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MATSEC IM Philosophy practice questions

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Question 1Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

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

  1. The realm of ordinary sensory experience and its illusions Correct answer.
  2. The world of Forms as it truly is
  3. The philosopher's education out of ignorance
  4. The sun as the source of all intelligibility

Explanation

The prisoners take shadows for reality, and Plato uses this to depict the perceptual world as a deficient image of the intelligible realm. The shadows stand for the ordinary objects of sense experience, which the unphilosophical mind mistakes for the whole of reality.

Question 2Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

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

  1. Material, spiritual, efficient, contingent
  2. Material, formal, efficient, final Correct answer.
  3. Formal, potential, actual, teleological
  4. Efficient, final, accidental, necessary

Explanation

Aristotle distinguishes the material cause (what something is made of), the formal cause (its essence or structure), the efficient cause (what brings it about), and the final cause (the end for which it exists). These four together answer the question 'why?' in his physics and metaphysics.

Question 3Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Descartes' method of doubt leads him to which conclusion in the Meditations?

  1. That the external world is logically impossible
  2. That the senses are the only reliable source of knowledge
  3. That God's existence can be proven from the senses alone
  4. That the existence of the self is certain even while everything else is doubted Correct answer.

Explanation

Even a deceiving demon cannot make it false that there is a thinking thing being deceived, so the cogito survives hyperbolic doubt. Descartes then uses this certainty as the Archimedean point from which to rebuild knowledge.

Question 4Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Which statement best expresses Hume's fork?

  1. Every meaningful statement is either a relation of ideas or a matter of fact Correct answer.
  2. Every factual statement can be reduced to sense data by analysis
  3. All truths are necessary truths known a priori
  4. Moral judgements are analytic truths about human nature

Explanation

Hume divides the objects of reason into relations of ideas, known by demonstration and independent of existence, and matters of fact, grounded in experience and causal inference. Anything failing this division, such as metaphysical necessity, is to be committed to the flames.

Question 5Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Kant calls a proposition 'synthetic a priori'. Which example best fits that category?

  1. 'It is raining in Valletta today'
  2. 'Every event has a cause' Correct answer.
  3. 'All bachelors are unmarried'
  4. 'Gold is heavier than water'

Explanation

Kant holds that the causal principle is ampliative (synthetic) yet known independently of particular experience (a priori), since it makes experience of objective events possible. It is neither a definitional truth nor an empirical generalisation.

Question 6Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A utilitarian facing a choice between two policies should, on the classical view, decide by asking which policy:

  1. Respects the most stringent individual rights
  2. Expresses the agent's virtuous character
  3. Maximises total net welfare among those affected Correct answer.
  4. Follows the rule that could be universally willed

Explanation

Classical utilitarianism evaluates actions and policies solely by their consequences, measured as the greatest net sum of welfare for all affected parties. Rights, universalisability and character are criteria drawn from rival theories.

Question 7Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Kant's categorical imperative in its Formula of Humanity requires that we:

  1. Obey the laws of the state in which we live
  2. Treat humanity, in ourselves and others, always as an end and never merely as a means Correct answer.
  3. Act only on maxims that produce good consequences
  4. Maximise happiness for the greatest number

Explanation

The Formula of Humanity demands respect for rational nature as an end in itself, prohibiting the use of persons merely as instruments. It is one formulation of the categorical imperative alongside the Formula of Universal Law.

Question 8Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

According to J. S. Mill's harm principle, interference with a person's liberty is justified when the person's conduct:

  1. Harms others Correct answer.
  2. Fails to maximise social utility
  3. Offends the moral sensibilities of the majority
  4. Contradicts the teachings of religion

Explanation

Mill argues that the only purpose for which power may be exercised over a member of a civilised community against his will is to prevent harm to others. Offence, moral disapproval and religious dissent are not sufficient grounds.

Question 9Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Which claim is central to Descartes' dualism?

