01 — A philosophical identity study
You are more than a personality type.
You are a way of seeing the world.
Discover your philosophical identity.
What philosophy shapes the way you see the world?
Forty-eight questions, scored on this device. The full reading opens after PayPal checkout is captured on the server.
02
Six questions, not six traits
Each axis is a disagreement with a history. The midpoint is not wisdom, and neither pole is a virtue.
01
Reality
Physicalism · Idealism
This axis records a stated inclination about the fundamental character of reality. The left pole treats the physical as basic. The right pole treats mind, experience, or an ideal order as basic. Spirituality is not a synonym for the right pole.
02
Knowledge
Empiricism · Rationalism
This axis is about sources of justification, not about a forced choice between evidence and logic. Both can matter. The score records which one you treat as more authoritative when they conflict or when a starting point has to be chosen.
03
Morality
Consequentialism · Deontology
This axis sets outcomes against constraints such as duties and rights. Virtue ethics is a major alternative and is not the midpoint. The score is not a verdict on whether you are kind.
04
Freedom
Determinism · Libertarian free will
The left pole says the past and the laws settle the choice. The right pole says a genuine decision is not settled until the person settles it. Compatibilism — the view that responsibility does not require that kind of open alternative — is not a midpoint and is not given a letter.
05
Meaning
Discovery · Creation
The left pole treats meaning as answerable to values or purposes that are not merely chosen. The right pole treats meaning as something conferred by projects and loyalties a person or a community sustains. Creation is not nihilism. A separate answer records the view that, without a cosmic purpose, meaning does not get a foothold.
06
Social life
Individual priority · Communal priority
The left pole treats the person as a limit on what the group may do. The right pole treats membership as a source of duties that can outweigh a preference to be left alone. The axis does not infer a political party, a nation, or an ideology.
03
A question before the questionnaire
A machine can give you any experiences you choose. While you are inside it, you are not doing the things you seem to be doing. Robert Nozick asked what, besides how life feels, could still matter. The questionnaire asks this in its own words. It does not tell you which answer it is counting.
Read the caseIllustration
What a result looks like
MECDFI
Measured Inquirer
Observation corrects a physical picture, outcomes decide the hard cases, the past fixes the choice, and a single life can still track a meaning it did not invent.
An illustration of the Measured Inquirer profile. It is not a norm, not your result, and not a comparison with other people.
04
The atlas is not a ranking
Philosophers and traditions are here as neighbors of the questions. A link is thematic. It is not a similarity score.
- Plato
c. 428/427–348/347 BCE
- Confucius
551–479 BCE, traditional
- Aristotle
384–322 BCE
- Nāgārjuna
c. 2nd–3rd century CE; the dates are uncertain
- Simone de Beauvoir
1908–1986
- Zhuangzi
Traditionally fourth century BCE; the dates are uncertain
- Immanuel Kant
1724–1804
- Mozi
Traditionally fifth century BCE; dates uncertain
Before you begin
Is this a personality test?
No. It is an exploratory questionnaire about philosophical assumptions. It does not diagnose personality, mental health, intelligence, or character.
Where do my answers go?
They stay in this browser unless you download them or copy a score link. The score link does not include the answers themselves.
What if I cannot decide?
Choose “I cannot determine,” or skip the question. Neither response is scored as 50.
Why are there only two poles?
The line is a compression. Compatibilism, virtue ethics, and several non-European traditions are described in the atlas precisely because the line cannot hold them.
The method, and its limits
The scoring rules are public. The thresholds are design assumptions. Nothing here is a percentile.
MethodologyYour answers stay here
Unless you export them or copy a score link, the responses are stored in this browser and nowhere else in the application.
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