PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Metaphysics and Reality 2

Question 1

Causal determinism holds that every event is:

Accepted Answer

Caused by prior events according to laws of nature, making the future fixed

Answer

Determinism asserts that the causal history of the universe plus the laws of nature logically entail every subsequent event, leaving no room for alternative futures.

Question 2

Modal realism, defended by David Lewis, is the view that:

Accepted Answer

All possible worlds are equally real and concrete

Answer

Lewis argued that possible worlds are not fictional or abstract but are as real as the actual world, differing only in being spatio-temporally isolated from us.

Question 3

The distinction between de dicto and de re necessity concerns:

Accepted Answer

Whether necessity attaches to a proposition or to an object's property

Answer

De dicto necessity is necessity of a proposition ('necessarily, all bachelors are unmarried'); de re necessity is an object having a property necessarily ('Aristotle is necessarily a human').

Question 4

Essentialism holds that objects have certain properties:

Accepted Answer

Necessarily—properties without which the object would not be that very object

Answer

Essentialists claim some properties are essential to an object's identity—it could not exist without them—while others are merely accidental.

Question 5

Which metaphysical view holds that time is an additional dimension on par with spatial dimensions (the 'block universe')?

Accepted Answer

Eternalism (four-dimensionalism)

Answer

Eternalism treats past, present, and future as equally real temporal parts of a four-dimensional spacetime block, with no objective 'now.'

PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Practice Test

PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Practice Test

PhB Bachelor of Philosophy Metaphysics and Reality 2