  1. Only material substance exists
  2. Mental states are dispositions to behave
  3. Mind and body are two distinct kinds of substance Correct answer.
  4. The mind is identical with the brain

Explanation

Cartesian dualism holds that the mind is a thinking, unextended substance while the body is an extended, non-thinking substance. This real distinction raises the problem of how the two interact.

Question 10Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A functionalist about mental states holds that what makes a state a pain is:

  1. Its causal role among inputs, outputs and other mental states Correct answer.
  2. Its particular physical composition
  3. Its being located in the pineal gland
  4. Its introspective feel or qualia

Explanation

Functionalism individuates mental states by their functional role rather than by their material substrate, so a pain is whatever state is caused by tissue damage and causes avoidance and complaint. This allows the same mental state to be realised in different physical systems.

Question 11Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Which argument best supports the claim that machines cannot think because they merely manipulate symbols without understanding?

  1. Chalmers' zombie argument
  2. Nagel's bat argument
  3. Turing's imitation game
  4. Searle's Chinese Room argument Correct answer.

Explanation

Searle imagines a person following rules to manipulate Chinese characters, producing correct outputs without understanding Chinese. He concludes that syntax is not sufficient for semantics, so symbol manipulation alone does not give thought.

Question 12Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Gettier's counterexamples are designed to show that knowledge cannot be defined simply as:

  1. Belief that is immune to all doubt
  2. True belief caused by the fact believed
  3. Belief produced by a reliable process
  4. True belief that is justified Correct answer.

Explanation

Gettier presents cases where a subject has a justified true belief that is true only by luck, suggesting justification plus truth plus belief is insufficient. The examples motivate additional conditions such as a no-false-lemmas or safety requirement.

Question 13Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

According to the principle of induction Hume defends, our expectation that the sun will rise tomorrow rests on:

  1. A demonstrative proof of the future's uniformity
  2. A direct intuition of necessary connection
  3. Custom or habit formed by observed constant conjunction Correct answer.
  4. An innate idea implanted by God

Explanation

Hume argues that no reasoning can demonstrate the uniformity of nature, since the contrary is conceivable, so our expectation arises from custom. Repeated experience generates a habit of the mind rather than rational insight into necessity.

Question 14Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Which best captures the difference between act and rule utilitarianism?

  1. Act utilitarianism rejects welfare; rule utilitarianism appeals to divine command
  2. Act utilitarianism is consequentialist; rule utilitarianism is deontological
  3. Act utilitarianism considers only the agent; rule utilitarianism considers all persons
  4. Act utilitarianism assesses individual actions by their consequences; rule utilitarianism assesses rules by their consequences Correct answer.

Explanation

Both forms are consequentialist, but they apply the utility principle at different levels: act utilitarians evaluate each action directly, while rule utilitarians evaluate general rules by the utility of their acceptance and then follow those rules.

Question 15Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Aristotle's doctrine of the mean holds that a virtue is:

  1. A divine command revealed to reason
  2. A disposition to choose the intermediate between excess and deficiency as reason determines Correct answer.
  3. A fixed rule that applies identically to every situation
  4. The maximisation of pleasure over pain

Explanation

For Aristotle, virtues are stable dispositions to hit the mean relative to the agent and the situation, guided by practical wisdom. Courage, for example, lies between cowardice and recklessness.

Question 16Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A determinist who accepts that every event has a sufficient cause would most likely claim that free will requires:

  1. The absence of any cause for action
  2. That moral responsibility be abandoned
  3. That actions be caused by the agent's own desires and deliberations Correct answer.
  4. That some events be uncaused

Explanation

Compatibilists argue that freedom consists not in exemption from causation but in acting according to one's own volitions without external constraint. On this view determinism and responsibility are compatible.

Question 17Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Which question is central to the problem of personal identity over time?

  1. What makes a person at one time the same person as a person at a later time? Correct answer.
  2. How do we acquire language?
  3. What is the nature of physical causation?
  4. What makes a person morally good?

