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PAPER TITLE: EXPLORING PHILOSOPHY

DATE: Monday, 21 May 2016

PART 1

Question ONE

What did David Hume mean when he wrote that we are ‘nothing but a bundle of perceptions which succeed each other’? Was he right?

SOLUTION

According to Hume, all the nice and subtle questions concerning personal identity can never be possibly decided and should be regarded as grammatical rather than philosophical difficulties. Hume posits that identity depends upon the relations of ideas, and these relations are what produce identity by means of the easy transition which they occasion. But as the relations and the ease of the transition may diminish by insensible degrees, there are no such standards by which we can decide any dispute concerning the time they acquire or lose a title to the name of identity.

According to Hume, all the disputes concerning the identity of connected objects are merely verbal except so far as the relation of parts gives rise to some fiction or imaginary principle of union.

Hume claims that no impression is constant and invariable, whether pain or pleasure, grief or joy, passion, sensations, that none of them exist at the same time. Therefore, it cannot be from any of these impressions or any other that the idea of self is derived…

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Question TWO

Present and assess John Locke’s account of personal identity.

PART 2

Question THREE

Under what circumstances, if any, would you be justified in saying that you had witnessed a miracle?

Question FOUR

‘Religious experience gives us no reason to believe in God’. Discuss.

Question FIVE

What gives an action moral worth according to Kant? Is he right?

Question SIX

Thomson uses her ‘famous violinist’ thought experiment to argue by analogy for a position on the moral permissibility of abortion. What is her argument? Does the analogy bear the weight it needs for that argument to work?

Question SEVEN

Thomas Kuhn criticises Karl Popper because in his view Popper ‘has characterised the entire scientific enterprise in terms that apply only to its occasional revolutionary parts’. Is this criticism justified?

Question EIGHT

Present Descartes’ method of doubt, including its aim, and assess whether it has weaknesses. You may refer to Hume’s and/or Cottingham’s criticism of Descartes, if helpful.

Question NINE

If you record appointments in your phone, is it part of your mind? Give reasons for your answer.

Question TEN

Why does Descartes hold that the mind and body are distinct substances? Is he right to do so?

Question ELEVEN

Present and assess Locke’s use of the notion of tacit consent in his account of political obligation.

Question TWELVE

What is civil disobedience? Under what circumstances can it be justified?

[END OF QUESTION PAPER]

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Last updated: Sep 02, 2021 12:13 PM