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Bulgaria DZI Philosophy study materials
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Bulgaria DZI Philosophy practice questions

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Question 1Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which branch of philosophy is primarily concerned with the study of being, existence, and the fundamental categories of reality?

  1. Axiology
  2. Logic
  3. Epistemology
  4. Ontology Correct answer.

Explanation

Ontology is the branch of metaphysics that investigates what exists and how entities can be grouped into fundamental categories. It asks questions about being as such, rather than about knowledge, value, or inference.

Question 2Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A philosopher argues that a belief counts as knowledge only if it is true, sincerely held, and supported by adequate justification. Which branch of philosophy does this claim belong to?

  1. Ethics
  2. Aesthetics
  3. Epistemology Correct answer.
  4. Political philosophy

Explanation

Epistemology examines the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge, including the conditions under which a true belief qualifies as knowledge. The three-part analysis described is a classic epistemological topic.

Question 3Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which method of philosophical inquiry proceeds by examining particular cases in order to test and refine general principles, moving back and forth between them?

  1. Reflective equilibrium Correct answer.
  2. Deductive proof from self-evident axioms
  3. Phenomenological reduction
  4. Dialectical materialism

Explanation

Reflective equilibrium is a method in which particular judgments and general principles are adjusted to one another until they cohere. It is widely used in ethics and in epistemology to test intuitions against theory.

Question 4Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A thinker asks what makes a sentence meaningful and concludes that a statement is meaningful only if it can be empirically verified. This position is characteristic of which movement?

  1. Existentialism
  2. Pragmatism
  3. Scholasticism
  4. Logical positivism Correct answer.

Explanation

Logical positivism, associated with the Vienna Circle, held that meaningful statements are either analytic or empirically verifiable. This verification principle was used to dismiss metaphysical claims as cognitively empty.

Question 5Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which philosopher is traditionally credited with shaping logic as a formal discipline through the theory of the syllogism?

  1. Immanuel Kant
  2. Aristotle Correct answer.
  3. René Descartes
  4. David Hume

Explanation

Aristotle's Prior Analytics presents the first systematic treatment of syllogistic reasoning, which dominated logic for centuries. His account of valid inference established logic as an independent field of study.

Question 6Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

In ethics, the study of what makes actions right or wrong is known as which subdivision?

  1. Metaethics
  2. Normative ethics Correct answer.
  3. Descriptive ethics
  4. Applied ethics

Explanation

Normative ethics seeks to establish standards and principles that determine which actions are right or wrong. It differs from metaethics, which analyzes moral language, and from descriptive ethics, which reports moral beliefs.

Question 7Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A student claims that because a philosophical argument is old, its conclusion must be false. Which fallacy does this reasoning commit?

  1. Equivocation
  2. Appeal to novelty in reverse, treating age as refutation Correct answer.
  3. Appeal to authority
  4. Circular reasoning

Explanation

Rejecting a claim merely because it is old confuses the origin or age of an argument with its truth value. The validity of a philosophical position depends on its reasons, not on when it was formulated.

Question 8Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which distinction separates analytic statements, true by meaning alone, from synthetic statements, whose truth depends on the world?

  1. The analytic-synthetic distinction Correct answer.
  2. The fact-value distinction
  3. The a priori and a posteriori distinction
  4. The mind-body distinction

Explanation

The analytic-synthetic distinction classifies statements by whether their truth rests solely on meaning or also on how the world is. It is central to debates about the scope of logical and mathematical knowledge.

Question 9Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A researcher argues that philosophy makes progress not by reaching final answers but by clarifying concepts and exposing hidden assumptions. This view best illustrates which conception of philosophical method?

  1. Philosophy as religious doctrine
  2. Philosophy as literary expression
  3. Philosophy as conceptual analysis Correct answer.
  4. Philosophy as empirical science

Explanation

Conceptual analysis treats philosophy as the clarification of concepts, arguments, and assumptions rather than as the accumulation of empirical findings. On this view, progress consists in greater clarity rather than final consensus.

