§-Module

QLDPhilosophy and Reason← Philosophy and Reason syllabus

Unit 4: Moral philosophy and metaphysics

14 dot points across 14 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

If every event is caused by prior events, can our choices be free, and can we be morally responsible?

explain and evaluate the free will debate, including hard determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism, and the link to moral responsibility

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on free will. Covers the determinist thesis, hard determinism, libertarian free will, compatibilism, the consequence argument, and the implications for moral responsibility, with reference to Hume, Frankfurt and the challenge from neuroscience.

7 min answer →

Are some actions right or wrong in themselves, regardless of their consequences, because of the duties reason imposes?

explain and evaluate Kantian deontology, including the categorical imperative, the formula of universal law and the formula of humanity

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on Kantian ethics. Covers the good will and duty, the categorical versus hypothetical imperative, the formula of universal law and the formula of humanity (treating persons as ends), and major objections including conflicting duties and rigidity.

7 min answer →

How far may the state and society legitimately restrict individual liberty?

evaluate the limits of state power over the individual, including Mill's harm principle and the liberty paradox

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on individual liberty and the limits of state power. Covers Mill's harm principle, the distinction between self-regarding and other-regarding acts, negative and positive liberty after Berlin, paternalism, and objections such as offence and harm to self.

6 min answer →

Are moral claims objectively true or false, or are they expressions of feeling, convention or culture?

explain and evaluate metaethical positions, including moral realism, relativism, subjectivism and emotivism

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on metaethics. Covers the difference between normative and metaethics, cognitivism versus non-cognitivism, moral realism, cultural relativism, subjectivism, Ayer's emotivism, and Hume's is-ought gap, with objections to each.

7 min answer →

What makes you the same person over time, despite the constant change in your body and mind?

explain and evaluate theories of personal identity, including the body, soul and psychological-continuity criteria

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on personal identity. Covers the persistence question, the body and soul criteria, Locke's memory or psychological-continuity theory, the duplication and circularity objections, Reid's brave officer case, and Parfit's claim that identity is not what matters.

7 min answer →

Where does knowledge come from, reason or experience, and are there ideas we have independently of the senses?

compare and evaluate rationalism and empiricism as accounts of the source of knowledge, with reference to Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on the sources of knowledge. Covers the rationalist appeal to reason and innate ideas (Descartes, Leibniz), the empiricist appeal to experience (Locke's blank slate, Hume's impressions and ideas), the analytic-synthetic and a priori-a posteriori distinctions, and Kant's synthesis.

7 min answer →

What are rights, where do they come from, and how can claims to rights be justified?

analyse the nature and justification of rights, including natural, legal and human rights, and the will and interest theories

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on rights. Covers the distinction between legal and moral rights, natural and human rights, negative and positive rights, the Hohfeldian analysis of claims, liberties, powers and immunities, and the will and interest theories of what rights are for.

6 min answer →

Can we know that the external world exists, or could all our experience be a systematic illusion?

explain and evaluate scepticism about the external world, including Descartes's dream and demon arguments and proposed responses

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on philosophical scepticism. Covers global versus local scepticism, Descartes's dream and evil-demon arguments, the cogito and his attempted escape, the modern brain-in-a-vat version, and responses including Moore's proof and contextualism.

7 min answer →

Why do humans need government, and how do social contract theories justify the authority of the state?

evaluate social contract theories of political authority, including the accounts of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on social contract theory. Covers the state of nature, why the contract is needed, and the contrasting accounts of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, plus Rawls and standard objections, as a basis for justifying state authority.

7 min answer →

What is the mind, and how does it relate to the physical brain and body?

explain and evaluate theories of mind, including substance dualism, physicalism and functionalism, and the problem of consciousness

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on the mind-body problem. Covers Descartes's substance dualism and the interaction problem, physicalism and identity theory, functionalism, and the hard problem of consciousness including qualia and Jackson's knowledge argument.

7 min answer →

How should a society distribute benefits and burdens fairly, and what does justice require?

compare and evaluate competing theories of distributive justice, including Rawls, Nozick and utilitarian approaches

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on distributive justice. Covers Rawls's justice as fairness, the original position and difference principle, Nozick's entitlement theory and libertarian critique, the utilitarian approach, and the contrast between patterned and historical theories of a fair distribution.

7 min answer →

What is knowledge, and is true justified belief enough to count as knowing?

explain and evaluate the justified true belief analysis of knowledge and the Gettier problem, including proposed responses

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on the analysis of knowledge. Covers the distinction between knowledge and belief, the justified true belief (JTB) analysis, Gettier's counterexamples, and proposed repairs including the no-false-lemmas, reliabilist and defeasibility responses.

7 min answer →

Is the right action always the one that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number?

explain and evaluate utilitarianism, including the principle of utility, act and rule versions, and major objections

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on utilitarianism. Covers Bentham's principle of utility and hedonic calculus, Mill's higher and lower pleasures, the act and rule versions, and major objections including justice, demandingness and the separateness of persons.

7 min answer →

Should ethics ask what kind of person to be rather than what rules to follow or what outcomes to produce?

explain and evaluate Aristotelian virtue ethics, including eudaimonia, the doctrine of the mean and practical wisdom

A focused QCE Unit 4 answer on virtue ethics. Covers Aristotle's eudaimonia and function argument, virtue as a state of character, the doctrine of the mean, the role of practical wisdom and habituation, and objections including the guidance problem and cultural variation.

7 min answer →