User:Arocoun

Philosophy Quiz
I am happy that this quiz has become pretty popular! I'd like to thank everyone for the many compliments and the constructive criticism.

For v1.02, I fixed the spelling of the word "Divine" (which about 1/4 of the responses pointed out as being wrong). Thankfully, that was the only definite mistake pointed out to me. Also, I put a link to my Wikipedia site on all the descriptions, so that people could get see the results for the other philosophies (I was surprised how many requests I had for that). Finally, I made it so that the Existentialism questions would be a little harder to agree with, because I noticed that so many people got it as their top match.

For v1.03, I changed some questions which I was informed were too long, switched the quotes for Divine Command, and changed a question for existentialism, so that it would ask if you actually put serious effort into deciding your life's meaning and purpose.

If you come here, and have any further comments, feel free to discuss the quiz on my talk page.

Utilitarianism
Your life is guided by the principles of Utilitarianism: You seek the greatest good for the greatest number.

“The said truth is that it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.” --Jeremy Bentham

“Whenever the general disposition of the people is such, that each individual regards those only of his interests which are selfish, and does not dwell on, or concern himself for, his share of the general interest, in such a state of things, good government is impossible.” --John Stuart Mill

Existentialism
Your life is guided by the concept of Existentialism: You choose the meaning and purpose of your life.

“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.” “It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” --Jean-Paul Sartre

“It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth.” --Blaise Pascal

Kantianism
Your life is guided by the ethical model of Kantianism: You seek to have consistent laws rule your actions, and your will is directed by reason.

"I do not, therefore, need any penetrating acuteness to see what I have to do in order that my volition be morally good. Inexperienced in the course of the world, incapable of being prepared for whatever might come to pass in it, I ask myself only: can you also will that your maxim become a universal law?" --Immanuel Kant

Strong Egoism
Your life is very much guided by the concept of Egoism: You work primarily to promote your own interests.

“I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” “I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.” --Ayn Rand

Divine Command
Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction.

“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” --King James Version of the Bible

Justice (Fairness)
Your life is guided by the concept of Fair Justice: Everyone, yourself included, should be rewarded and punished according to the help or harm they cause.

"He who does not punish evil commands it to be done." --Leonardo da Vinci

“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.” --Dwight D. Eisenhower

Hedonism
Your life is guided by the principles of Hedonism: You believe that pleasure is a great, or the greatest, good; and you try to enjoy life’s pleasures as much as you can.

“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!”

Apathy
Your life is marked by quite a bit of apathy: You don’t seem to care much about the direction of your own life, much less society in general.

I would find a quote or two to better describe the virtues and thoughts behind apathy, but ironically those who would espouse the concept of apathy are too apathetic to write about it.

“I don't know and I don't care.” --Random person who stumbled on this person's blog which linked to this page..

Responses
I have received plenty of comments, and I feel that a few of them are particularly worth responding to.

"For responses, I would suggest a range of 5 rather than 6. I find it more useful when the options are of an odd number, because then it\'s easier for me to be smack dab in the middle ;)"

I actually made it 6 on purpose. I could just as easily made it 5 or 7, but I chose 6 precisely because it forces you to choose one way or another. It gets you out of that middle-of-the-road comfort zone, and makes you choose, if only one little bit, which way you feel about something.

"good quiz =)

very well done and thought out..

In fact, I learned quite a bit from taking this quiz. I might have to dig into some esoteric research =)

-Dave"

To the folks who respond like this, I'd like to say both "thanks" and "you're welcome." I like it when I can help others learn.

"It may just be me, but I think there ought to be a few more \'types\' of answers. Whatever happened to Nietzsche\'s Ubermensch philosophy? That could be a fun one to design questions for...

Otherwise, this was much fun." "what about Buddhism, socialism?? your quiz sucks."

Well, there are problems here. I'm one person, using a limited quiz engine--I most certainly can't make a quiz which includes everything! Or even a hundreth of everything, for that matter. So when I was choosing which philosophies I'd use, I chose those which:

1. Were not extremely limited to a particular cultural set or time period, like the Ubermensch philosophy, and

2. Didn't have much to do with a particular political stance. Socialism, for example, is a political system which exists outside of oneself, while being socialist is an internal condition; the question, then, is why is one a socialist? It almost certainly has something to do with one's own personal philosophy, which is what this quiz tries to find.

In the end, I decided to choose eight (plus apathy), and make it so that everyone that I could conceivably think of could be adequately described by one or more of the terms. There is no way that a simple combination of eight results can describe anyone with great detail, but I (and a few who commented) think that my humble little quiz does the job as good as any other, at least.

Finally, for those who wanted pragmatism included, I must say that it seems that there are entirely too many people who consider themselves pragmatists (in other words, it's too broad). If I included that, the problem of everyone scoring as pragmatists would be many times worse than the problem of everyone scoring as existentialists that I just got done with. I'm sorry if that doesn't work well for you, but I don't see much that I can do about it.

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