Question 10Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which question belongs to metaphysics rather than to epistemology?

  1. Do abstract objects such as numbers exist independently of minds? Correct answer.
  2. How should we weigh conflicting moral duties?
  3. What makes a deductive argument valid?
  4. What are the criteria for justified belief?

Explanation

Metaphysics asks what exists and what the fundamental features of reality are, including whether abstract entities exist independently of thought. The other options concern justification, moral reasoning, or logical validity.

Question 11Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A philosopher defends the view that all knowledge derives ultimately from sensory experience. This position is known as which of the following?

  1. Idealism
  2. Rationalism
  3. Empiricism Correct answer.
  4. Skepticism

Explanation

Empiricism holds that experience, especially sensory experience, is the ultimate source of knowledge. It contrasts with rationalism, which grants reason an independent power to grasp truths.

Question 12Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which of the following best describes the Socratic method as practiced in the early dialogues?

  1. Presenting a systematic doctrine for students to memorize
  2. Questioning an interlocutor's definitions until inconsistencies are exposed Correct answer.
  3. Deriving conclusions from self-evident axioms
  4. Collecting statistical evidence to support a hypothesis

Explanation

The Socratic method proceeds through persistent questioning that tests definitions and reveals contradictions in an interlocutor's beliefs. Its aim is to provoke aporia and motivate deeper inquiry rather than to transmit a fixed doctrine.

Question 13Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A theory holds that the meaning of a statement consists in the practical difference its acceptance would make to conduct. This view belongs to which tradition?

  1. Platonism
  2. Stoicism
  3. Pragmatism Correct answer.
  4. Rationalism

Explanation

Pragmatism, developed by thinkers such as Peirce, James, and Dewey, links meaning and truth to practical consequences and inquiry. It treats beliefs as instruments for action rather than as pictures of a fixed reality.

Question 14Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which of the following is a normative question rather than a descriptive one?

  1. What physiological processes accompany emotion?
  2. How many people in a country hold a given belief?
  3. What ought a government to do when rights conflict? Correct answer.
  4. Which arguments people actually find persuasive?

Explanation

Normative questions ask what should be done or what standards ought to govern conduct, whereas descriptive questions report how things are. The question about what a government ought to do is therefore normative.

Question 15Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A philosopher argues that a valid argument can still be unsound. Which claim explains this?

  1. Soundness concerns only the persuasiveness of the argument for an audience.
  2. Validity concerns only the truth of the conclusion, regardless of the premises.
  3. Soundness requires both validity and true premises, so a valid argument with a false premise is unsound. Correct answer.
  4. Validity requires true premises, so the statement is contradictory.

Explanation

Validity is a matter of form: if the premises were true, the conclusion would have to be true. Soundness adds the further requirement that the premises actually be true, so a valid argument with a false premise is not sound.

Question 16Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which of the following best captures the difference between the philosophy of science and the natural sciences themselves?

  1. The philosophy of science rejects empirical evidence in favor of pure speculation.
  2. The philosophy of science is identical to the history of scientific discoveries.
  3. The philosophy of science conducts laboratory experiments to test physical theories.
  4. The philosophy of science studies the concepts, methods, and presuppositions of science rather than producing new empirical findings. Correct answer.

Explanation

The philosophy of science is a second-order inquiry into concepts such as explanation, confirmation, causation, and theory change. It does not generate new empirical data but examines the assumptions and logic of scientific practice.

Question 17Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A philosopher claims that moral judgments express emotions rather than describe facts. Which metaethical position is this?

  1. Kantian deontology
  2. Natural law theory
  3. Emotivism Correct answer.
  4. Moral realism

Explanation

Emotivism is a non-cognitivist metaethical view holding that moral utterances express attitudes or feelings rather than assert propositions. It denies that moral judgments are truth-apt descriptions of moral facts.

Question 18Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which of the following best characterizes the phenomenological method developed by Husserl?

