?

Answer: 5BC

Question: In what century did Soren Kierkegaard live and die?

Answer: 19th

Question: In what century did the Philosopher Plotinus live?

Answer: 3rd

Question: In what century was Bulgarian philosopher Julia Kristeva born?

Answer: 20th

Question: In what year did Al-Ghazali die?

Answer: 111

Question: In what year did Anselm publish 'Proslogion'?

Answer: 1078

Question: In what year did English Philosopher Peter Strawson die?

Answer: 2006

Question: In what year did Friedrich Nietzsche die?

Answer: 1900

Question: In what year did Gilles Deleuze write 'What is Philosophy?'?

Answer: 1991

Question: In what year did Jean Paul Sartre refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Answer: 1964

Question: In what year was In Praise of Folly by Erasmus published?

Answer: 1509

Question: In what year was Rene Descartes born?

Answer: 1596

Question: In what year was Simone de Beauvoir born?

Answer: 1908

Question: In what year was Socrates born?

Answer: 469 BC

Question: What year did Edmund Burke die?

Answer: 1790

Question: What year marked the birth of Aristotle?

Answer: 384BC

Question: What year saw the birth of Arne Naess?

Answer: 1912

Question: What year saw the birth of Immanuel Kant?

Answer: 1724

Question: What year saw the birth of Jeremy Bentham?

Answer: 1748

Question: What year saw the birth of John Locke?

Answer: 1632

Question: What year saw the birth of Karl Marx?

Answer: 1818

Question: What year saw the birth of Plato?

Answer: 427BC

Question: What was the first name of the famous philosopher Machiavelli?

Answer: Niccolo

Question: What was the middle name of American philosopher Charles Peirce?

Answer: Sanders

Question: What was the middle name of Karl Popper?

Answer: Raimund

Question: What was the name of Siddhartha Gautama's first son?

Answer: Rahula

Question: In which year was Bertrand Russell awarded the Nobel prize?

Answer: 1950

Question: In which year was George Santayana born?

Answer: 1863

Question: Francis Bacon published his seminal work Novum Organum in which year?

Answer: 1620

Question: Friedrich Nietzsche was born in what decade?

Answer: 1840s

Philosophers’ Birthplaces Trivia

Question: In what country was Confucius born?

Answer: China

Question: In which city did Niccolo Machiavelli spend his life?

Answer: Florence

Question: In which city was Socrates born?

Answer: Athens

Question: Arne Naess is a philosopher from which country?

Answer: Norway

Question: David Hume hailed from which country?

Answer: Scotland

Question: During which century did the English Philosopher John Langshaw Austin live and work?

Answer: 20th

Question: Edmund Husserl was born in which country?

Answer: Germany

Question: In which country was Anselm of Canterbury born?

Answer: Italy

Question: In which country was Aristotle born?

Answer: Greece

Question: In which country was Averroes born?

Answer: Spain

Question: Francis Bacon came from which country?

Answer: England

Question: Francisco de Vitoria was from which country?

Answer: Spain

Question: Francisco Suarez hailed from which country?

Answer: Spain

Question: From what country does the philosopher Alfred Ayer come from?

Answer: England

Question: From which country did Erasmus hail?

Answer: Holland

Question: From which country does Jurgen Habermas hail?

Answer: Germany

Question: George Santayana was born in which country?

Answer: Spain

Question: Gilbert Ryle was born in which country?

Answer: England

Question: John Duns Scotus was from which country?

Answer: Scotland

Question: Which country was home to Han Feizi?

Answer: China

Question: Which country was home to Niccolo Machiavelli?

Answer: Italy

Question: Which philosopher was born in the Greek island of Samos?

Answer: Pythagoras

Question: Which philosophers' birthplace is Stageira, Greece?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Which philosophers' father was a physician to King Phillip of Macedon?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Who was the father of the official philosophy of the Han Dynasty?

Answer: Confucius

Philosophers by Year of Birth and Death Trivia

Question: Jacques Derrida passed away in which year?

Answer: 2004

Question: What year did Edmund Burke die?

Answer: 1790

Question: What year marked the birth of Aristotle?

Answer: 384BC

Question: What year saw the birth of Arne Naess?

Answer: 1912

Question: What year saw the birth of Immanuel Kant?

Answer: 1724

Question: What year saw the birth of Jeremy Bentham?

Answer: 1748

Question: What year saw the birth of John Locke?

Answer: 1632

Question: What year saw the birth of Karl Marx?

Answer: 1818

Question: In which year did Karl Marx die?

Answer: 1883

Question: What year saw the birth of Plato?

Answer: 427BC

Question: What year saw the death of Niccolo Machiavelli?

Answer: 1527

Question: When did Michel Foucault die?

Answer: 1984

Question: What was the first name of the famous philosopher Machiavelli?

Answer: Niccolo

Question: What was the middle name of American philosopher Charles Peirce?

Answer: Sanders

Question: What was the middle name of Karl Popper?

Answer: Raimund

Question: What was the name of Siddhartha Gautama's first son?

