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MATSEC AM Philosophy practice questions

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Question 1Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, what do the shadows on the wall most directly represent?

  1. The educational process that frees the prisoner
  2. The world of Forms as known by the philosopher
  3. The sensible world as perceived by ordinary prisoners Correct answer.
  4. The sun as the ultimate source of intelligibility

Explanation

The shadows are the ordinary objects of sense perception, which prisoners mistake for reality; they stand for the visible, sensible realm rather than the intelligible realm of Forms. The sun symbolises the Form of the Good, and the ascent represents education.

Question 2Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Descartes' 'cogito, ergo sum' functions in the Meditations primarily as which kind of claim?

  1. A syllogistic deduction from general premises
  2. A theological doctrine grounded in revelation
  3. An empirical observation confirmed by the senses
  4. An indubitable truth surviving hyperbolic doubt Correct answer.

Explanation

Descartes presents the cogito as a truth that withstands even the most extreme doubt, including the evil demon hypothesis. It is not derived from sensory evidence or from a formal syllogism but is grasped immediately whenever one thinks.

Question 3Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Which formulation best captures Kant's categorical imperative in its Formula of Universal Law?

  1. Act as a legislator would act within a well-ordered society
  2. Act only on maxims that you could will to become universal laws Correct answer.
  3. Act according to maxims that serve your own long-term interest
  4. Act so as to maximise the total happiness of all affected parties

Explanation

Kant's Formula of Universal Law requires that one act only on maxims one can consistently will as universal law. This tests maxims for contradiction rather than for consequences, self-interest, or hypothetical social agreement.

Question 4Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

According to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, virtue of character is best described as which of the following?

  1. A disposition to choose the mean relative to us, guided by practical wisdom Correct answer.
  2. A form of knowledge identical with theoretical wisdom
  3. A faculty given by nature that needs no cultivation
  4. A passion that arises involuntarily in response to circumstance

Explanation

Aristotle defines virtue as a hexis, a stable disposition to choose the intermediate course between excess and deficiency, determined by reason and practical wisdom. Virtues are acquired through habituation rather than innate faculty or mere feeling.

Question 5Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Hume's 'is-ought' passage argues that one cannot derive moral conclusions from factual premises alone. What does this claim most directly challenge?

  1. The coherence of causal reasoning in the sciences
  2. Naturalistic attempts to ground ethics in facts about human nature Correct answer.
  3. The possibility of any descriptive language about human behaviour
  4. The view that moral judgements express emotions

Explanation

Hume observes that writers move from statements about what is to statements about what ought to be without explaining the transition. This undermines attempts to deduce moral obligations directly from descriptive facts about human nature.

Question 6Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In epistemology, which condition must be added to justified true belief to address Gettier-style counterexamples?

  1. A demonstration that the belief is universally accepted
  2. A guarantee that the belief is held with certainty
  3. A fourth condition ruling out epistemic luck Correct answer.
  4. A requirement that the belief be self-evident

Explanation

Gettier cases show that justified true belief can be true only by accident, so a further anti-luck condition is needed. Proposed additions include no false lemmas, sensitivity, and safety, all aimed at excluding luck.

Question 7Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Which pair of terms does Kant use to distinguish the world as it appears to us from the world as it is in itself?

  1. Phenomena and noumena Correct answer.
  2. Contingent and necessary
  3. A priori and a posteriori
  4. Analytic and synthetic

Explanation

Kant distinguishes phenomena, objects as structured by the forms of intuition and the categories, from noumena, things as they are in themselves. The other pairs classify judgements rather than worlds.

Question 8Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Mill's harm principle states that the only legitimate ground for coercing an individual against their will is which of the following?

  1. Protecting the agent from their own imprudence
  2. Preventing conduct that harms others Correct answer.
  3. Enforcing the moral standards of the majority
  4. Preserving the traditions of the community

Explanation

In On Liberty, Mill limits interference to the prevention of harm to others, excluding paternalism over competent adults and moralistic enforcement. Self-regarding conduct, even if unwise, is not a sufficient ground for coercion.

