FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about WinniethePooh  Philosophical Genius
Quiz about WinniethePooh  Philosophical Genius

Winnie-the-Pooh - Philosophical Genius! Quiz


There is more to Winnie-the-Pooh than just a Bear of Very Little Brain! If you have read John Tyerman Williams's fascinating "Pooh and the Philosophers" then this will be a doddle. If not, maybe this will inspire you to read it.

A multiple-choice quiz by Elanor. Estimated time: 7 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. Humanities Trivia
  6. »
  7. Philosophy

Author
Elanor
Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
98,531
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Difficult
Avg Score
5 / 10
Plays
2543
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Pooh likes to use the technique of feigned ignorance, in order to make people clarify their own thoughts. Which other philosopher used this technique? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Pooh writes a song with the line "I'll have a little something in an hour or two" but then abandons it, because the last line will soon stop being true, when it becomes time for the Little Something. Which other philosopher had similar views on poetry? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Christopher Robin's quest for Education, towards the end of "The House at Pooh Corner" is in stark contrast with Pooh's outlook. Pooh is clearly not an educated Bear, knowing nothing about Kings and Queens, Knights, Europe, Factors or Suction Pumps. However, he does have an inborn wisdom, and an ability to do the right thing. Which European philosopher also described this innate wisdom? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Pooh's world is peaceful and happy, despite there being no ruler, leader, government or laws. The animals work together in the Search for Small and in the quest for the North Pole, and generally treat each other with respect, kindness and love. This is a direct contradiction of which philosopher, who believed such a world was not possible? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Pooh takes a jar of honey to put in the Cunning Trap for Heffalumps. However, he decides to check first that it is really honey. "It had HUNNY written on it, but just to make sure, he took off the paper cover and looked at it, and it looked just like honey. 'But you never can tell,' said Pooh. 'I remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just this colour.' So he put his tongue in and took a large lick." He proceeds to taste right down to the bottom of the jar, in case "somebody put cheese at the bottom just for a joke." Which philosophical tradition is Pooh illustrating here? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Casual readers may think that Pooh's birthday gift to Eeyore of an empty pot may be careless, or selfish (Pooh having first eaten the honey contained in it.) However, Pooh states several times that this will be a Useful Pot to keep things in, and Eeyore is delighted with his gift. Which philosopher would heartily agree that a Useful Pot is an ideal gift? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. There are several situations in the Pooh stories where Pooh, and indeed the other characters, use the principle of Falsifiability to test a hypothesis. Pooh uses this when he tastes the honey to make sure it isn't cheese, and when he tests whether a jar can float. Piglet uses it when he checks the trap for Heffalumps, and Tigger uses it while searching for Breakfast. Which philosopher inspired their reasoning? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. At the beginning of "The House at Pooh Corner", Pooh visits Piglet, but "to his surprise he saw that the door was open, and the more he looked inside, the more Piglet wasn't there." Which philosopher used a very similar example to illustrate his theory of alienation and Nothingness? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Pooh is not only an expert in Western philosophy. He is also a perfect illustration of some Eastern principles. Which philosophy includes the principle of P'u, which not only sounds like Pooh, but also describes him? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Another feature of the philosophy in question 9 is illustrated perfectly by Pooh, who achieves success when he acts spontaneously, without thinking. He finds his way out of the mist by listening to "twelve pots of honey in my cupboard... calling to me." What principle best describes this ability? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Pooh likes to use the technique of feigned ignorance, in order to make people clarify their own thoughts. Which other philosopher used this technique?

Answer: Socrates

Socrates (470-399 BC), like Pooh, asked a lot of questions, in order to get to the bottom of the matter in hand, whether it was the nature of the North Pole, or the meaning of Crustimoney Proseedcake. Pooh is a perfect example of the Socratic phrase "wisest is he who knows he does not know."
2. Pooh writes a song with the line "I'll have a little something in an hour or two" but then abandons it, because the last line will soon stop being true, when it becomes time for the Little Something. Which other philosopher had similar views on poetry?

Answer: Plato

Plato (422-327 BC) disliked poetry, as it told lies, and he was concerned with truth. Pooh Bear is similarly concerned with the quest for truth and honesty, and turned his song into a wordless hum.
3. Christopher Robin's quest for Education, towards the end of "The House at Pooh Corner" is in stark contrast with Pooh's outlook. Pooh is clearly not an educated Bear, knowing nothing about Kings and Queens, Knights, Europe, Factors or Suction Pumps. However, he does have an inborn wisdom, and an ability to do the right thing. Which European philosopher also described this innate wisdom?

Answer: Descartes

René Descartes (1596-1650) believed that everyone has an innate set of ideas, and that wisdom could be reached through reason. Pooh may not be Clever, like Rabbit or Owl, but he can reason, and reach sensible conclusions. See the episode when he visits Rabbit: "'Isn't there anybody there at all?' 'Nobody.' Winnie-the-Pooh took his head out of the hole and thought for a little, and he thought to himself, 'there must be somebody there, because somebody must have said 'Nobody.'"
4. Pooh's world is peaceful and happy, despite there being no ruler, leader, government or laws. The animals work together in the Search for Small and in the quest for the North Pole, and generally treat each other with respect, kindness and love. This is a direct contradiction of which philosopher, who believed such a world was not possible?

