Bulgaria DZI Philosophy study guide
Bulgaria DZI Philosophy · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Bulgarian State Matriculation Exam (DZI, държавен зрелостен изпит) in Philosophy is one of the optional second matriculation subjects that students sitting the national school-leaving examinations may choose alongside the compulsory Bulgarian language and literature paper. It is intended for gymnasium graduates who want a philosophy result on their diploma, typically as evidence of general culture and argumentative competence for university admission in humanities and social science programmes, and it is set and administered centrally rather than by individual schools. The Bulgaria DZI Philosophy study guide has 11 sections and about 3,128 words.
01Philosophy as a Form of Knowledge: Nature, Methods, and Branches
Philosophy differs from the special sciences less by subject matter than by the kind of question it asks: it seeks the most general conditions of things (what it means to be, to know, to act rightly) and it treats its own methods as a problem. Candidates should be able to distinguish philosophy from myth, religion, and science : philosophy appeals to argument and reasons rather than authority or revelation, and unlike empirical science it does not settle disputes by experiment alone, though it must remain answerable to experience.
397 words, about 2 min02Ontology and Metaphysics: Being, Substance, and Reality
Candidates must handle the distinctions between being (that something is), essence (what it is), existence , substance (that which underlies and supports properties), attribute/property , mode , accident , and relation . Know the difference between monism, dualism, and pluralism ; between materialism, idealism, and dualism ; and between realism, nominalism, and conceptualism about universals.
326 words, about 2 min03Epistemology: Knowledge, Truth, and Justification
Know the tripartite analysis : knowledge as justified true belief (JTB). Be ready to explain each condition and the Gettier problem , which shows that JTB is not sufficient when justification is accidentally connected to truth.
292 words, about 1 min04Logic and Methodology of Scientific Knowledge
Know the difference between deduction (validity guarantees truth transmission) and induction (ampliative, probabilistic). Be able to identify validity vs.
267 words, about 1 min05Philosophical Anthropology: Human Nature, Freedom, and Existence
Know the classical definitions: Aristotle's rational animal ( zoon politikon ), the Cartesian dualism of mind and body, the materialist reduction of mind to brain, and existentialist accounts (existence precedes essence). Be able to contrast essentialism (a fixed human nature) with historicism and constructivism .
283 words, about 1 min06Ethics and Moral Philosophy: Values, Norms, and the Good Life
Know the three main normative families: consequentialism (rightness depends on outcomes; utilitarianism as its classic form), deontology (duties and rules; Kant's categorical imperative), and virtue ethics (character and flourishing; Aristotle's eudaimonia ). Understand metaethics (are moral claims true?
277 words, about 1 min07Social and Political Philosophy: State, Justice, and Civil Society
Know the social contract tradition: Hobbes (security, absolute sovereignty), Locke (natural rights, consent, right of resistance), Rousseau (general will, popular sovereignty). Understand legitimacy , authority , sovereignty , and the distinction between state and civil society (associations, media, voluntary bodies independent of the state).
256 words, about 1 min08Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
Know the main definitions: mimetic (art as imitation, Plato's suspicion of images), expressionist (art as expression of feeling, Tolstoy, Croce), formalist (significant form, Bell, Fry), institutional (Dickie: art is what the artworld confers status on), and aesthetic theories centred on experience. Understand beauty , the sublime (Kant: pleasure mixed with awe before what exceeds imagination), the picturesque , taste , and disinterestedness .
247 words, about 1 min09Philosophy of Religion
Know the classic proofs : ontological (Anselm, Descartes: a greatest conceivable being must exist), cosmological (Aquinas' first cause; Leibniz's principle of sufficient reason), teleological (design; Paley's watchmaker), and moral arguments. Know the critiques : Kant's claim that existence is not a predicate, Hume's objections to causation and design, and the problem of evil (logical vs.
273 words, about 1 min10History of Philosophy: Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary Thought
Know the Presocratics (Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides), Socrates (elenchus, the examined life), Plato (Forms, the cave, the tripartite soul), Aristotle (four causes, virtue, logic), Plotinus (emanation), and the medieval synthesis: Augustine (faith and reason, the city of God), Aquinas (five ways, natural law), Ockham (nominalism). Know Descartes (method of doubt, cogito , dualism), Spinoza (monism), Leibniz (monads), Locke, Berkeley, Hume (empiricism and its limits), Kant (Copernican revolution, synthetic a priori, categorical imperative), and Hegel (dialectic, absolute spirit).
223 words, about 1 min11Text Analysis and Philosophical Argumentation
Know how to identify an author's thesis , premises , conclusion , and method . Distinguish exposition (what the author says) from evaluation (whether it is sound).
287 words, about 1 min