Metaphysics and Ontology
What to master
Metaphysics asks what exists and what it is to exist. Candidates should command the categories-versus-particulars distinction, substance and attribute ontologies, and the debate between realism and nominalism about universals. Understand modality: necessity, possibility, and the possible-worlds framework, plus the difference between de dicto and de re necessity. Know identity and persistence problems, including the ship of Theseus, personal identity over time, and perdurance versus endurance. Grasp causation theories (regularity, counterfactual, powers-based) and the distinction between determinism, indeterminism, and fatalism. Free will deserves separate attention: compatibilism, libertarianism, and hard determinism each answer the control question differently.
Traps to expect
Examiners exploit conflations. Nominalism denies universals, not particulars. Determinism is not fatalism: fatalism says outcomes are fixed regardless of what you do, while determinism says outcomes follow from prior causes. 'Necessary' does not mean 'certain' or 'unavoidable in practice'. In persistence questions, note whether identity is numerical or qualitative. Also beware equivocation on 'substance' as stuff versus as bearer of properties.
Worked example
Suppose a question asks whether a statue and the lump of clay are one thing. A strong answer distinguishes constitution from identity: the lump constitutes the statue without being identical to it, since their persistence conditions differ (the lump survives remoulding, the statue does not). Rule of thumb: when identity is contested, ask what would count as surviving change.