Ask a big question.
- The real texts: every quote checked word for word against the original
- Authenticity shown: written by the author, posthumous, student notes, apocryphal
- Logic tested by a solver, no reply ever invented
The big questions
For each question: the positions, the best arguments on every side, and the objections.
Does God exist?
Proofs, objections, and what philosophers think
What makes something right?
Duty, consequences, virtues
What is a just society?
Liberty, equality, power and the social contract
Can we be certain of anything?
Doubt, reason, experience
Are we free?
Free will, determinism, compatibilism
What is happiness?
Pleasure, virtue, peace of mind or meaning
Who am I, really?
The self, consciousness, what remains when everything changes
Is the mind the brain?
Dualism, materialism, consciousness
Should we fear death?
Nothingness, immortality of the soul, facing the end
Do animals matter as much as we do?
Suffering, rights, meat and human dignity
Are humans good by nature?
Natural goodness, a bent toward evil, or a nature that is shaped
Must we always obey the law?
Obedience, conscience, revolt, and the state itself
Does history have a direction?
Providence, progress, cycles or chance
Does life have a meaning?
Given meaning, meaning to create, or absurd
Should we believe without proof?
Faith and reason: harmony, separation or conflict
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Being, nothingness, the reason for the world
What is love?
Desire, the lost half, illusion, self-giving
Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
Taste, harmony, culture and universality
Can science explain everything?
Method, truth, limits and scientific revolutions
Is the world real?
Dreams, the evil demon, brains in vats, simulation
Can a machine think?
Computation, understanding, the body and artificial intelligence
Does time really exist?
Past, present, future, duration and physics
Should we have children?
Giving life, antinatalism, choice
The philosophers
What they really thought, backed by their own texts.
Confucius
Aristotle
Plato
Karl Marx
Socrates
René Descartes
Immanuel Kant
Voltaire
Friedrich Nietzsche
Augustine of Hippo
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Thomas Aquinas
Avicenna
Pythagoras
Voices of today
What the YouTubers, scientists and thinkers you listen to believe, and which philosophers they are closest to.
Existence is not a predicate
If the ontological proof succeeded, existence would have to be a property contained in the concept of God, like omnipotence.
The proof is not about ordinary existence but about necessary existence, which only the idea of God contains. It is not a predicate like any other.
Even necessary existence adds nothing to the subject: if I deny that God is, I remove the subject with all its predicates, necessity included, without any contradiction.
Kant replies that removing God also removes his necessity, without contradiction. The proof's defenders (Malcolm, then Plantinga) move the debate to necessary existence, then to the modal version,…
Which philosopher are you?
About twenty simple questions. We compare your answers with those of the 50 greatest philosophers, based on their writings, and show you where you agree with them and where you do not.
Take the testOur method
No disguised opinion. Texts, logic, and every side at its best.
The original text, checked word for word
Every quote is automatically matched against the stored text. If it is not there, it does not appear.
Logic, checked by computer
A logic solver tests each argument: does the conclusion really follow from the premises?
Every side at its best
Arguments are presented in their strongest form, with objections and replies.