Prototype for Philosophy Themed Deck Completed

I have finished the prototype for my philosophy themed playing cards and am ready to go to press with a POD to see how they turn out in the flesh. I will keep you posted on the end result. I am thinking of kickstarting a project on these cards to have a nicer print and finish done by the USPC. Here are some previews of the finished product. I "watermarked" the sheets somewhat, so ignore the crosshatching. You should notice that I upgraded the art quality on almost all of the philosophers.

1. Tuckbox.

2. Card Sheets.

3. Card Back Design.

4. Individual Card Examples.

5. Art Progression. This shows the progression from the original art portraying the philosopher (whether a sculpture, drawing, photo, or painting) to the hand drawn sketch to the altered vectorized sketch to the finished digitally painted piece.

6. Alternate Designs. Some other possibilities for card faces that have two-way orientations.

Undecided Quotes for Philosophy Themed Deck

So, I have decided to include on each card face for a philosopher the art, his name, his birth/date dates, and a short quote. However, on a couple of the philosophers, I am debating on what quotes to use for them. Your input would be very helpful in reaching a decision! The difficulty is mostly on deciding which quote is more characteristic or unique to that philosopher, or deciding between a funny or more philosophical quote.

Friedrich Nietzsche: 1. "I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous... I am no man, I am dynamite."

2. "Whatever has value in our world now does not have value in itself… it was we who gave and bestowed it."

Blaise Pascal: 1. "All of our reasoning ends in surrender to feeling."

2. "Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false?"

Bertrand Russell: 1. "The rules of logic are to mathematics what those of structure are to architecture."

2. "There is no logical impossibility… that the world sprang into being five minutes ago... with a population that 'remembered' a wholly unreal past."

Karl Popper: 1. "No matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white."

2. "Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one... [then] you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve."

Jean Paul Sartre: 1. "Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does."

2. "If I became a philosopher… it's all been to seduce women basically."

Arthur Schopenhauer: 1. "If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it."

2. "The will to live everywhere preys upon itself… the human race… reveals in itself with most terrible distinctness this variance of the will with itself."

Baruch Spinoza: 1. "Nothing in the universe is contingent, but all things are conditioned to exist and operate in a particular manner by the necessity of the divine nature."

2. "Mind and body are one and the same individual which is conceived now under the attribute of thought, and now under extension."

Ludwig Wittgenstein: 1. "The meaning of a question is the method of answering it... Tell me how you are searching, and I will tell you what you are searching for."

2. “The aim... is to set a limit to thought, or rather — not to thought, but to the expression of thoughts.”

3. "It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems."

4. "Logic takes care of itself; all we have to do is to look and see how it does it."

Please leave a comment that states the quote number for each philosopher that you prefer. Thanks!

Philosophy Themed Card Deck: Card Face Content

As I have been working on the philosophy-themed card deck (see a post on the art here), I have struggled to determine the exact content of the card faces. Besides the art, the name of the philosopher, and the reversible suit and value in opposite corners what should be included (if anything)? Some possibilities are as follows:

(1) Birth and death dates to help contextualize the philosopher in history.

(2) Quotes. I thought it could be fun to include a quote from each philosophy that either typifies one of their philosophical ideas or says something funny. The difficulty with the former is that it is hard to gain a direct quote from some of the pre-socratics. Of course, I can borrow from later sources, but it isn't the same, and there is some questions of authenticity. Oh well, it isn't a breaker. I also am concerned about sharing an obscure quote that may seem to ridicule the philosopher as being nonsensical, even if it is somewhat fun to do so. The problem with the latter is that I don't want to be suggesting that they do not have anything interesting to contribute, especially if the joke is not philosophically related. I have thought that perhaps if I choose a funny quote that I should try to pick a short one and then have a more serious line included with it. Perhaps some examples will be helpful.

Picturesque quotes: "The condition of man...is a condition of war of everyone against everyone." - Thomas Hobbes

"The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates

"There is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself." - Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Quotes that could ridicule the philosopher: "The nothing itself nothings." - Martin Heidegger

"Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is." - Jean Paul Sartre

"Until philosophers are kings... cities [and the human race] will never have rest from their evils and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day." - Plato

Funny quote (not philosophically related): "A pair of powerful spectacles has sometimes sufficed to cure a person in love." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine." - Thomas Aquinas

"Give me chastity and continence, but not yet." - Augustine of Hippo

"If a dog jumps into your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because your lap is warmer.” - Alfred North Whitehead

Funny quote (somewhat philosophically related): "If I became a philosopher… it's all been to seduce women basically." - Jean Paul Sartre

"I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous... I am no man, I am dynamite." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Any suggestions on how to do quotes (if you think they should be done)? Should quotes not be done?

(3) Notable ideas and contributions. Instead of quoting a philosopher, I could give a short list of their notable ideas. This is somewhat difficult for philosophers that did not have as many novel ideas or for whom we know little about (little of their work has survived), but not all philosophers are equal. Here would be some ideas:

Peter Abelard: truth-functional propositional logic, intentionalistic deontology, moral luck, moral theory of atonement, nominalism, direct reference, adverbial theory of thought, supervenience of form on matter.

Jacques Derrida: deconstruction, post-structuralism, Différance, metaphysics of presence.

Euclid: Euclidian axiomatic geometry, number theory, optical perspective.

David Hume: reason as slave to passions, Hume's Fork, sentimental basis of morals (moral sense), constant conjunction, impossibility of miracles, association of ideas, bundle theory of the self, compatibilism.

Saul Kripke: Modality and modal logic, deontic logic, rigid designators, necessary a posteriori, admissible ordinals, Strong Kleene valuation scheme.

Is this a good alternative to the quotes? Is it better or worse?


I know that I should make sure the cards are not too busy, but it seems useful to have more than just the names and pictures of the philosophers. Any other suggestions for content?