  1. Reducing all mental states to observable behavior
  2. Bracketing assumptions about the natural world to describe the structures of experience as given Correct answer.
  3. Deriving ethical duties from the categorical imperative
  4. Testing hypotheses through controlled experiments

Explanation

Husserl's phenomenological method involves the epoché, a bracketing of the natural attitude so that the essential structures of conscious experience can be described. It aims at a rigorous description of phenomena as they appear.

Question 19Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

A critic argues that a certain argument begs the question. What has the critic identified?

  1. The argument relies on an unstated premise that is irrelevant.
  2. The argument assumes the very conclusion it is supposed to establish. Correct answer.
  3. The argument appeals to the popularity of a belief.
  4. The argument uses a term ambiguously in different premises.

Explanation

Begging the question is a circularity in which the conclusion is presupposed by one of the premises or by the reasoning itself. The argument therefore fails to provide independent support for its conclusion.

Question 20Philosophy as a form of knowledge: nature, methods, and branches

Which pair correctly matches a philosophical subfield with its central question?

  1. Aesthetics: What is the nature of beauty and artistic experience? Correct answer.
  2. Epistemology: What are the fundamental categories of being?
  3. Ethics: What makes an argument deductively valid?
  4. Logic: What is the nature of moral obligation?

Explanation

Aesthetics concerns beauty, taste, and the nature of art and aesthetic experience. Each of the other pairings mismatches a subfield with a question belonging to a different branch.

Question 21Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which question belongs most directly to ontology rather than to epistemology?

  1. How should we justify beliefs about the external world?
  2. What are the most general kinds of things that exist? Correct answer.
  3. How do cultural norms shape moral judgement?
  4. Which reasoning patterns are logically valid?

Explanation

Ontology is the branch of metaphysics that asks what exists and what the most general categories of being are, such as substances, properties, and events. Epistemology instead concerns knowledge, justification, and belief, so questions about justifying beliefs belong there.

Question 22Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

In Aristotelian metaphysics, what does 'substance' (ousia) primarily designate?

  1. That which exists in its own right as a basic subject Correct answer.
  2. A property that many things can share
  3. A merely mental representation of unity
  4. A relation between two events

Explanation

For Aristotle, substance is the primary mode of being: it is what underlies predicates and exists independently, unlike qualities or relations that depend on a subject. Individual concrete things such as a particular human being are primary substances.

Question 23Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which pair of terms is standardly contrasted in the debate over whether reality is mind-independent?

  1. Necessary and contingent
  2. Realism and idealism Correct answer.
  3. A priori and a posteriori
  4. Analytic and synthetic

Explanation

Realism holds that reality exists independently of how it is represented or perceived, while idealism holds that reality is in some sense mind-dependent. The other pairs concern truth, knowledge, and modality rather than the mind-independence of reality.

Question 24Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

What does the principle of sufficient reason assert?

  1. Whatever is possible eventually occurs.
  2. Nothing is the case without a reason why it is so rather than otherwise. Correct answer.
  3. Nothing can both be and not be at once.
  4. Everything that exists has a cause in time.

Explanation

The principle of sufficient reason states that there is a reason or explanation for everything that is the case, not necessarily a temporal cause. It is broader than causation because it also covers logical and conceptual explanations.

Question 25Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which thesis is characteristic of metaphysical realism about universals?

  1. Universals exist only in the mind that conceives them.
  2. General terms are meaningless because no two things are alike.
  3. Only particular things exist and general terms are convenient fictions.
  4. Universals exist independently of the particular things that instantiate them. Correct answer.

Explanation

Realism about universals holds that properties or kinds such as redness exist genuinely and are not reducible to particular things or to mental habits. It is contrasted with nominalism, which denies independent existence to universals.

Question 26Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which statement best expresses ontological monism?

  1. Reality is composed of infinitely many simple parts.
  2. Reality is unknowable in principle.
  3. Reality consists of exactly two independent substances.
  4. Reality ultimately consists of one kind of thing or principle. Correct answer.