Explanation

The problem of diachronic identity asks what relation must hold between temporal stages of a person for them to be one and the same individual. Candidate answers include bodily continuity, memory, and psychological continuity.

Question 18Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Locke's memory criterion of personal identity implies that:

  1. A person is identical with their immaterial soul substance
  2. Personal identity extends as far back as present consciousness can reach Correct answer.
  3. Identity depends on the continuity of the same physical body
  4. Persons have no identity over time

Explanation

Locke ties personal identity to consciousness, so that a person is the same self insofar as they can remember and appropriate past experiences. This makes identity a matter of psychological rather than bodily or substantial continuity.

Question 19Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

An argument from design (teleological argument) for God's existence typically infers:

  1. God exists because miracles have been reported
  2. God exists because the concept of God includes existence
  3. God exists because the idea of God is innate
  4. God exists because the universe exhibits order and apparent purpose Correct answer.

Explanation

The design argument moves from observed order, adaptation or fine-tuning in nature to the existence of an intelligent designer. Paley's watch analogy is a classic statement of this reasoning.

Question 20Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Hume's objection to the design argument focuses on which point?

  1. Order in the universe is logically impossible
  2. Miracles prove that God exists
  3. The analogy between the universe and human artefacts is weak, and the evidence underdetermines the conclusion Correct answer.
  4. The concept of God is self-contradictory

Explanation

In the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume argues that the universe resembles an organism more than a machine, and that even granting design, the evidence cannot establish the traditional attributes of God. The inference is thus proportioned to experience only weakly.

Question 21Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

The problem of evil is best characterised as an argument that:

  1. Evil is an illusion with no reality
  2. Moral evil and natural evil are identical
  3. God's existence can be proven from the existence of evil
  4. The existence of suffering is evidence against the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God Correct answer.

Explanation

The argument holds that a being who is all-powerful, all-knowing and perfectly good would prevent evil, yet evil exists, so such a being probably does not. Replies include the free-will defence and soul-making theodicies.

Question 22Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Anselm's ontological argument depends on which claim?

  1. That a being than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality, not merely in the understanding Correct answer.
  2. That existence is a predicate that can be added to a concept like other properties
  3. That the world shows evidence of design
  4. That religious experience is self-authenticating

Explanation

Anselm argues that if the greatest conceivable being existed only in the understanding, a greater being could be conceived, which is impossible. Therefore the greatest conceivable being exists in reality.

Question 23Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In epistemology, foundationalism holds that:

  1. Only empirical science can produce justified belief
  2. Knowledge requires no justification at all
  3. All justified beliefs ultimately rest on basic beliefs that do not depend on other beliefs for their justification Correct answer.
  4. Justification is a matter of coherence among beliefs only

Explanation

Foundationalists posit a structure in which non-basic beliefs are justified by inferential support ultimately terminating in basic beliefs. These basic beliefs are justified without deriving their warrant from further beliefs.

Question 24Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A coherentist about justification would say that a belief is justified when it:

  1. Is caused by a reliable perceptual process
  2. Fits systematically with the agent's other beliefs Correct answer.
  3. Is held with maximum subjective confidence
  4. Cannot be doubted under any hypothesis

Explanation

Coherentists treat justification as a holistic matter of mutual support among beliefs, so a belief is warranted when it coheres with the rest of the system. There are no privileged basic beliefs on this view.

Question 25Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Which problem does the sceptical hypothesis of the brain in a vat primarily raise?

  1. Whether induction can be justified
  2. Whether our perceptual beliefs are reliably connected to an external world Correct answer.
  3. Whether moral judgements can be objective
  4. Whether the mind is identical with the brain

Explanation

The vat scenario describes a situation in which experience is indistinguishable from normal perception while the external world is absent. It threatens the claim that our perceptual beliefs are formed by a reliable connection to external objects.