Question 9Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A student argues that because a lottery ticket holder's belief that they will lose is justified and, if true, would be true, it therefore counts as knowledge. Which epistemological concept does this argument most directly test?

  1. The safety condition on knowledge Correct answer.
  2. The principle of sufficient reason
  3. The coherence theory of truth
  4. The distinction between analytic and synthetic truths

Explanation

The lottery case illustrates belief that is true but only by luck, which a safety condition aims to exclude by requiring that the belief not easily have been false. It is a standard challenge in post-Gettier epistemology.

Question 10Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A doctor tells a patient a comforting falsehood to prevent distress, reasoning that the outcome will be better overall. Which ethical framework most naturally supports this decision?

  1. Virtue ethics centred on honesty
  2. Kantian deontology
  3. Act utilitarianism Correct answer.
  4. Divine command theory

Explanation

Act utilitarianism evaluates actions by their consequences, so a lie producing greater overall well-being can be permitted. Kantian ethics and virtue-based honesty would generally prohibit the deception regardless of good outcomes.

Question 11Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Someone claims that a statement is meaningful only if it can be verified by experience. Which objection most directly undermines this verification principle?

  1. Many empirical statements are statistically improbable
  2. Verification requires sophisticated instruments
  3. The principle itself cannot be verified by experience Correct answer.
  4. Experience is always interpreted by theory

Explanation

The verification principle fails its own test: the claim that only verifiable statements are meaningful is not itself empirically verifiable. This self-referential problem was a central reason for the decline of logical positivism.

Question 12Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In a version of the trolley problem, a bystander diverts the trolley to kill one person instead of five. A deontologist who nevertheless permits the diversion would most likely justify it by appealing to which idea?

  1. The veil of ignorance
  2. The greatest happiness principle
  3. The doctrine of double effect Correct answer.
  4. The categorical imperative's formula of humanity

Explanation

The doctrine of double effect can permit an action with a good intended outcome and a foreseen but unintended harmful side effect. Some deontologists use it to distinguish diverting the trolley from pushing a person off a bridge.

Question 13Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Locke's account of personal identity holds that a person persists over time insofar as which of the following continues?

  1. The same physical body and brain
  2. Continuity of consciousness and memory Correct answer.
  3. The same immaterial soul substance
  4. The same bundle of momentary perceptions

Explanation

Locke locates personal identity in continuity of consciousness, extending backward through memory to past actions. Sameness of soul or body is neither necessary nor sufficient on his account.

Question 14Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Hume argues that our idea of necessary connection between cause and effect arises from which source?

  1. Rational insight into the essences of objects
  2. A priori knowledge of the principle of sufficient reason
  3. Direct perception of a causal power in the objects
  4. A custom or habit of the mind formed by constant conjunction Correct answer.

Explanation

Hume holds that we never perceive causal power itself, only constant conjunction; the feeling of necessity is a habit of expectation produced by repetition. The idea of necessary connection is thus a projection of the mind.

Question 15Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A community holds that an action is right because it accords with the customs of that community. Which metaethical position does this most closely express?

  1. Error theory
  2. Expressivism
  3. Moral realism
  4. Cultural relativism Correct answer.

Explanation

Cultural relativism holds that moral truth is relative to a culture's norms, so an action is right if it conforms to that culture's customs. Moral realism and error theory posit culture-independent moral facts, while expressivism treats moral talk as expressing attitudes.

Question 16Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In Rawls' theory of justice, which description best captures the 'original position'?

  1. A constitutional convention held by elected representatives
  2. A hypothetical situation where parties choose principles behind a veil of ignorance Correct answer.
  3. A historical state of nature preceding political society
  4. An economic market that distributes goods efficiently

Explanation

Rawls' original position is a hypothetical device in which rational parties choose principles of justice without knowing their place in society. The veil of ignorance ensures impartiality by preventing bargaining from particular advantages.

