General Philosophy Questions (2024)

Answers at end.

True/False (True=A, False=B)

1. To say that philosophy encourages the adoption of a questioningattitude means that philosophic thinking encourages people to deny theexistence of God or traditional moral beliefs.

2. In philosophy the purpose of rational self-examination is to developarguments that correct or support beliefs in ways that could be persuasiveeven to people with different backgrounds.

3. Though philosophy is defined as the pursuit of wisdom, it does notinvestigate what it means to ask questions in the first place.

4. As the pursuit of wisdom, philosophy raises questions about almosteverything except what it means to question in the first place.

5. Because philosophy requires that we question our beliefs, it cannotprovide reasons why one set of beliefs should be preferred over another.

6. One of the primary aims of philosophy is to see how our beliefs comparewith those of others who can and do raise objections against those beliefs.

7. Philosophy attempts to answer questions such as "Why do we exist?"by examining what it means to ask such questions and to evaluate whetherproposed answers to such questions are justified.

8. Philosophical questions are generally more concerned with identifyinghow beliefs differ among persons or cultures than with how those differentbeliefs can be justified.

9. Myth provides the vocabulary and grammar in terms of which both philosophicalquestions and their answers are intelligible.

10. By giving us a sense of purpose and moral value, myth indicatesour place in nature and explains in general why things are the way theyare.

11. The point of the Socratic method is to determine the truthof a belief by means of dialectical exchange (questions and answers, hypothesisand counter-example).

12. Socrates's comment that "the unexamined life is not worth living"is an example of his ironic technique of saying something that means justthe opposite.

13. In the Socratic method of enquiry, one asks questions aimed at discoveringthe nature, essence, or fundamental principles of the topic under consideration.

14. Socratic ignorance is the same as complete skepticism because Socratesadmits he knows nothing, not even whether his method of enquiry is appropriate.

15. Like the social sciences (e.g., psychology or sociology), philosophydiscovers truths by identifying what people in fact believe instead ofjudging whether those beliefs are justified.

16. To say that philosophy is a "second order" discipline means thatit investigates the presuppositions, criteria, and methods assumed by otherdisciplines.

17. To say that philosophy is more concerned with "second-order" ormeta-level topics means that it is concerned more with facts and beliefsthan with their presuppositions.

Multiple Choice

18. "Is there anything you would be willing to die for?" is a philosophicalquestion insofar as:
(a) it does not have any right or wrong answer because it isa meaningless question.
(b) it is a meaningless question because everyone could havea different answer to it.
(c) it forces us to articulate and justify our beliefs aboutwhat we know and ought to do.
(d) it is more concerned with one's religious beliefs than withfactual claims about the world.

19. One of the aims of philosophy is to think critically about whetherthere are good reasons for adopting our beliefs. Reasons are considered"good reasons" if they are consistent with everyday experience and:
(a) are part of a set of religious, moral, or political beliefsthat an individual feels deeply about.
(b) are considered good by at least one culture, sub-culture,or individual.
(c) cannot be interpreted in different ways by different peopleor cultures.
(d) take into account objections, are acceptable to impartialthird parties, and avoid undesirable consequences.

20. If the world that we individually perceive is limited to an internalperspective, then there is no way that we could determine whether our ownperspective is useful, true, or valuable because:
(a) we know whether our internal perspective is correct onlyby comparing it with an objective, external perspective (the "real" world).
(b) whatever we appeal to in order to prove that our perspectiveis right itself would be part of the standard we use in evaluating thatperspective.
(c) scientific research that reveals facts about the world wouldcause us to challenge our perceptions in a dreamworld of our own making.
(d) without limiting our perspective to an internal dreamworld,we cannot achieve any objective, external knowledge of the real world.

21. Philosophy is concerned primarily with identifying beliefs abouthuman existence and evaluating arguments that support those beliefs.These activities can be summarized in two questions that drive philosophicalinvestigations:
(a) why should we bother? and what are the consequences of ourbelieving one thing over another?
(b) what do you mean? and how do you know?
(c) who really believes X? and how can we explain differencesin people's beliefs?
(d) how do philosophers argue? and are their differences important?