Question 26Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In Plato's allegory of the cave, what do the shadows on the wall represent?

  1. The realm of the Forms as known by the philosopher
  2. The mathematical objects studied by the guardians
  3. The laws of the ideal city
  4. The world of ordinary sensory experience, which the prisoners mistake for reality Correct answer.

Explanation

Plato uses the cave to picture the condition of people who take the deliverances of the senses to be the whole of reality. The shadows are the images and sensible things that prisoners treat as real, while the sunlit world outside stands for the intelligible realm of the Forms.

Question 27Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Socrates' method as depicted in the early Platonic dialogues typically proceeds by:

  1. Producing a deductive proof from self-evident axioms
  2. Testing a proposed definition through questioning until contradictions are exposed Correct answer.
  3. Appealing to the authority of poets and priests
  4. Measuring the empirical frequency of the phenomenon under discussion

Explanation

The elenchus works by eliciting a definition, drawing out its consequences, and showing that they conflict with other beliefs the interlocutor accepts. The resulting aporia is meant to motivate a better account rather than to establish a conclusion by proof.

Question 28Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

According to Aristotle, the final cause of a thing is:

  1. The purpose or end for which it exists or is done Correct answer.
  2. The pattern or form it shares with other members of its kind
  3. The material out of which it is made
  4. The external force that first set it in motion

Explanation

Aristotle distinguishes four ways of answering 'why', and the final cause answers the question of purpose or end. The material cause concerns what something is made of, the efficient cause concerns the source of change, and the formal cause concerns its essence.

Question 29Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Descartes' method of doubt leads him to conclude that he cannot doubt that:

  1. A benevolent God exists
  2. His senses are generally reliable
  3. He is thinking while he doubts Correct answer.
  4. Other minds exist

Explanation

Even the most radical doubt is itself a form of thinking, so the doubter cannot coherently doubt that thinking is occurring. This is the insight expressed in the cogito, which Descartes treats as the first indubitable truth.

Question 30Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In the Meditations, Descartes proves the existence of God in order to:

  1. Show that the material world is an illusion
  2. Establish that the senses are the only source of knowledge
  3. Guarantee that clear and distinct perceptions are true Correct answer.
  4. Demonstrate that the soul is mortal

Explanation

Descartes argues that a perfect being would not deceive, so whatever is perceived clearly and distinctly must be true. This step is needed to escape the evil demon hypothesis and recover confidence in mathematics and the external world.

Question 31Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Hume's fork divides all objects of enquiry into:

  1. Appearances and things in themselves
  2. Relations of ideas and matters of fact Correct answer.
  3. Analytic truths and synthetic a priori truths
  4. Primary and secondary qualities

Explanation

Hume holds that relations of ideas are known by pure thought and are certain, while matters of fact depend on experience and are never demonstrable. Anything that fits neither category, he argues, should be committed to the flames.

Question 32Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Kant's Copernican revolution in philosophy consists in the claim that:

  1. Our concepts must be derived from the objects we experience
  2. Space and time are relations among things as they are in themselves
  3. Reason must be subordinated to empirical observation in all matters
  4. Objects must conform to our forms of intuition and categories rather than the reverse Correct answer.

Explanation

Kant reverses the usual assumption by holding that experience is possible only because the mind imposes space, time, and the categories on given material. This is why synthetic a priori knowledge of experience is possible, though only of appearances.

Question 33Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

According to Kant's distinction between phenomena and noumena, we can have knowledge of:

  1. Only the deliverances of pure reason apart from experience
  2. Things as they are in themselves
  3. Appearances as structured by our forms of intuition and understanding Correct answer.
  4. Only analytic truths about concepts

Explanation

Kant holds that knowledge requires both sensible intuition and the categories, so it is confined to appearances. Things in themselves can be thought without contradiction but cannot be known.