Answer: Rahula

Question: In which year did Karl Marx die?

Answer: 1883

Question: What year saw the death of Niccolo Machiavelli?

Answer: 1527

Question: When did Michel Foucault die?

Answer: 1984

Question: In which year was Bertrand Russell awarded the Nobel prize?

Answer: 1950

Question: In which year was George Santayana born?

Answer: 1863

Question: Francis Bacon published his seminal work Novum Organum in which year?

Answer: 1620

Question: Jacques Derrida passed away in which year?

Answer: 2004

Question: Friedrich Nietzsche was born in what decade?

Answer: 1840s

Philosophers' Contributions Trivia

Question: What was Mozi's trade?

Answer: Engineer

Question: What was the first name of 'I Think…' philosopher Descartes?

Answer: Rene

Question: What century did David Hume live and work?

Answer: 18th

Question: What century did Siddharta Gautama live?

Answer: 6BC

Question: What decade saw the birth of Karl Jaspers and Ernst Bloch?

Answer: 1880s

Question: John Stuart Mill was the godfather of which philosopher?

Answer: Bertrand Russell

Question: Karl Popper wrote 'The Self and its _____'?

Answer: Brain

Question: Language, Truth and Logic (1936) is a famous work by…..?

Answer: Alfred Ayer

Question: Mao Zedong stated which philosopher was 'the Philosopher of the people'?

Answer: Mozi

Question: Meditations of Don Quixote is a work by which Spanish Philosopher?

Answer: Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Question: Metaphysics and On The Soul are works by which philosopher?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dharma was the first major sermon of whom?

Answer: Siddhartha Gautama

Question: Siddharta Gautama was the founder of which religion?

Answer: Buddhism

Question: Sun Yat Sen stated which philosopher was 'the Philosopher of the people'?

Answer: Mozi

Question: The Book of Healing and Canon of Medicine were works by which medical philosopher?

Answer: Avicenna

Question: The philosopher Augustine of Hippo was based on what continent?

Answer: Africa

Question: The Social Contract was a major work by whom?

Answer: Jean Jacques Rousseau

Question: The Will to Believe (1897) was an early work by whom?

Answer: William James

Question: Tractus is the title of the early major work by which philosopher?

Answer: Ludwig Wittgenstein

Question: Treatise on the World is a major work by whom?

Answer: Rene Descartes

Question: Truth and Method is the major work of which philosopher?

Answer: Hans-Georg Gadamer

Question: Which composer heavily influenced the work of Friedrich Nietzsche?

Answer: Wagner

Question: Which German philosopher wrote 'Meaning and necessity'?

Answer: Rudolf Carnap

Question: Which Jewish philosopher fled from Austria in 1937 to New Zealand?

Answer: Karl Popper

Question: Which philosopher and Nazi sympathizer was Rector of Freiburg University?

Answer: Martin Heidegger

Question: Which philosopher carried out the 1945 lecture 'Existentialism is a Humanism'?

Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre

Question: Which philosopher coined the term 'semiotic'?

Answer: Julia Kristeva

Question: Which philosopher is associated with the quote 'War does not determine who is right…only who is left'?

Answer: Bertrand Russell

Question: Which philosopher is attributed with the quote 'All things are numbers'?

Answer: Pythagoras

Question: Which philosopher is attributed with the quote 'Every realm of nature is marvelous'?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Which philosopher is believed to have been born in modern-day Kazakhstan?

Answer: Al-Farabi

Philosophers by Nationality Trivia

Question: John Rawls was born in which country?

Answer: USA

Question: John Stuart Mill came from which country?

Answer: England

Question: Jose Ortega Y Gasset was born in which country?

Answer: Spain

Question: Karl Popper hailed from which country?

Answer: Austria

Question: Lao Tzu hailed from which country?

Answer: China

Question: Louis Althusser hails from which country?

Answer: France

Question: Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in which year?

Answer: 1889

Question: Michel de Montaigne hails from which country?

Answer: France

Question: Mozi was a philosopher from which country?

Answer: China

Question: Nicholas of Cusa came from which country?

Answer: Germany

Question: Peter Singer comes from which country?

Answer: Australia

Question: Peter Strawons hails from which country?

Answer: England

Question: Richard Rorty was born in which country?

Answer: USA

Question: Rudolf Carnap was born in which country?

Answer: Germany

Question: Saul Kripke was born in what year?

Answer: 1940

Question: Simone de Beauvoir was born in which country?

Answer: France

Question: Socrates hailed from which country?

Answer: Greece

Question: Soren Kierkegaard hailed from which country?

Answer: Denmark

Question: Thales of Miletus was born in which country?

Answer: Greece

Question: What nationality is Noam Chomsky?

Answer: American

Question: What nationality is philosopher Julia Kristeva?

Answer: Bulgarian

Question: What nationality is Saul Kripke?

Answer: American

Question: What nationality was Auguste Comte?

Answer: French

Question: What nationality was Edmund Burke?

Answer: Irish

Question: What nationality was Immanuel Kant?