Explanation

Monism is the view that reality reduces to a single fundamental kind or principle, such as matter, mind, or a single substance. Pluralism by contrast admits several irreducible kinds, and dualism admits exactly two.

Question 27Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

A philosopher argues that a statue and the lump of clay it is made from are one and the same object, merely described differently. Which position is this?

  1. Mereological essentialism
  2. Four-dimensionalism
  3. Constitution theory
  4. Identicism about material objects Correct answer.

Explanation

Identicism holds that the statue and the clay are strictly identical, with the apparent difference arising only from how the object is described or referred to. Constitution theory instead treats them as distinct entities where one constitutes the other.

Question 28Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which view holds that a whole is nothing over and above its parts and their relations?

  1. Emergentism
  2. Reductionist atomism
  3. Mereological extensionalism Correct answer.
  4. Substance dualism

Explanation

Mereological extensionalism treats a composite whole as fully determined by its parts and their arrangement, so there is no additional entity beyond the parts. Emergentism by contrast posits genuinely novel features at the level of wholes.

Question 29Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

What is the central claim of presentism in the philosophy of time?

  1. Past, present, and future are equally real.
  2. Time is an illusion generated by the mind.
  3. The future is real but the past is not.
  4. Only the present moment and present entities exist. Correct answer.

Explanation

Presentism holds that only what exists now is real, so past and future entities do not exist at all. Eternalism, by contrast, treats past, present, and future as equally real parts of a four-dimensional reality.

Question 30Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

A theory says that a person at a later time is the same person as an earlier one just in case there is psychological continuity between them. Which criterion of personal identity is this?

  1. Soul criterion
  2. Psychological continuity Correct answer.
  3. Narrative identity
  4. Bodily continuity

Explanation

The psychological continuity criterion treats memory, character, and connected mental life as what preserves personal identity over time. Bodily continuity instead requires the persistence of the same living body.

Question 31Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which claim is essential to modal realism as defended by David Lewis?

  1. Only the actual world exists and modality is linguistic.
  2. Possible worlds are abstract entities that are as real as the actual world. Correct answer.
  3. Possible worlds are ideas in the mind of God.
  4. Possible worlds are merely useful fictions for logic.

Explanation

Modal realism holds that possible worlds are concrete totalities that exist just as genuinely as the actual world, with 'actual' being an indexical term. This lets modal claims be analysed as quantification over worlds.

Question 32Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which problem most directly motivates bundle theory as an account of substance?

  1. The problem of induction
  2. The problem of explaining what ties properties together into one thing Correct answer.
  3. The problem of other minds
  4. The problem of free will

Explanation

Bundle theory identifies an object with a compendium of properties, so it must explain what unifies those properties into a single individual. The rival substratum theory posits a bare particular to perform that unifying role.

Question 33Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

A philosopher claims that numbers exist but are neither spatial nor causal. Which combination of positions does this express?

  1. Conceptualism about universals
  2. Physicalism about the mental
  3. Platonism about abstract objects Correct answer.
  4. Nominalism combined with materialism

Explanation

Platonism in ontology affirms the existence of abstract objects that are non-spatial, non-temporal, and causally inert, with numbers as the paradigm case. Nominalism denies such objects, and materialism treats everything as physical.

Question 34Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which argument is standardly used to support the existence of bare particulars?

  1. The argument from the possibility of indiscernible objects Correct answer.
  2. The argument from the unity of a proposition
  3. The argument from the reality of change
  4. The argument from the success of natural science

Explanation

If two objects could share all their properties yet remain numerically distinct, then something beyond properties must distinguish them, and bare particulars are posited to play that role. Bundle theorists reply by allowing impure properties or primitive identity.

Question 35Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which objection is most commonly raised against the growing-block theory of time?

  1. It cannot explain why the past is fixed.
  2. It cannot account for the truth of claims about the future. Correct answer.
  3. It denies that time passes.
  4. It makes the present moment unreal.