Question 34Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A compatibilist about free will and determinism typically argues that:

  1. An action can be free even if it is causally determined, provided it flows from the agent's own desires Correct answer.
  2. Freedom requires the ability to act otherwise in the sense of uncaused choice
  3. Determinism and freedom are logically incompatible, so determinism must be false
  4. Freedom is an illusion and moral responsibility should be abandoned

Explanation

Compatibilists redefine freedom in terms of the source of action rather than the absence of causes. If an action issues from the agent's own character and deliberation, it counts as free even under determinism.

Question 35Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A libertarian about free will holds that:

  1. Some human actions are not fully determined by prior causes Correct answer.
  2. Moral responsibility does not require alternative possibilities
  3. All events are determined by natural laws
  4. Freedom consists in acting according to one's strongest desire

Explanation

Libertarians are incompatibilists who insist that genuine freedom requires that the agent could have done otherwise in an absolute sense. They therefore deny universal causal determinism for at least some human actions.

Question 36Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

The principle of utility as Bentham formulates it evaluates actions by their tendency to:

  1. Produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number Correct answer.
  2. Express respect for persons as ends in themselves
  3. Promote the virtue of the agent's character
  4. Conform to a rule that could be universalised

Explanation

Bentham's principle assesses actions by their consequences for the total happiness of the community affected. Pleasure and pain, measured quantitatively, are the basis for the hedonic calculus.

Question 37Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In Kant's ethics, an action has moral worth only when it is done:

  1. Because it produces the best overall consequences
  2. Because it is approved by the agent's community
  3. In accordance with duty but from self-interest
  4. From duty, in accordance with the moral law Correct answer.

Explanation

Kant distinguishes acting in accordance with duty from acting from duty, and only the latter has genuine moral worth. The shopkeeper who is honest merely for profit does the right act but not a morally worthy one.

Question 38Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Aristotle's claim that virtue lies in a mean between extremes is best illustrated by the virtue of courage, which lies between:

  1. Temperance and self-indulgence
  2. Generosity and stinginess
  3. Modesty and shamelessness
  4. Rashness and cowardice Correct answer.

Explanation

For Aristotle each virtue is a disposition to choose the intermediate course relative to the situation. Courage is the mean between the excess of rashness and the deficiency of cowardice.

Question 39Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A key objection to virtue ethics raised by its critics is that it:

  1. Fails to give clear guidance about what to do in particular dilemmas Correct answer.
  2. Ignores the role of emotion in moral life
  3. Denies that character traits matter to morality
  4. Rests entirely on divine commands

Explanation

Critics argue that telling us to act as the virtuous person would does not resolve hard cases, since virtuous people may disagree. The theory also faces the charge of circularity when defining right action in terms of virtue.

Question 40Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In ethics, the naturalistic fallacy as G. E. Moore describes it is the attempt to:

  1. Derive an 'ought' from an 'is' in moral reasoning
  2. Ground morality in human nature rather than in reason
  3. Define 'good' in terms of some natural property such as pleasure Correct answer.
  4. Treat moral judgements as expressions of emotion

Explanation

Moore argues that 'good' is a simple, indefinable property, so any definition in terms of natural qualities commits a fallacy. His open question argument is meant to show that such definitions always leave a meaningful question open.

Question 41Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Ayer's emotivism holds that moral statements such as 'stealing is wrong' function to:

  1. Describe the flourishing of a human community
  2. Report the commands of a rational will
  3. State a verifiable fact about the world
  4. Express the speaker's feelings and attempt to influence others Correct answer.

Explanation

On Ayer's view moral utterances are neither true nor false because they do not express genuine propositions. They are more like exclamations of approval or disapproval and serve to arouse similar attitudes in others.

Question 42Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Hobbes argues that people in the state of nature are driven chiefly by:

  1. Divine law implanted in every conscience
  2. The desire for self-preservation and the anticipation of conflict Correct answer.
  3. Natural benevolence toward one another
  4. A shared conception of the common good

Explanation

Hobbes describes the state of nature as a war of all against all, rooted in competition, diffidence, and glory. Reason then recommends a social contract to secure peace and self-preservation.

