akirlu | Worldview (Reply)

Posted here largely to track my own comments...

I spotted the What is Your Worldview? quiz over at

tamiam's LJ. It's a quick Cliff Notes flyby of a few random principles imperfectly extracted from some major philosophical schools (while totally ignoring other equally major ones and tossing in some random weird shit (what the hell is 'Cultural Creative' supposed to be?) and some shit that is arguably not really even a coherent category of thought at all (I'm thinking 'Fundamentalist' here)), which is certainly nothing like an exhaustive survey of possible worldviews. But it did trigger a few ur memories from days when I was still an aspiring academic, not least being reminded that when philosophers talk, our words often Don't Mean What You Think They Mean.

Y'see,

tamiam scored as an Idealist, which I felt compelled to note is not the same as being an idealist:

I have a feeling they mean Idealist in the sense of German Idealism, tho: Johann Gottlob Fichte and them.

(which inevitably led me to)

Urgh. That would be Johann Gottlieb Fichte. As opposed to Gottlob Frege. Fichte, Frege...whatever. (Oh, good, now I'm muttering obscure German philosopher jokes to myself. Should anyone but me ever read this little divagation, I will note that I do so know that Ficthe and Frege are Quite Different. Also, Anselm, Aquinas, and Augustine --quite different-- except for the theological focus thing, the getting sainted thing, the all starting with A thing, and the always coming one after another in Philosophy of Religion classes thing (though not usually in that order).)

This moment of philosophical weenie-ism brought to you by my increasing impulse to finish my stupid MA.

Me, I initially scored as a tie between Idealist (plausible, actually) and Post-Modernist (yeah, right), and then while attempting to replicate my score for reposting, I showed up as an Existentialist (um. no.), all which just made me long all the more for the deep, thoughtful, well-designed Which Lord of the Rings Character Are You? quizzes of yesteryear. Or even the deep, thoughtful Bath quizzes of yesteryear...