Question 17Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Which argument against physicalism holds that a person who knows all physical facts about colour vision can still learn something new upon seeing red for the first time?

  1. The argument from vagueness
  2. The conceivability argument
  3. The Chinese room argument
  4. The knowledge argument Correct answer.

Explanation

Jackson's knowledge argument uses the case of Mary, who knows all physical facts but learns what red experience is like upon leaving her black-and-white room. It is used to challenge the claim that all facts are physical facts.

Question 18Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A compatibilist about free will is most likely to claim which of the following?

  1. Determinism and moral responsibility are incompatible
  2. Free will is an illusion that should be eliminated from discourse
  3. Freedom consists in acting according to one's own desires without external constraint Correct answer.
  4. Freedom requires the ability to have acted otherwise in an absolute sense

Explanation

Compatibilists redefine freedom as voluntary action in accordance with one's own desires and without coercion, which is compatible with causal determinism. They deny that freedom requires contra-causal power or the ability to break the causal chain.

Question 19Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Sartre's claim that human beings are 'condemned to be free' most directly expresses which idea?

  1. Our essence precedes our existence
  2. Freedom is limited by unconscious drives beyond our control
  3. We cannot escape the burden of choosing and are responsible for our choices Correct answer.
  4. Freedom is a gift that society should protect through law

Explanation

For Sartre, existence precedes essence, so we must create ourselves through choice and bear responsibility for those choices. The anguish of freedom lies in its inescapability and in our responsibility for all humanity in choosing.

Question 20Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A critic argues that a theory of justice is inadequate because it demands sacrifices that no one could reasonably be expected to accept. Which method of evaluating normative theories does this objection employ?

  1. Formalisation in deontic logic
  2. Phenomenological description of moral experience
  3. Reflective equilibrium testing Correct answer.
  4. Conceptual analysis of moral language

Explanation

Reflective equilibrium tests principles against considered judgements and adjusts each in light of the other; an objection about unreasonable demands draws on such considered judgements. The other methods concern meaning, experience, or logical form rather than balancing principles and intuitions.

Question 21Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In the Euthyphro dilemma, Socrates asks whether the pious is loved by the gods because it is pious or pious because it is loved. Which problem does this pose for divine command theory?

  1. It suggests either morality is arbitrary or it is independent of divine command Correct answer.
  2. It demonstrates that piety is a matter of custom
  3. It proves that moral language is meaningless
  4. It shows that the gods do not exist

Explanation

If actions are good only because God commands them, morality appears arbitrary; if God commands them because they are good, goodness is independent of the commands. This dilemma is the classic objection to grounding morality solely in divine will.

Question 22Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Nietzsche's critique of slave morality in the Genealogy of Morality primarily argues which of the following?

  1. All moral codes are equally rational and therefore interchangeable
  2. Christian values arose from ressentiment and invert noble valuations Correct answer.
  3. Master morality should be enforced by the state
  4. Moral values are innate ideas implanted by nature

Explanation

Nietzsche traces slave morality to the resentment of the weak, who revalue weakness as goodness and strength as evil. He presents this as a genealogical account of the origin of Christian moral values rather than a call for state enforcement.

Question 23Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Kripke's account of the necessary a posteriori is best illustrated by which example?

  1. That all bachelors are unmarried
  2. That the sun will rise tomorrow
  3. That water is H2O Correct answer.
  4. That 7 + 5 = 12

Explanation

Kripke argues that identity statements involving natural kinds, such as 'water is H2O', are necessary if true but known only through empirical investigation, hence necessary a posteriori. The other examples are analytic, inductive, or a priori.

Question 24Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A philosopher argues that mental states are identical with brain states because the best causal explanation of behaviour cites neural processes. Which position is being defended?

  1. Eliminative materialism
  2. Substance dualism
  3. Type identity theory Correct answer.
  4. Property dualism

Explanation

Type identity theory holds that mental state types are identical with brain state types, often supported by appeals to explanatory parsimony and causal closure. Property dualists and eliminativists deny or revise mental kinds rather than identifying them with neural types.

