Paper 4: Philosophy and Scientific Practice
Also Paper HPS4 in PBT2 Psychological and Behavioural Sciences Tripos Part II
You should answer three questions. All questions carry equal weighting.
You should spend no more than three hours on answering all the questions, and a
word limit is set of no more than 1,500 words per answer.
All your answers for this paper should be submitted in one DOC, DOCX or PDF
document. Each answer should be clearly headed with the question number and the
question.
Put your Blind Grade Number (BGN) at the start of the document. Do not put your
name anywhere in the document.
1. Rational choice modelling is the essence of economics. Discuss.
2. Does economics need value judgements? If no, why not? If yes, which ones?
3. “Folk psychology has no place in a legitimate scientific study of cognition.” Do
you agree?
4. Under what conditions, if any, is extended cognition possible?
5. “To say that biological generalizations are evolutionarily contingent is to say
that they are not laws of nature” (John Beatty). Discuss.
6. What is the best analysis of the concept of biological function?
7. Are mental disorders physical disorders?
8. What are the advantages and disadvantages, if any, of classifying certain
mental health conditions as cases of neurodiversity rather than disorders?
Answer with reference to a specific example.
9. Does relativity theory show that there is no fact as to what is going on right now
in the Andromeda Galaxy?
10. Should ordinary notions of time or causation play any role in understandings of
contemporary physics?
11. Does being healthy require more than merely being free of disease?
12. If you could design the evidentiary standards for regulatory drug approval, what
would they be?