22. One of the tasks of philosophy is to test conceptual frameworksfor depth and consistency. It does this through (1) expressing ourideas in clear, concise language and (2) supporting those ideas with reasonsand with overcoming objections to them. Philosophy thus emphasizesthe need to:
(a) pose questions that can be resolved not by reasoning butonly by faith or personal belief.
(b) show why the beliefs adopted by most people in a cultureare preferable since more people understand those beliefs and see no reasonto raise objections to them.
(c) articulate what we mean by our beliefs and to justify ourbeliefs by arguments.
(d) develop a set of ideas about the nature of society (i.e.,an ideology) that can be used to support a religious conceptual framework.

23. The philosophic insistence on providing a logos for the world andour experience of it might itself rely ultimately on adopting a certainmythos, insofar as:
(a) philosophy assumes that it is possible and meaningful toreason about the world and experience.
(b) the myths of philosophy are really lies that are told tomake so-called philosophic enquiries sound more respectable.
(c) philosophy is based on logic, whereas myths are not basedon logic.
(d) mythos refers to the philosophic understanding of the world,whereas logos refers to the philosophic understanding of our experienceof the world.

24. "There is no rationale for myth because it is through myth thatreason itself is defined." This means that:
(a) mythos is ultimately based on logos, just as myth is ultimatelybased on reasoning or thinking.
(b) myth does not "explain" how things are related as much asit simply reveals them as related.
(c) metaphysicians are justified in reasoning as they do becausethere is only one true answer about being.
(d) myth and reason are the same: "myth" defines "reason," and"reason" defines "myth."

25. Whereas the social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics)ask questions about how people think and act, philosophy is the study of:
(a) how people with different beliefs or backgrounds disagreewith one another.
(b) what beliefs mean and whether people with different beliefsare justified in having them.
(c) the reasons why philosophic questions never have better orworse answers.
(d) questions that can be answered better by appealing to scientificexperiments.

26. To say that "philosophy" (like "love" or "art") is not a closedconcept means that we cannot state the necessary and sufficient conditionsby which it is defined. Rather, philosophic issues are identifiableas having "family resemblances" with one another. In other words:
(a) there is no one distinguishing feature that identifies anissue as philosophic, only an overlapping of issues roughly associatedwith one another.
(b) the way we come to think about philosophy, love, or artreally depends on how we were raised by our families to identify thingsas resembling one another.
(c) the necessary and sufficient condition for something tobe considered philosophic is that it answers either of these questions:What does it mean? and How do you know?
(d) philosophy is not a closed discipline insofar as it is willingto accept any answer suggested by the "human family" as being true.

27. According to Socrates, just as there is a difference between whatan ironic statement says and its true meaning, so also appearances differfrom reality. Even though societies or individuals appear to differabout what is required for the good life, that in no way contradicts thefact that:
(a) what is right or wrong, true or false varies from one cultureto another.
(b) appearances are the only real way we have for knowing reality.
(c) the distinction of appearance and reality is the basis forthe dialectical discovery of truth.
(d) there are objective principles for thought and action thatare required for the good life.

28. According to Socrates, an unexamined life is not worth living; andit certainly could not be a virtuous life. Why not?
(a) Because if someone did not know how to act virtuously, heor she would still be considered virtuous by others who also did not knowthe principles for good living.
(b) Because since Socrates was a philosopher, he of course thoughtthat people who examined their lives philosophically were more virtuousthan those who did not.
(c) Because without knowing the rationale for why one shouldact in a particular way, one does not know whether actions are justifiedand ought to be repeated.
(d) Because a virtuous life would be one in which someone doeswhat the rest of the society says is right, and that means examining viewsother than one's own.

29. In spite of the fact that Socrates claims to be ignorant of theessence or nature of certain things like justice, he is wise insofar ashe recognizes that without such knowledge actions are rationally unjustified.That is, his wisdom consists in his recognition not only that he is ignorantof such essences but also that:
(a) justice, like knowledge, requires that we admit that weknow nothing and never will.
(b) he knows what he is supposed to be looking for--knowledgeof the essences of things.
(c) knowledge of the essences of things is impossible, becausethat would require that we know what we are looking for before we knowwhat it is we are looking for.
(d) his method of asking questions about essences is itselfunjustified because he does not know why he engages in such a practice.