Question 25Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In assessing whether a belief is justified, an internalist and an externalist disagree about which of the following?

  1. Whether beliefs can ever be false
  2. Whether truth is a necessary condition for knowledge
  3. Whether scepticism is psychologically possible
  4. Whether justificatory factors must be accessible to the subject Correct answer.

Explanation

Internalists require that justifying factors be cognitively accessible to the believer, while externalists allow justification to depend on facts such as reliable processes that need not be accessible. Both sides typically accept that knowledge requires truth.

Question 26Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Aristotle's doctrine of the four causes includes which set of items?

  1. Efficient, instrumental, teleological, and material
  2. Material, formal, efficient, and final Correct answer.
  3. Formal, final, contingent, and necessary
  4. Material, spiritual, efficient, and accidental

Explanation

Aristotle explains a thing by reference to its matter, its form or essence, the source of its coming to be, and the end for which it exists. These are the material, formal, efficient and final causes. Any list that substitutes invented terms such as 'spiritual' or 'instrumental' for one of the four departs from his scheme.

Question 27Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Descartes' method of doubt leads him to conclude that the one thing he cannot doubt is which of the following?

  1. That God exists and is no deceiver
  2. That clear and distinct ideas are reliable
  3. That he exists whenever he is thinking Correct answer.
  4. That his senses sometimes report the truth

Explanation

Even if an evil demon deceives him about everything else, the act of doubting is itself a mode of thinking, and something must exist to think it. Hence 'I think, therefore I am' survives the most radical doubt. The existence of God and the reliability of clear and distinct perception are established later, after the cogito.

Question 28Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Hume's fork divides all objects of inquiry into which two kinds?

  1. Impressions and innate ideas
  2. Phenomena and noumena
  3. Relations of ideas and matters of fact Correct answer.
  4. Analytic and synthetic

Explanation

Hume distinguishes truths discoverable by pure thought, such as mathematics, from factual claims about what exists, which rest on experience and causal inference. Relations of ideas are intuitively or demonstratively certain; matters of fact are contingent. The other pairs belong to Kant or to Hume's own theory of perception rather than to the fork.

Question 29Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

According to Kant's categorical imperative in its Formula of Humanity, how should persons be treated?

  1. According to the customs of one's society
  2. As means to the greatest happiness of the greatest number
  3. Always as ends in themselves, never merely as means Correct answer.
  4. In whatever way maximises one's own perfection

Explanation

Kant requires that we treat humanity, in ourselves and others, always as an end and never merely as a means. This rules out using people purely as instruments for some further purpose. Utilitarian aggregation and social convention are precisely what he thinks miss the unconditional worth of persons.

Question 30Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, virtue of character is best described as which of the following?

  1. A rule derived from the categorical imperative
  2. A disposition to choose the mean relative to us, guided by practical wisdom Correct answer.
  3. The maximisation of pleasure over pain
  4. A feeling that arises naturally without habituation

Explanation

Aristotle treats virtue as a stable disposition (hexis) concerned with choice, lying between excess and deficiency as determined by reason. Practical wisdom (phronesis) identifies the appropriate mean in particular circumstances. Virtues are acquired through habituation, not given by nature alone, and are not rules or hedonic calculations.

Question 31Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Which claim is the central thesis of physicalism in the philosophy of mind?

  1. Mental states are distinct substances that interact with the body
  2. Only behaviour is real, and talk of mind is a fiction
  3. Consciousness is irreducible and cannot be explained physically
  4. Everything that exists is physical or supervenes on the physical Correct answer.

Explanation

Physicalism holds that reality is exhausted by physical entities, or at least that mental facts depend entirely on physical facts. It is a metaphysical thesis, compatible with several accounts of how mental and physical properties relate. Substance dualism, behaviourism and property dualism each deny some part of this claim.

Question 32Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In epistemology, what does the 'JTB' analysis of knowledge traditionally require?

