PhiloType classifies how you make judgments and what convinces you in everyday situations along four axes, and shows one of 16 types as the result. Each axis has two poles, and the type code is written as four letters, [L/P][A/K][T/I][S/E]. All eight letters are the initials of Greek philosophical terms, and no letter is used twice.
Design premises
The axes are measured through everyday styles of thinking and judgment, and the result labels use the language of philosophy. You need no knowledge of philosophy to answer the questions, but the results are designed to lead you to debates in the history of philosophy.
On every axis, both poles are treated as positive. Neither pole is read as better than the other. This principle rests on Windelband, discussed below, who held two directions of knowledge to be equally legitimate and irreducible to each other. Each of the four axes is also classified independently.
The four axes at a glance
| Axis | Opposition | Question | Theoretical source |
|---|---|---|---|
| L / P | Logos (logic) and Pathos (empathy) | What convinces us | The spirit of geometry and the spirit of finesse in Pascal's Pensées |
| A / K | Archē (footing) and Kinesis (motion) | How thinking unfolds | Parmenides' unchanging being and Heraclitus' flux of all things |
| T / I | Telos (purpose) and Idion (particularity) | Where value is found | Windelband's distinction between the nomothetic and the idiographic |
| S / E | Skepsis (skepticism) and Eros (openness) | How we face truth | Pyrrhonist suspension of judgment and the account of eros in Plato's Symposium |
L / P: how you are convinced
L (Logos) is the pole that places the final ground of thinking in logical consistency. The test for being convinced is “does it hold together?” It defines concepts strictly and values inference from premises to conclusions. P (Pathos) is the pole that places the final ground in experiential certainty. The test for being convinced is “does it ring true?” It tries to reach truth through bodily sense, intuition, empathy and aesthetic sensitivity.
The theoretical source is the two kinds of mind that Pascal distinguished in the Pensées. The spirit of geometry proceeds logically from a few clear principles. The spirit of finesse, by contrast, grasps many subtle principles at a glance, without inference. The names of the axis come from the three modes of persuasion in Aristotle's Rhetoric (logos, pathos, ethos).
All philosophers write arguments, so writing arguments alone is not a reason to classify someone as L.
Classification test
When logical analysis and experiential certainty conflict, which one do you finally go with?
A / K: how thinking unfolds
A (Archē) is the pole that first sets something stable in place as a footing for thought and then builds from it. The footing can be a principle, a premise, a faith or a law of nature, and it may be consciously chosen or simply work as a self-evident assumption. K (Kinesis) is the pole that thinks while moving, without fixing a footing. It takes processes such as dialogue, dialectic, historical development and trial and error as the place where thinking happens.
The theoretical source is the opposition between Parmenides, who taught unchanging being, and Heraclitus, who taught that all things flow. Kinesis is the word for “motion,” a central concept of Aristotle's Physics.
The classification looks at how thinking starts, not at the conclusion it reaches. A philosopher who writes about change is still classified as A if an unmoving principle sits at the starting point. This criterion was first defined as “the starting point of method,” but external raters could not reproduce the classifications with it, so it was redefined using the concept of a “footing.”
A / K may look like political conservatism and progressivism, but they are separate distinctions. Kant, for example, was a figure of the Enlightenment yet is classified as A, and Hegel, despite endorsing the Prussian state in some respects, is classified as K.
Classification test
When you start thinking, do you first set a stable footing and build from it, or think while moving without fixing a footing?
T / I: where value lies
T (Telos) is the pole that finds meaning in orders, laws and purposes beyond the individual. It places its own thinking inside frameworks larger than itself, such as a system, a tradition, a community or the direction of history. I (Idion) is the pole that finds meaning in once-only particularity that cannot be reduced to the universal. It turns its attention to what the order of the whole misses and to what spills out of it.
The theoretical source is the distinction the Neo-Kantian Wilhelm Windelband drew in 1894, in a rectoral address at the University of Strasbourg. Nomothetic knowledge seeks the general in the form of universal laws, while idiographic knowledge tries to understand the singularity of one-time events. Windelband held the two to be equally legitimate and irreducible to each other.
On this axis, care is taken not to classify by surface features alone. A philosopher who builds a system is I if their concern points to what the system cannot absorb. Conversely, a philosopher who criticizes the existing order is T if the aim is to build a better order.
Classification test
Is the final concern of thinking to show the order of the whole, or to show what that order misses?
S / E: attitude toward truth
S (Skepsis) is the pole that stays with the awareness of lack. In inquiry it first doubts and tests, sees human beings as limited, and keeps a distance from the world. E (Eros) is the pole that gives itself over to the movement of seeking. In inquiry it is first drawn in and accepts, then goes deeper, sees human beings as able to go beyond their own limits, and holds a fundamental trust in the world.
There are two theoretical sources. One is the account of eros in Plato's Symposium, which portrays human beings as in-between beings moving from lack toward beauty. The other is Pyrrhonism, which taught an attitude that reaches peace of mind (ataraxia) through suspension of judgment (epochē). Because human beings seek while aware of their lack, two poles arise: S, which stays with the awareness of lack, and E, which gives itself over to the movement of seeking.
The classification is normally based on the attitude at the start of inquiry. Only when that attitude does not settle it is the final decision made by the view of human beings. And because many philosophers discuss overcoming limits in some form, discussing transcendence alone is not a reason to classify someone as E.
Classification test
Are human beings seen as fundamentally finite, or as beings who can transcend?
Independence of the four axes
If the axes are highly correlated with each other, combining them adds little information. PhiloType therefore classified 182 philosophers in binary terms on 28 candidate axes and calculated the correlations between axes (phi coefficients). The current combination of four axes ranked 41st (top 0.2%) out of the 20,475 ways to choose four axes from the candidates, and the largest absolute correlation between the four axes was 0.172.
This check, however, is based on classification data for philosophers. Whether the same independence holds for general respondents will be checked with future response data.
How the axes make the 16 types
Combining the poles of the four axes gives 16 types. PhiloType gives each type a name and a tagline, and places one philosopher with the same thinking tendency on the “interpretation” side and one on the “intervention” side. You can find out which poles you are closest to by taking the quiz.