Explanation

On the growing-block view the past and present exist but the future does not, which makes ordinary claims about future events difficult to evaluate as true or false. Presentists face a similar difficulty, while eternalists avoid it by treating future facts as real.

Question 36Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

A philosopher holds that composition never occurs, so there are no composite objects, only simples arranged in various ways. Which position is this?

  1. Universal composition
  2. Constitution theory
  3. Restricted composition
  4. Nihilism about composition Correct answer.

Explanation

Compositional nihilism denies that any objects ever compose a further whole, so talk of tables and chairs is reinterpreted as talk about simples arranged table-wise. Universal composition instead says any objects whatsoever compose a whole.

Question 37Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which best captures the doctrine of hylomorphism?

  1. Every entity is composed of matter and form, with form making it the thing it is. Correct answer.
  2. Every entity is a bundle of perceptions.
  3. Every entity is reducible to its material parts alone.
  4. Every entity is composed of two independent substances, mind and body.

Explanation

Hylomorphism, associated with Aristotle and Aquinas, analyses a substance as a compound of matter and form, where the form is the principle that makes it a determinate kind of thing. It is not a dualism of two separate substances.

Question 38Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

Which principle is used to argue that concrete objects cannot be identical with bundles of properties alone?

  1. Leibniz's law of the identity of indiscernibles Correct answer.
  2. Ockham's razor
  3. The principle of sufficient reason
  4. The principle of non-contradiction

Explanation

Leibniz's law states that identical things share all properties, and its converse, the identity of indiscernibles, says that things sharing all properties are identical. Critics use possible cases of distinct but indiscernible objects to challenge bundle theory.

Question 39Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

What does it mean to say that a property is 'categorical' rather than dispositional?

  1. It exists only in the mind of an observer.
  2. It is a property that no object can lack.
  3. It concerns what the object is actually like, independently of how it would behave. Correct answer.
  4. It concerns how an object would behave in various circumstances.

Explanation

Categorical properties characterize how a thing is in itself, whereas dispositional properties characterize what it would do under certain conditions. Whether this distinction is ultimately defensible is a major issue in contemporary ontology.

Question 40Ontology and metaphysics: being, substance, and reality

An argument concludes that because every part of a thing is caused, the whole thing must have a cause, treating the whole as if it were an additional part. Which fallacy does this exemplify?

  1. False dilemma
  2. Composition fallacy Correct answer.
  3. Begging the question
  4. Equivocation on 'cause'

Explanation

The composition fallacy infers a property of a whole from properties of its parts when the property does not transfer. Causation applies to parts individually, but treating the whole as another item requiring a cause needs independent justification.

Question 41Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

According to the classical tripartite analysis, knowledge consists of which three conditions?

  1. Belief, doubt, and evidence
  2. Belief, truth, and justification Correct answer.
  3. Truth, certainty, and memory
  4. Justification, coherence, and perception

Explanation

The standard analysis holds that a person knows a proposition only if they believe it, the proposition is true, and the belief is adequately justified. Each condition is treated as necessary, and together they are offered as sufficient. This account is the starting point for most debates in epistemology.

Question 42Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

In epistemology, a proposition is true when it corresponds to reality. Which theory of truth does this statement express?

  1. The pragmatic theory
  2. The correspondence theory Correct answer.
  3. The coherence theory
  4. The deflationary theory

Explanation

The correspondence theory holds that truth consists in a relation of matching between a proposition and the way the world independently is. It contrasts with accounts that define truth by internal consistency, practical utility, or the redundancy of the truth predicate. This makes it the natural companion of realism about the external world.

Question 43Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

Which pair correctly names the two traditional rivals as accounts of epistemic justification?

  1. Deductivism and inductivism
  2. Realism and idealism
  3. Empiricism and rationalism
  4. Foundationalism and coherentism Correct answer.