  1. Belief, coherence, and reliability
  2. Justification, truth, and belief Correct answer.
  3. Justification, truth, and certainty
  4. Judgement, testimony, and bias

Explanation

The standard tripartite analysis holds that a subject knows that p only if p is true, the subject believes that p, and the belief is justified. Each condition is treated as necessary, with their conjunction supposedly sufficient. Gettier cases famously challenge the sufficiency claim.

Question 33Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A student claims that a moral judgement is true only relative to the standards of a particular culture, and that no culture's standards are objectively superior. Which position is being expressed?

  1. Moral realism
  2. Normative cultural relativism Correct answer.
  3. Moral subjectivism about individual attitudes
  4. Descriptive cultural relativism

Explanation

The claim is normative rather than merely descriptive: it says we ought to judge actions by the standards of the relevant culture and abandon cross-cultural evaluation. Descriptive relativism would only report that cultures differ. Moral realism and individual subjectivism are incompatible with the stated view.

Question 34Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A detective has overwhelming evidence that a suspect is guilty, forms the belief on that evidence, and the suspect is in fact guilty. A Gettier-style objection would arise only if which additional feature were present?

  1. The detective's evidence, though strong, is misleading in a way that makes the belief true only by luck Correct answer.
  2. The suspect confesses after the belief is formed
  3. Other detectives agree with the conclusion
  4. The detective feels completely certain of the suspect's guilt

Explanation

Gettier cases require justified true belief that nevertheless falls short of knowledge because the truth is accidental relative to the justification. If the evidence is misleading and the belief is true only through luck, the case becomes a counterexample. Certainty, later confession, or agreement adds nothing to the structure needed.

Question 35Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A hospital must choose between a treatment that saves five patients with moderate certainty and one that saves two with near certainty. A rule-utilitarian reasons about the choice by asking which of the following?

  1. Which action produces the best outcome in this single case
  2. Which general rule, if consistently followed, would produce the best overall consequences Correct answer.
  3. Whether the doctor's maxim could be willed as a universal law
  4. Whether the patients have a right to treatment regardless of consequences

Explanation

Rule-utilitarianism evaluates actions indirectly, by the expected utility of the general rules under which they fall. It asks which rule, generally adopted, maximises welfare, rather than computing each case in isolation. Act-utilitarianism asks the case-by-case question, while Kantian and rights approaches appeal to non-consequentialist constraints.

Question 36Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A person promises to repay a loan, later finds repayment inconvenient, and asks whether the promise still binds. On Kant's Groundwork, the promise binds because which of the following?

  1. The maxim of breaking inconvenient promises cannot be consistently universalised Correct answer.
  2. Society would disapprove of defaulting
  3. The person's future self will suffer from a bad reputation
  4. Breaking it would reduce total happiness

Explanation

Kant tests the maxim of making a promise with no intention of keeping it and finds that universalising it would destroy the practice of promising, making the maxim self-defeating. This contradiction in conception shows the duty of fidelity is categorical. Prudential and utilitarian considerations are not the ground of the obligation.

Question 37Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

An athlete trains hard, wins a race, and says the victory was fully determined by prior causes. A libertarian about free will would most likely respond that which of the following is required for the victory to count as a free action?

  1. The action must be approved by the agent's community
  2. The action must be uncaused by prior events in a way that leaves the agent the ultimate source of it Correct answer.
  3. The action must be caused by the agent's strongest desire
  4. The action must be predictable from the agent's character and history

Explanation

Libertarians hold that determinism is incompatible with free will and that free actions require a kind of agency not exhaustively caused by prior events. The agent must be the ultimate origin of the action. Being caused by one's strongest desire or predictable from one's history are compatibilist-friendly descriptions, and community approval is irrelevant.

Question 38Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A scientist discovers that a certain brain state reliably occurs whenever a subject feels pain. An identity theorist would interpret this correlation as evidence that which of the following?

