120 philosophical questions to ask (deep, funny and about life)

Philosophical questions are the ones with no answer key. Nobody can look them up, so everyone starts level, and you learn more about a person from how they reason than from any fact about them. That makes them surprisingly good for a random chat with a stranger, a long evening with friends, or a text conversation that has run out of small talk.

Below are 120 philosophical questions grouped by theme, from the classic deep ones to a few that are mostly funny. None of them ask for personal details, so they are safe to use with someone you have just met. If you want lighter material first, start with icebreaker questions or random questions to ask.

How to ask a philosophical question without sounding like an exam

• Offer your own answer first, or right after theirs. A question with nothing behind it feels like a test.
• Pick one. Ten deep questions in a row is exhausting. One good one can fill half an hour.
• Ask “why?” once. The first answer is usually the quick one. The interesting part is the reason behind it.
• Let them disagree. The whole point is that there is no right answer. Curiosity beats winning.
• Read the room. If replies get short, switch to something lighter and come back later.

Philosophical questions about life

1. What makes a life a good one, and is that the same as a happy one?
2. If you could know the exact date of your death, would you want to?
3. Is it better to have a short life full of meaning or a long, comfortable, ordinary one?
4. What do you think you will regret not doing, and why have you not done it yet?
5. Does life need a purpose, or is looking for one the problem?
6. If nobody ever remembered you, would your life have mattered less?
7. Is it possible to waste a day, or does every day count for something?
8. What is the difference between being alive and living?
9. Would you rather be remembered for something you did or forgotten but content?
10. If you could relive one year of your life, would you change anything or just watch?
11. Is there such a thing as a small decision?
12. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would ever judge you?
13. Do people change, or do they just reveal more of who they always were?
14. Is it better to want less or to have more?
15. What is one belief you hold that you cannot prove?

Deep philosophical questions

1. If you replaced every part of a ship one plank at a time, is it still the same ship? Are you still the same person you were at five?
2. Does free will exist, or does it just feel like it does?
3. Is mathematics discovered or invented?
4. If a perfect copy of you were made, which one would be you?
5. Can something be true if nobody believes it?
6. Why is there something rather than nothing?
7. Is the universe more likely to be finite or infinite, and which would you prefer?
8. If time travel were possible, would the past already include your visit?
9. Do numbers exist in the same way that chairs exist?
10. Is a language you cannot speak still a language to you, or just sound?
11. Could a machine ever be conscious, and how would we know?
12. If everyone in the world lost their memory tonight, what would survive of civilisation?
13. Is there any knowledge that cannot be put into words?
14. Does an event you never find out about affect your life?
15. If the universe is deterministic, does it change how you should live?

Philosophical questions about the mind and identity

1. Are you your body, your brain, your memories, or something else?
2. If you could not remember a great experience, was it still worth having?
3. Do you see the same colour I see when we both say “blue”?
4. How much of your personality did you choose?
5. Is your inner voice you, or something you listen to?
6. When you change your mind, who changed it?
7. If a pill could remove your worst memory, would you take it? Would you still be you?
8. Can you ever really know what another person is feeling?
9. Is a dream that feels real, while you are in it, any less of an experience?
10. What would be left of you if you lost every one of your opinions?
11. Do animals have selves, or only lives?
12. Is boredom a problem with the world or with the mind?
13. Would you want to know everything about yourself, including the unflattering parts?
14. Are you a different person online than in person? Which one is more real?
15. If you could upload your mind to a computer, would that be survival or death?

Philosophical questions about right and wrong

1. Is it ever right to lie? What is the smallest lie you would defend?
2. Would you divert a runaway trolley to kill one person instead of five? What if you had to push someone?
3. Is a good deed done for praise still a good deed?
4. Do we owe more to people close to us than to strangers, and why?
5. Is it wrong to eat meat if you would not kill the animal yourself?
6. Can a person be good if they never had the chance to be bad?
7. Is fairness about equal treatment or equal outcomes?
8. Should you be judged by your intentions or by your results?
9. If a law is unjust, is breaking it wrong?
10. Is there anything that is wrong everywhere, in every culture, in every time?
11. Are you responsible for harm you did not intend?
12. Is forgiveness something you give to the other person or to yourself?
13. Is it worse to do harm or to allow it when you could have stopped it?
14. Does the value of a gift depend on the sacrifice behind it?
15. If you found a wallet with a lot of cash and no way to trace it, what would the right thing be, and would you do it?