Question 43Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Locke's account of property holds that a person acquires a right to an object primarily by:

  1. Having it assigned by a social convention
  2. Mixing their labour with it Correct answer.
  3. Occupying it by force
  4. Receiving it as a gift from the sovereign

Explanation

Locke argues that because a person owns their own body and labour, mixing labour with unowned material makes it theirs. He adds the proviso that enough and as good must be left for others.

Question 44Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In Rawls' theory of justice, the original position is designed to ensure impartiality because:

  1. Parties choose principles behind a veil of ignorance about their own place in society Correct answer.
  2. Parties are required to maximise total social utility
  3. Parties are guided by a shared conception of the good life
  4. Parties bargain from their actual social and economic positions

Explanation

The veil of ignorance deprives the parties of knowledge of their talents, class, and conception of the good. Since no one can tailor principles to their own advantage, the principles chosen are fair.

Question 45Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

The difference principle in Rawls' theory permits inequalities only when they:

  1. Are earned through individual merit alone
  2. Maximise the total sum of benefits regardless of distribution
  3. Are approved by a majority vote
  4. Benefit the least advantaged members of society Correct answer.

Explanation

Rawls holds that social and economic inequalities are just only if they are to the greatest benefit of the worst-off group. This is combined with fair equality of opportunity under the second principle.

Question 46Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

A key claim of Cartesian dualism that raises the mind-body problem is that:

  1. Mind and body are identical with brain processes
  2. The mind is a bundle of perceptions
  3. Mental states are dispositions to behave
  4. Mind and body are distinct substances that nevertheless interact causally Correct answer.

Explanation

Descartes holds that mind is an unextended thinking substance and body an extended non-thinking substance. The difficulty is explaining how two such different substances can affect one another, which is the interaction problem.

Question 47Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Ryle's 'ghost in the machine' criticism of dualism is that it rests on:

  1. A mistaken empirical claim about brain anatomy
  2. A rejection of the law of excluded middle
  3. A category mistake about how mental and physical descriptions relate Correct answer.
  4. An overreliance on introspective psychology

Explanation

Ryle argues that dualists treat the mind as a hidden inner substance behind behaviour, as if someone expected a university to be a separate building from its colleges. Mental concepts describe dispositions and capacities, not a private inner theatre.

Question 48Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

In the Chinese room thought experiment, Searle aims to show that:

  1. Syntax is sufficient for semantics
  2. Machines can understand language if their programs are complex enough
  3. Consciousness is identical with computational processes
  4. Symbol manipulation according to rules does not by itself produce understanding Correct answer.

Explanation

Searle imagines himself following rules to produce Chinese responses without understanding Chinese. He concludes that a program gives syntax without semantics, so strong AI, which equates running a program with having a mind, is false.

Question 49Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

Turing proposed the imitation game as a replacement for the question 'Can machines think?' because he thought that question was:

  1. A matter of empirical psychology alone
  2. Already settled in favour of machines
  3. Logically contradictory
  4. Too vague to be answered by any testable procedure Correct answer.

Explanation

Turing replaced the vague question with an operational test: whether a machine can produce responses indistinguishable from a human's in conversation. He regarded this as a clearer, empirically decidable substitute.

Question 50Philosophy (Intermediate Level syllabus content)

The problem of other minds arises because:

  1. We have direct introspective access to other people's experiences
  2. We infer the mental states of others from behaviour, which does not logically entail those states Correct answer.
  3. Other people's behaviour is entirely unpredictable
  4. Mental states are publicly observable in the brain

Explanation

Each person has direct access only to their own experiences, so knowledge of others' minds must be inferred from their words and behaviour. Since the inference is not deductively valid, scepticism about other minds is difficult to refute conclusively.