  1. Pain just is the brain state, though described in two different vocabularies Correct answer.
  2. Pain is a non-physical property that the brain state merely occasions
  3. Pain is a behaviour disposed to be produced by the brain state
  4. Pain is a fiction used to explain behaviour

Explanation

The mind-brain identity theory holds that mental states are identical with physical states, so a reliable correlation is evidence of identity rather than mere accompaniment. The mental and the physical are two ways of referring to the same thing. Occasionalism, behaviourism and eliminativism are distinct positions that the correlation does not by itself support.

Question 39Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A jury must decide whether a defendant acted freely. A compatibilist would focus on which question?

  1. Whether the defendant acted on desires they endorsed and were not coerced Correct answer.
  2. Whether the defendant's action was predictable in principle
  3. Whether the defendant's brain state was identical with a mental state
  4. Whether the defendant's action was uncaused

Explanation

Compatibilists identify freedom with a certain kind of causal history, typically one in which the agent acts on desires they reflectively endorse and is free of coercion or constraint. They need not deny determinism. Requiring an uncaused action is libertarian, and predictability or mind-brain identity are separate issues.

Question 40Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A student argues that because we can imagine a world in which pain occurs without any physical state, pain cannot be identical with any physical state. Which reply is most directly available to the identity theorist?

  1. The argument proves that dualism is true
  2. Mental states are non-physical by definition
  3. Pain is identical with behaviour, so the intuition is irrelevant
  4. Imaginability does not establish metaphysical possibility, so the argument is inconclusive Correct answer.

Explanation

The identity theorist can challenge the inference from conceivability to possibility, noting that we may imagine water without H2O only because we do not fully grasp the essence of water. Similarly, imaginability of disembodied pain may reflect incomplete understanding. Identifying pain with behaviour or defining mentality as non-physical would beg the question.

Question 41Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In the Euthyphro, Socrates presses the question of whether an action is loved by the gods because it is pious. What difficulty does this create for a divine-command theory of ethics?

  1. It shows that the gods do not exist
  2. It suggests either that morality is arbitrary to God's will or that it is independent of that will Correct answer.
  3. It demonstrates that moral language is meaningless
  4. It proves that piety is a matter of ritual sacrifice

Explanation

If actions are good only because God commands them, the commands appear arbitrary; if God commands them because they are good, goodness seems independent of the divine will. Either horn threatens a simple divine-command account. The dilemma concerns the grounding of morality, not the existence of God or the meaning of moral language.

Question 42Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Nietzsche's master and slave moralities are distinguished in the Genealogy by which contrast?

  1. Master morality evaluates good and bad from strength and nobility; slave morality evaluates good and evil from ressentiment Correct answer.
  2. Master morality is religious; slave morality is secular
  3. Master morality is utilitarian; slave morality is Kantian
  4. Master morality is rationalist; slave morality is empiricist

Explanation

Nietzsche contrasts an aristocratic valuation that calls noble qualities good and base qualities bad with a reactive valuation born of ressentiment, which calls the powerful evil and the weak good. The distinction is about the origin and direction of evaluation, not about ethical theories such as utilitarianism or Kantianism.

Question 43Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A philosopher argues that the meaning of a term is fixed by whatever the term actually refers to, even if speakers know little about the underlying nature of that thing. This view is most closely associated with which position?

  1. Verificationism about meaning
  2. Descriptivism about proper names
  3. Semantic externalism and the causal theory of reference Correct answer.
  4. Logical atomism

Explanation

Externalist and causal-historical accounts hold that reference is fixed by the world and by causal chains of transmission, not by descriptions in the speaker's mind. This allows competent users to refer successfully without knowing identifying descriptions. Descriptivism, verificationism and logical atomism make different claims about meaning and reference.

Question 44Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A person is told that a machine will replicate every physical detail of their body and then destroy the original. A Lockean about personal identity would say the crucial question is which of the following?