Philosophical questions about happiness

1. Is happiness a feeling, a habit, or a decision?
2. Would you plug into a machine that gave you a perfect simulated life? Why not?
3. Can you be happy without anyone else knowing?
4. Is it better to have low expectations and be pleasantly surprised, or high ones and sometimes be disappointed?
5. Does knowing more make you happier or less happy?
6. Is contentment the goal, or is wanting things part of being alive?
7. Are people today happier than people were 200 years ago?
8. What is the difference between pleasure and happiness?
9. Would you rather be happy and wrong or unhappy and right?
10. Is there a kind of sadness worth keeping?
11. Can money buy happiness up to a point, and where is the point?
12. Is a happy memory of an unhappy time still a happy memory?
13. Does comparing yourself to others ever help?
14. Is it selfish to put your own happiness first?
15. What is one thing that reliably makes you happy that costs nothing?

Philosophical questions about society and the future

1. If everyone could read everyone else’s thoughts, would the world be better or worse?
2. Should there be a limit to how much one person can own?
3. Is privacy a right or a luxury?
4. Would you want to live in a world with no risk at all?
5. Is progress always good, or just always change?
6. If we could end all disease but everyone lived to exactly 100, would we take it?
7. Do people have a duty to vote, or a right not to?
8. Should art be judged separately from the artist?
9. What do we owe to people who are not born yet?
10. Is a society more defined by its laws or by its habits?
11. If a machine did everyone’s job, what would people be for?
12. Would humanity be better off if we could not lie at all?
13. Is it better to be ruled by wise people you did not choose or by ordinary people you did?
14. What will people in 200 years find shocking about us?
15. If we met an alien civilisation, what is the first thing we should tell them?

Philosophical questions about knowledge and truth

1. How do you know you are not dreaming right now?
2. Is it possible to be certain of anything?
3. When two people remember the same event differently, is either of them wrong?
4. Is a fact you cannot check still knowledge, or just trust?
5. Does science tell us what is true or what works?
6. If everyone believed something false, would it be false?
7. Is it better to believe a comforting lie or an uncomfortable truth?
8. Can you understand something you cannot explain?
9. Is doubt a weakness or the beginning of thinking?
10. What is something you were certain about five years ago and are not now?
11. Does a question with no possible answer still have value?
12. Is intuition a kind of knowledge?
13. Is history what happened or what was written down?
14. Can you learn anything from a book you disagree with completely?
15. Would you rather know one big truth or a thousand small ones?

Funny philosophical questions

Still real questions, just with lighter stakes. These are good openers when someone is not in the mood for the meaning of life yet.

1. If you drop a piece of toast and it lands butter side up, was it ever really bad luck?
2. Is a hot dog a sandwich, and who gets to decide?
3. If you clean a vacuum cleaner, are you the vacuum cleaner?
4. Does a fish know it is wet?
5. If you enjoy wasting time, is it wasted?
6. Is cereal a soup?
7. Why do we press harder on the remote when the batteries are dying?
8. If nobody sees you dance badly, did you dance badly?
9. Is a ten-hour flight shorter if you sleep through it?
10. When you wait for the microwave, is that patience or just standing?
11. If a tomato is a fruit, is ketchup a smoothie?
12. Does the word “monosyllabic” break its own rule?
13. If you win an argument with yourself, did you lose?
14. Is a burrito just a sleeping bag for food?
15. Which came first: the person who said “rules are made to be broken” or the rule against saying it?

Using philosophical questions in a random chat

On RandomHey you both see the same conversation starter when a chat begins, which is an easy way in. After that, a single philosophical question from this list can carry a whole conversation, especially in text chat, where people have time to think before they reply. If the other person gives a short answer, ask why, or offer yours. If they are clearly not in the mood, switch to this or that questions or would you rather and try again later.

A few habits keep it enjoyable: do not use these questions to trap or lecture anyone, keep personal details out of your answers (a philosophical position is not an address), and remember that pressing Next is always allowed. For more on keeping a good conversation alive, see how to keep a conversation going and deep questions to ask.