5 minute read
These questions do not try to be new. Most are normie - friendly. They check what memes you carry and spread.
Doxometry = Doxa (belief ) + measurement
The empirical goal is to see what beliefs / tendencies make up 99.99% of human variance in beliefs.
This list is a prototype for that study, that is the list is not assumed complete. Later factor analysis might be done.
On none of these questions should there be unity of answer given a big enough sample.
If you find any of the questions new and thought - provoking, you’ve just been vaccinated. Vaccinated against being told about the topic by someone manipulative. Or against being surprised by a question on your stance on that.
Philosophical maturity in 2020s as a subset of conditions means having a stance on each of these. This stance might be even agnosticism, what matters is some though having been given.
Meaning
Does human life have any meaning?
Do you consider your life to have meaning?
It is good to live without considering abstract ideas which are disagreed on or to find a deep belief in an idea / religion ?
Morality
Do we have obligations towards our parents, although we did not ask to be born?
Are people born good and spoiled by civilization?
Origin of morality - is it an individual, culture / society, divine command theory , or maybe some independent form?
Do objective morality and universal values exist?
Euthanasia, abortion, suicide - what is your moral judgement on these issues?
Is being a moral person conductive or essential to being a happy person?
Religion
Perennialism - are all religions right in a certain sense? Do their differences stem only from human imperfection? Or a divine plan?
Existence of God - options include atheism, agnosticism, belief in an unspecified higher force, personal theism. What describes you most accurately?
Nature of our knowledge of God - can we infer anything from the beauty of nature, of humans? Through direct prayers? Through sacred texts?
God’s mode of existence - a person with human - like feelings or a cosmic force, or maybe something else?
Do you believe in a punishment after death?
Do you believe in a prize after death?
Does in the present world exist a supernatural mechanism through which good deeds are rewarded in this life?
Does in the present world exist a supernatural mechanism through which evil deeds are punished in this life?
How often do you frequent any kind of temple / religious building for non-touristic purposes?
Group participation - do you consider yourself an engaged member of your religious group?
Ghosts, UFO - do the people who claim to have seen these phenomena have seen a real fragment of reality?
Is science able to explain everything?
Existence of magic - do you think that there is such a way of influencing reality?
Do you possess an immaterial soul / energy? It is a medium for your consciousness?
Have you tried any form of meditation?
The problem of evil - does the existence of evil in the world exclude Existence of an all-powerful, all-benevolent god?
Is Pascal’s wager valid?
Soothsayers - what truth do they say about the future? Do they have access to a hidden knowledge?
Do you have prophetic dreams?
Do you believe that your religious allegiance group is always right?
Miracles - have they been anytime, do they happen nowadays?
Do we have free will in spite of the fact that decisions are to some extent foreseeable and made in response to external factors?
Would a massive loss of faith in free will bring demise to the society?
Predestination - do you believe that each of us has a destiny, a role to fulfil? Is it avoidable? Or maybe rather it is a certain scenario (e.g. a duty), in which we will feel most fulfilled?
Simulation hypothesis - do you think it is possible that we are living in a computer simulation? If so, what would be the consequences to your beliefs and practices?
The mind
Mary’s room - did she get to know something new?
Will there ever be an AI transcending all human capacities in real - world situations (not chess)?
What constitutes a person's identity - body, memory, soul, social connections?
Tabula rasa - are we born with any knowledge?
Children - do they know something we do not? are they morally superior?
What is the nature of consciousness? Something non-physical (e.g. a soul), biological brain, quantum consciousness?
What makes a human?
Society
Anarchism - does any top-down organization bring harm and oppression? Would everyone be better off in a bottom - up organized community?
Democracy - is it efficient, valid? - general evaluation
Do democratic elections have meaning? - does my vote count?
Evaluation of socialism - does it rest on wrong assumptions? Or has it been wrongly implemented? Maybe it has been implemented right?
Should humans voluntarily stop reproducing to go extinct?
Will humanity colonize other planets?
Will humanity survive another 100 years?
Dream of immortality - would you use technological life extension technologies? Is humanity heading in the right direction with those technologies? A paradise found or a Pandora’s box?
Do we have any special obligations towards our country of birth? That means other than those contractual legal ones stemming from living in any country (taxes)?
Nationalism - is it best when each state cares for its interests independently? Or maybe it is worthwhile to engage in international cooperation at the price of some portion of independence?
LGBT rights - homosexual marriage, adoption, prosecuting homosexuality? To what extent are you an ally?
Do you support welfare state - public healthcare, unemployment insurance?
Intellectual internet property rights in the - a place free from all intervention or should creators' rights be always pursued with utmost diligence?
That’s variant 0.1, leave a comment with what to add, what to modify or delete.
Potentioally with more test variants they should gradually have a higher coverage of human variance. The optimal test, to which it should be asymptotically approaching, has least questions and highest coverage. There is an obvious tradeoff between length of the test and engagement.
Annex
Here is a list of topics that these questions were based on.
Are any topics missing? Maybe some topics would be better expressed with a different question than the ones that are above? Maybe a different split of topics?
The above list is not exhaustive, it just sketches a certain, non-final vision of their formulation in specific areas. These and other areas, which require a systematization of questions, are:
idealism, realism, dualism - ontology
knowledge - epistemology
free will and personal identity
political - type of regime, morality, economy
meaning of life
morality / ethics
a happy life
Metaphysics
time
being
objects and their properties
mind and body
cosmology
realism idealism
essence
universals
Epistemology
truth
scepticism, rationalism, empiricism, their progenitors
philosophy of the mind
philosophy of language
Axiology
the good
justice
ethics
good and evil
ethical and unethical behaviour
consequentialism, utilitarianism, deontology
Social philosophy
philosophy of politics
justice
law
property
citizen’s rights
citizen’s duties
how connects with ethics
Aesthetics
metaethics
aesthetics
beauty
art
taste
perception and creation
theory of art, literature, film, music
the beautiful
Philosophy of psychology
human nature
emotional reactions
Logics, semantics, mathematics
philosophy of science
logic
induction and deduction
philosophy of mathematics
game theory
Philosophy of religion
existence of God
faith and reason
religion and science
interpretation of religious experiences
questions about the possibility of an afterlife
the problem of religious language
existence of a soul
pluralism and religious diversity