A few words about the Ross-Barger Philosophy Inventory

You took the Ross-Barger Philosophy Inventory and the Old Short Test at SimilarMinds.com to help you understand more details about what makes you a unique reader and writer — and to help you gain new insights into yourself.

(Of course, if you haven’t taken the Ross-Barger inventory, you should do so, because it’s an important piece of your first paper.)

In class today, I had each of you look at your scores on the Ross-Barger inventory, and I directed you to underline each statement that corresponded with your one or two highest scores.

Additionally, however, I want to give some simple definitions of each score category, excerpted from the statements in the inventory.

So what follows, below, are just some of the statements on the inventory, combined into the appropriate categories. I hope they can help you gain a clearer understanding of how the Ross-Barger categories demonstrate part of what makes you a unique reader and writer.

Here we go:

Idealism

“The human person is basically a spiritual being…. The mind is a spiritual entity which determines what reality is (rather than reality determining what the mind is)…. A person must reach beyond this material world to fulfill his/her spiritual destiny.”

Realism

“The human person discovers knowledge from the physical, material world…. The human mind is simply the brain at work…. Obtaining knowledge is basically a process of searching the physical universe for objective facts.”

Pragmatism

“People can reconstruct (remake) solutions to problems and this results in new knowledge…. Knowledge is meant to be used. It is ultimately a means to survival…. The test of any theory or belief must be its effect on us, that is, its practical consequences.”

Existentialism

“A person is nobody until he/she takes action…. Learning is a process of choosing our identity…. All true knowledge engages the feelings of the knower…. The most important thing in reality is the ability to choose or decide.”