Answer: German

Question: What nationality was Jacques Derrida?

Answer: French

Question: What nationality was Karl Marx?

Answer: German

Question: What nationality was Miguel de Unamuno?

Answer: Spanish

Question: What nationality was philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche?

Answer: German

Question: What nationality was philosopher Ramon Llull?

Answer: Spain

Question: What nationality was philosopher Titus Brandsma?

Answer: Dutch

Question: What nationality was philosopher William James?

Answer: American

Question: What nationality was Rene Descartes?

Answer: French

Question: What nationality was the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein?

Answer: Austrian

Question: What nationality was the philosopher Martin Heidegger?

Answer: German

Question: What nationality was Theodor Adorno?

Answer: German

Question: What nationality was Thomas Aquinas?

Answer: 13th

Philosopher Names and Titles Trivia

Question: What does the J stand for in the name of JS Mill?

Answer: John

Question: What does the S stand for in the name of JS Mill?

Answer: Stuart

Question: What completes the title of a landmark Michel Foucault work 'The Order of….'?

Answer: Things

Question: Naming and Necessity is a key work by which philosopher?

Answer: Saul Kripke

Question: On The Eternal in Man and Mans Place in Nature are works by which philosopher?

Answer: Max Scheler

Question: What was the first name of the famous philosopher Machiavelli?

Answer: Niccolo

Question: What was the middle name of American philosopher Charles Peirce?

Answer: Sanders

Question: What was the middle name of Karl Popper?

Answer: Raimund

Question: What was the name of Siddhartha Gautama's first son?

Answer: Rahula

Question: The Analects are a work by which philosopher?

Answer: Confucius

Question: The Birth of Tragedy is a work by which philosopher?

Answer: Friedrich Nietzsche

Question: The Book of Virtue and The Book of the Way are works by which philosopher?

Answer: Lao Tzu

Question: The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho is a work by which philosopher?

Answer: Miguel de Unamuno

Question: The Subjection of Women' is a work by which philosopher?

Answer: JS Mill

Question: The Way of the Truth is the first section in 'On Nature' by which philosopher?

Answer: Parmenides

Question: Complete the name of the famous philosopher '_____ of Ockham'?

Answer: William

Philosopher's Works and Titles Trivia

Question: Being and Nothingness is a famous work by which philosopher?

Answer: Jean-Paul Sartre

Question: Complete the name of a famous work by John Rawls 'A Theory of….'?

Answer: Justice

Question: Complete the name of the philosopher. Karl _____.

Answer: Marx

Question: What age was Saul Kripke when he published his first papers on modal logic?

Answer: 19

Question: When did Simone de Beauvoir release The Second Sex?

Answer: 1949

Question: Complete the title of a famous work by Simone de Beauvoir 'The Second…'?

Answer: Sex

Question: Complete the title of a famous work by Theodor Adorno 'Philosophy of Modern…'?

Answer: Music

Question: Republic and Apology were major works of which philosopher?

Answer: Plato

Question: Complete the title of a landmark work by philosopher Noam Chomsky 'Syntactic…'?

Answer: Structures

Question: Complete the title of Michel Foucault's first major work 'Madness and…'?

Answer: Civilization

Question: Consolation of Philosophy' is a work by which influential philosopher?

Answer: Boethius

Question: Dao De Jing is a work by which famous philosopher?

Answer: Lao Tzu

Question: Which Philosopher wrote The Archaeology of Knowledge?

Answer: Michel Foucault

Question: Which philosopher wrote Virtuous City?

Answer: Al-Farabi

Question: Which philosophers' works included 'The Concept of Mind' and 'Plato's Progress'?

Answer: Gilbert Ryle

Question: Who was sent to Athens aged 17 to study at Plato's Academy?

Answer: Aristotle

Question: Which philosopher lived to the age of 91?

Answer: Thomas Hobbes

Question: Han Feizi founded which school of philosophy?

Answer: Legalism

Question: Heraclitus was a philosopher from which country?

Answer: Greece

Question: Which philosopher was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize?

Answer: Bertrand Russell

Question: Which philosopher was exiled from Spain for opposing the dictatorship of Primo De Rivera?

Answer: Miguel de Unamuno

Question: Who became the Chair of Notre Dame, aged just 34?

Answer: Pierre Abelard

Question: Willard Van Orman Quine was from which country?

Answer: USA

Question: Achilles and the Tortoise is the best-known of the famous paradoxes by which philosopher?

Answer: Zeno of Elea

Question: Alfred North Whitehead stated philosophy was 'a series of footnotes to..'?

Answer: Plato

Question: Complete the Bertrand Russell quote 'War does not determine who is right - only who is ___'?

Answer: Left

Question: Complete the famous Jean-Paul Sartre quote 'Hell is Other….'?

Answer: People

Question: Complete the famous Pythagoras quote 'All things are…'?

Answer: Numbers

Question: Complete the famous quote attributed to Peter Strawson 'the Present King of France is…'?

Answer: Bald