30. According to Socrates, the value or quality of one's life dependson understanding the principles of, or basic rationale for human existence.Without such knowledge (he suggests) life lacks virtue, because:
(a) acting virtuously means acting in way that is informed aboutwhat one is doing and why.
(b) someone who does not understand existence philosophicallycould never do anything right.
(c) to have the power or ability to do anything at all requiresthat we know what we are doing.
(d) not only is virtue knowledge but also the unexamined lifeis not worth living.

31. According to Socrates, it is important that we discover what makesa particular action (e.g., a merciful or just act) the kind of action thatit is, because without such knowledge:
(a) no one in society will ever do any action that really ismerciful or just, only those actions that they think are merciful or just.
(b) the primary purpose of human existence--which is to thinkand to know--is replaced by a focus on morality (acting and doing).
(c) we can refer only to how people characterize actions withoutknowing why such actions should be characterized that way.
(d) there would be no way to distinguish one kind of action(e.g., a merciful action) from another kind of action (e.g., a just action).

32. For Socrates, the belief that "virtue is knowledge" is relatedto his claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living," because hebelieves that:
(a) the unexamined life is one in which we live day to day withoutasking questions about who we are and why we are here in the first place.
(b) the Delphic oracle identified Socrates as the wisest personon earth because he claimed to know nothing.
(c) by questioning traditional beliefs, we learn to recognizehow some answers seem to be more satisfactory than others.
(d) the only way to be a good or worthwhile person is to knowhow human beings should behave based on universal norms or values.

33. Socrates' claim that "the unexamined life is not worth living" isoften cited as a central theme in the activities of people. Byit, Socrates is typically understood to mean that:
(a) it is sometimes simply not worth all the effort of examininglife and its problems in great detail; sometimes it is better simply to"go with the flow."
(b) while taking a reflective attitude toward life is interestingand even sometimes important, most of what makes life worth living is notworth examining.
(c) simply doing whatever everyone else does without thinkingabout why we should do what we do can hardly be thought of as worthwhile,noble, or admirable.
(d) it is a waste of time to sit around thinking about whetherlife is worth living; we should leave such reflection to talk-show hosts,political figures, and religious leaders.

34. According to Socrates, the task of the wise and virtuous personis not simply to learn various examples of just or virtuous actions butto learn the essence of justice or virtue, because:
(a) by knowing enough examples of justice or virtue, we willlive a worthwhile life even if we do not know what makes them examplesof justice or virtue.
(b) knowledge of individual examples alone would not preparesomeone for situations of justice or virtue to which the examples do notimmediately apply.
(c) what makes an action just or virtuous can be known onlyby asking people for their opinions and respecting each answer as equallyvaluable.
(d) justice and virtue are universal goals of all human beings,even if people do not always agree on how to achieve those ends.

35. Plato indicates that the knowledge of pure reason is preferableto conceptual understanding, because knowing that something is a certainkind of thing is not as good as knowing:
(a) how we come to learn what to call a thing in virtue of ourown experiences.
(b) the logos or rationale of the thing, that is, why it isthe way it is.
(c) why we differ among ourselves about what we claim to know.
(d) the difference between knowledge and opinion as outlinedin Plato's divided line image.

36. Like most rationalists, Plato defines knowledge as justified truebelief. In terms of this definition, we might be able to claim toknow something as true which might actually be false, but it is impossiblefor us really to know something that is false. Why?
(a) Because to know something that is false is to know no realthing, nothing (i.e., not to know at all).
(b) Because what we know as true is ultimately based on whatwe claim to know as true.
(c) Because we cannot give a justification or reason for believingin something that is false.
(d) Because in contrast to our knowledge of the unchanging Forms,beliefs about particular objects can change.

37. Plato distinguishes knowledge from mere belief or opinion by sayingthat knowledge must be a true belief for which one can give a justification,a rationale, or "logos." In terms of his image of the Divided Line,for Plato, knowledge is attained only when our sensible experience is:
(a) grounded ultimately in what our senses reveal to us aboutthe world of becoming.
(b) based on images of the good, beauty, and truth obtainedfrom particular objects and on which the concepts and Forms depend.
(c) replaced by what we sincerely believe is true or have cometo believe based on our upbringing.
(d) understood in terms of concepts or innate ideas (Forms)that are perceived as rationally ordered.