Answer: Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) wrote in 'Leviathan' that the natural state of the world was "a condition of Warre of everyone against everyone." He also believed that only a tyrannical government, or despotic leader, could hold back the mutually destructive urges of the world's inhabitants. Either Pooh's world, consisting mainly of animals, is different, or Pooh and his friends are demonstrating the extent of Hobbes's misunderstanding.
5. Pooh takes a jar of honey to put in the Cunning Trap for Heffalumps. However, he decides to check first that it is really honey. "It had HUNNY written on it, but just to make sure, he took off the paper cover and looked at it, and it looked just like honey. 'But you never can tell,' said Pooh. 'I remember my uncle saying once that he had seen cheese just this colour.' So he put his tongue in and took a large lick." He proceeds to taste right down to the bottom of the jar, in case "somebody put cheese at the bottom just for a joke." Which philosophical tradition is Pooh illustrating here?

Answer: empiricism

Well-known philosphers in the British Empiricist tradition were John Locke, Bishop Berkeley and David Hume. Empiricists believe in investigating things for oneself before reaching conclusions, and this is illustrated many times in the Pooh stories.
6. Casual readers may think that Pooh's birthday gift to Eeyore of an empty pot may be careless, or selfish (Pooh having first eaten the honey contained in it.) However, Pooh states several times that this will be a Useful Pot to keep things in, and Eeyore is delighted with his gift. Which philosopher would heartily agree that a Useful Pot is an ideal gift?

Answer: John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill lived from 1806-1873. He espoused the belief in Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, which meant that different people had different tastes, and should do what was most suited to making them happy and useful. So it was absolutely right for Pooh to eat the honey, as Eeyore would not have appreciated it, and was "as happy as could be" with his Useful Pot.
7. There are several situations in the Pooh stories where Pooh, and indeed the other characters, use the principle of Falsifiability to test a hypothesis. Pooh uses this when he tastes the honey to make sure it isn't cheese, and when he tests whether a jar can float. Piglet uses it when he checks the trap for Heffalumps, and Tigger uses it while searching for Breakfast. Which philosopher inspired their reasoning?

Answer: Karl Popper

Sir Karl Popper (1902-1992) wrote about the difference between a scientific and an unscientific hypothesis. A scientific (and better) hypothesis must be able to be tested by the Principle of Falsifiability. In other words, if it can be disproved, then it is false.

However many times a hypothesis is proved true, it cannot be ruled out that it could be proved untrue, however improbable. A good scientific theory or hypothesis then, must be checked against the possibility of being untrue, and this is just what Pooh and his friends do many times over.

When Tigger searches for Breakfast, his initial hypothesis ("Tiggers like everything") is proved to be false several times, and his theory must be adjusted and reformulated many times.
8. At the beginning of "The House at Pooh Corner", Pooh visits Piglet, but "to his surprise he saw that the door was open, and the more he looked inside, the more Piglet wasn't there." Which philosopher used a very similar example to illustrate his theory of alienation and Nothingness?

Answer: Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre used the story of someone arriving at a cafe to meet a friend, and noticing first of all the absence of that friend. He noted that we alienate and annihilate what is irrelevant, and notice only what is important - in this case the absence of something.

There are many other references in the Pooh stories to the concept of Nothing, and Nothingness ("Being and Nothingness" was the title of one of Sartre's major works): the Heffalump looks like "an enormous big Nothing", Pooh stepped on "a part of the Forest which had been left out by mistake" and falls down a hole, and what Christopher Robin "likes doing best is Nothing." If you are interested in viewing philosophy from Pooh's point of view, try Williams' interesting, thought-provoking and somewhat tongue-in-cheek volume, from which the basics of this quiz have been drawn. Williams is a Doctor of Philosophy, who has worked at Oxford University, and who evidently loves Pooh Bear.
9. Pooh is not only an expert in Western philosophy. He is also a perfect illustration of some Eastern principles. Which philosophy includes the principle of P'u, which not only sounds like Pooh, but also describes him?

Answer: Taoism

P'u translates roughly as 'things as they are', or the Uncarved Block. In other words, it is the principle of things in their natural state being the ideal. Things are accomplished by Pooh because of his simple-minded approach, not despite it. It not Clever Rabbit or Educated Owl that gets things done, but simple Pooh, who finds Eeyore's tail, and the North Pole, rescues Piglet from the Flood and finds Small when he is lost. Again, this fits in with Descartes' theory of innate wisdom.
10. Another feature of the philosophy in question 9 is illustrated perfectly by Pooh, who achieves success when he acts spontaneously, without thinking. He finds his way out of the mist by listening to "twelve pots of honey in my cupboard... calling to me." What principle best describes this ability?

Answer: Wu Wei

T'ai Hsu translates as the "Great Nothing" - the Great Secret, the key to happiness and wisdom. Wu Wei is a perfect description of Pooh; he reflects the Taoist idea that "the Tao does not do, but nothing is left undone." Pooh's success appears effortless. If you're interested, try the "Tao Te Ching" or Benjamin Hoff's brilliant "Tao of Pooh".
Source: Author Elanor

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor coolupway before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
3/29/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us