Explanation

Foundationalism grounds justification in basic beliefs that need no further support, while coherentism holds that beliefs are justified by their relations of mutual support within a system. Empiricism and rationalism concern the sources of knowledge, and realism and idealism concern the nature of reality. The foundationalism-coherentism debate is specifically about the structure of justification.

Question 44Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

What does the JTB analysis claim about belief, truth, and justification taken together?

  1. They are irrelevant to whether knowledge is present
  2. They are jointly sufficient for knowledge Correct answer.
  3. They are each sufficient on their own for knowledge
  4. They are jointly sufficient for true opinion only

Explanation

The classical analysis asserts that when a belief is true and appropriately justified, the resulting state qualifies as knowledge, so the three conditions are jointly sufficient. It also treats each condition as individually necessary. Gettier cases were later offered as counterexamples to the sufficiency claim.

Question 45Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

A person says that a claim is true because believing it helps them act successfully in practice. Which theory of truth does this reflect?

  1. Correspondence theory
  2. Pragmatic theory Correct answer.
  3. Identity theory
  4. Coherence theory

Explanation

The pragmatic theory of truth, associated with thinkers such as William James, treats truth as what works or proves fruitful in practical inquiry. Truth is thus tied to consequences and successful action rather than to a static match with facts. The correspondence theory instead requires a relation to an independent reality.

Question 46Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

Which term names the view that knowledge requires a special, indubitable foundation of basic beliefs?

  1. Foundationalism Correct answer.
  2. Coherentism
  3. Scepticism
  4. Reliabilism

Explanation

Foundationalism holds that chains of justification must terminate in basic beliefs that are justified without depending on other beliefs. These foundations are supposed to provide secure support for all non-basic beliefs. Coherentism denies that any beliefs are basic in this sense.

Question 47Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

A student believes a true mathematical theorem but holds it only because a friend guessed it correctly. Why does this belief fail the justification condition?

  1. The theorem is not actually true
  2. The student feels too confident
  3. Mathematical beliefs cannot be knowledge
  4. The belief lacks adequate supporting grounds Correct answer.

Explanation

Justification requires that the belief be supported by appropriate evidence or a reliable ground, and a lucky guess supplies neither. The belief is true, so truth is satisfied, but the path to it is epistemically defective. This is why accidentally correct belief is not credited as knowledge.

Question 48Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

A detective forms a belief that the butler is guilty based on strong forensic evidence, but the butler is in fact innocent and another servant committed the crime. Which condition of knowledge does the detective's belief most clearly fail?

  1. Justification
  2. Belief
  3. Truth Correct answer.
  4. Memory

Explanation

Knowledge requires the proposition believed to be true, and here the butler did not commit the crime, so the truth condition fails. The detective genuinely believes the claim and has substantial evidence, so belief and justification are present. This illustrates that strong justification cannot convert a false belief into knowledge.

Question 49Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

A coherentist is asked why a particular belief is justified. Which answer best fits the coherentist framework?

  1. It rests on a self-evident basic belief
  2. It fits consistently with the person's other justified beliefs Correct answer.
  3. It was produced by a reliable perceptual process
  4. It is held with maximum subjective confidence

Explanation

Coherentism justifies a belief by its inferential and explanatory relations to the rest of a belief system, so consistency and mutual support are central. It rejects the idea that justification terminates in self-evident foundations. Reliability and confidence are separate considerations that do not define coherence.

Question 50Epistemology: knowledge, truth, and justification

Which criticism is most commonly directed at classical foundationalism?

  1. It denies that any belief can be true
  2. It requires an infinite series of supporting beliefs
  3. It makes justification circular
  4. It cannot explain how basic beliefs are themselves justified Correct answer.

Explanation

The central objection is that foundationalists must explain what justifies the supposedly basic beliefs without allowing them to rest on further beliefs. If the foundations are arbitrary, the structure seems insecure, and if they are supported, they are not really basic. This is the dilemma that motivates alternatives such as coherentism.