38. According to Plato, we can attain knowledge only by seeing beyondthis world of particular, changing objects to the true essences or Formsin terms of which things in this world are intelligible. For example,we know what triangularity is not from comparing sensible triangles butby thinking of the ideal of triangularity in terms of which these sensiblefigures are recognized as triangles. From this Plato concludes thatall knowledge (as opposed to opinion) is innate, because:
(a) from the moment we are born we know what things are in theworld in terms of ideas that we get through our senses.
(b) since we are born with senses (that is, our senses are innate),we can know things about the sensible world with certainty as long as werely on the senses alone.
(c) our knowledge of the world is not really of the sensibleworld itself but of the world grasped mathematically and ideally.
(d) since our absolutely certain knowledge of things cannotbe based on the changing things in sensible experience, it must merelybe triggered by sensible experience.

39. In Plato's idealism, the unchanging Ideas or "Forms" in terms ofwhich sensible objects both exist and are known must transcend (that is,exist beyond) the changing realm of appearances; because if Forms changed,then:
(a) the only things in the sensible world that we could everexperience would be concepts.
(b) the sensible realm (in contrast to the intelligible realm)would consist only of copies of real things.
(c) nothing in the experienced world could be or be identifiedas one determinate thing or another.
(d) the sensible world would consist of unchanging Forms.

40. For Plato, ordinary sensible objects exist and are knowable as examplesor instances of Ideas or "Forms" that do not exist in our ordinary sensibleworld. Forms do not exist in the sensible world because:
(a) in the sensible world only mathematical objects (e.g., triangles)can be known using hypotheses which are recollected when we are asked theright kinds of questions.
(b) unlike everything in the sensible world, Forms are not individualthings but rather the universal essences or natures by which individualthings are what they are and are known.
(c) nothing in the sensible, experienced world could exist orbe identified as one particular thing or another unless there were a "SensibleWorld" Form (like the Form of beauty or justice).
(d) the sensible world consists of changing Forms that existand are known in terms of other changing Forms, which in turn exist andare known in terms of yet others in an endless regress.

41. "When a person starts on the discovery of the absolute by the lightof reason only, and without any assistance of sense, and perseveres untilby pure intelligence he arrives at the perception of the absolute good,he at last finds himself at the end of the intellectual world. . . . Dialectic,and dialectic alone, goes directly to the first principle and is the onlyscience which does away with hypotheses in order to make her ground secure."Here Plato indicates how hypothetical knowledge cannot provide the foundationof dialectical knowledge, insofar as hypotheses simply:
(a) explain sense experiences in terms of general concepts whichthemselves are not explained.
(b) show how particular objects of experience cause us to recallinnate ideas.
(c) describe sense experience without providing an explanationfor dialectical methods.
(d) reject the use of reason, preferring instead dialectic,to achieve knowledge.

42. Plato's suggestion that knowledge is innate or remembered as a resultof being triggered by experience is in response to a paradox he sets upfor himself. The paradox, now referred to as Meno's Paradox, hasto do with the question of:
(a) how a person can remember anything about the realm of theForms after the shock of being born into this world.
(b) how knowledge of the Forms can ever be anything other thana generalization of experience.
(c) how anyone can recognize the correct answer to a questionwithout already knowing the answer.
(d) how concepts bound to the realm of becoming have meaningonly when associated with the realm of Being.

43. In his discussion of the Divided Line, Plato says that, incontrast to mere belief or opinion, knowledge is a belief for which wegive reasons or justifications by appealing:
(a) to what our senses reveal to us about how things appearto us, not how they really are.
(b) beyond the Forms to images of goodness, beauty, and truthobtained from particular objects.
(c) to what we sincerely believe is true about the Forms basedon our experiences in the world.
(d) beyond sense experience to unchanging ideas (Forms) thatare perceived as rationally ordered.

44. Aristotle says that what makes things be what they are--theiressence--does not exist apart from individ-uals that exist in the world.So if all the members of a species were destroyed, then their essence orform:
(a) would likewise be destroyed.
(b) would be destroyed only if there were no one around to rememberthe species.
(c) would continue existing (as with Plato's Forms) in someother realm of being.
(d) would not be destroyed because there was no essence or formoriginally to be destroyed; there are only individuals, not universal essencesor natures of things.

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