  1. Whether the replica is treated as a person by society
  2. Whether the replica continues the same stream of consciousness and memory Correct answer.
  3. Whether the replica has the same soul
  4. Whether the replica's body is made of the same matter

Explanation

Locke locates personal identity in continuity of consciousness, especially memory, rather than in sameness of substance. On his view the replica would be the same person if the psychological continuity carries over. Soul sameness, material continuity and social recognition are not his criterion.

Question 45Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A community treats a practice as right because it has always been done that way, and a reformer challenges it. Which metaethical position is the community implicitly relying on?

  1. Error theory, which denies that moral claims are ever true
  2. Subjectivism about individual approval
  3. Conventionalism, which grounds morality in social agreement Correct answer.
  4. Moral realism grounded in objective reasons

Explanation

Conventionalism holds that moral truths depend on the conventions or agreements of a community, so long-standing practice becomes the standard. This differs from individual subjectivism, which relativises to each person's attitudes, and from error theory, which denies moral truth altogether. Moral realism grounds rightness in reasons independent of convention.

Question 46Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A theorist holds that a belief is justified only if it is produced by a reliable cognitive process, regardless of whether the believer can cite reasons. This position is best classified as which of the following?

  1. Foundationalism about the given
  2. Externalist reliabilism Correct answer.
  3. Scepticism about induction
  4. Internalist coherentism

Explanation

Reliabilism is an externalist theory because justification depends on facts about the belief-forming process that the subject need not access. Coherentism and foundationalism are internalist accounts of the structure of justification. Scepticism about induction is a distinct problem about the rationality of inductive inference.

Question 47Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A theory of justice is criticised for demanding sacrifices that no one could reasonably be expected to make. Which feature of a theory is the critic targeting?

  1. The formal consistency of its principles
  2. The truth of its metaphysical claims about persons
  3. The stringency of its principles of duty and its demands on the agent Correct answer.
  4. Its account of the original position

Explanation

The objection concerns the demandingness of a morality or political conception: whether its duties require more than agents can reasonably bear. This is a question about the content and stringency of the principles, not about the original position, metaphysics of persons, or logical consistency. A demanding theory may be consistent and still be criticised on this ground.

Question 48Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

In Rawls' theory, the 'veil of ignorance' serves which function?

  1. It ensures that principles are chosen without knowledge of one's social position or talents Correct answer.
  2. It selects the most efficient economic system
  3. It guarantees that everyone will be equally wealthy
  4. It identifies the natural duties we owe to others

Explanation

The veil prevents parties in the original position from knowing their place in society, talents or conception of the good, so that chosen principles are fair to all. It is a device of representation, not a guarantee of equal wealth or a mechanism for picking an economic system. Natural duties are derived separately from the principles chosen.

Question 49Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

A critic asks how a purely physical system could have states that are about things in the world. Which problem is being raised?

  1. The problem of other minds
  2. The problem of mental causation
  3. The hard problem of consciousness
  4. The problem of intentionality Correct answer.

Explanation

Intentionality is the property of mental states being directed at or about objects and states of affairs. The critic is asking how physical states could possess this aboutness. Mental causation concerns whether mental states cause physical events, the hard problem concerns subjective experience, and the problem of other minds concerns knowledge of others' experiences.

Question 50Philosophy (AM syllabus content domains not enumerated in source)

Which of the following best captures the difference between act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism?

  1. Act-utilitarianism is deontological; rule-utilitarianism is consequentialist
  2. Act-utilitarianism evaluates each action by its consequences; rule-utilitarianism evaluates actions by rules whose general acceptance maximises welfare Correct answer.
  3. Act-utilitarianism applies only to individuals; rule-utilitarianism applies only to governments
  4. Act-utilitarianism is concerned with motives; rule-utilitarianism is concerned with consequences

Explanation

Both theories are consequentialist, but they differ in the object of evaluation: the act-utilitarian assesses individual actions directly, while the rule-utilitarian assesses the rules under which actions fall. The distinction is about the level at which utility is calculated, not about motives, deontology, or the scope of agents.