PhD Doctor of Philosophy Metaphysics and Ontology 2

Question 1

The debate between presentism and eternalism in philosophy of time concerns whether:

Accepted Answer

Only the present exists vs. past, present, and future are equally real

Answer

Presentists hold that only present entities exist, while eternalists (four-dimensionalists) hold that past and future entities are as real as present ones.

Question 2

The problem of personal identity over time asks what makes a person at one time the same person as a person at another time. Psychological continuity theories hold that identity consists in:

Accepted Answer

Continuity of memories and psychological connections

Answer

Locke and later Parfit argued that personal identity is constituted by overlapping chains of memory and psychological continuity.

Question 3

Modal realism, defended by David Lewis, holds that all possible worlds are:

Accepted Answer

Genuinely existing concrete realities

Answer

Lewis argued that each possible world is a concrete spatiotemporal reality just as real as the actual world, differing only in being spatiotemporally isolated from ours.

Question 4

The ship of Theseus paradox raises questions about which of the following metaphysical topics?

Accepted Answer

Identity conditions for persisting objects

Answer

The paradox asks whether an object replaced plank by plank remains the same object, challenging our criteria for identity through change.

Question 5

In debates about causation, counterfactual theories hold that event C causes event E if and only if:

Accepted Answer

Had C not occurred, E would not have occurred

Answer

David Lewis developed counterfactual analysis of causation, defining causal dependence in terms of what would have happened in the nearest possible world where the cause was absent.

PhD Doctor of Philosophy Practice Test

PhD Doctor of Philosophy Practice Test

PhD Doctor of Philosophy Metaphysics and Ontology 2