SECTION A
1. Is Socrates right to say in the Meno that if he does not know what something is,
he cannot know what qualities it possesses?
2. ‘I say that virtue is to desire beautiful things and have the power to acquire
them.’ (PLATO) Can this definition be defended against Socrates’ objections?
3. If all learning is recollection and virtue is knowledge, how is virtue best taught?
4. Should we be content for our leaders to rule on the basis of true opinion rather
than knowledge?
SECTION B
5. How can the argument of Descartes’s Meditations best be defended from
charges of an epistemic circle? Is this defence successful?
6. Does Descartes’s account of error provide a satisfactory response to his sceptical
worries?
7. ‘Suppose [my critic] had a basket full of apples and…wanted to take out the
rotten ones to prevent the rot spreading…Would he not begin by tipping the
whole lot out of the basket? And would not the next step be to cast his eye
over each apple in turn, and pick up and put back in the basket only those he
saw to be sound, leaving the others?…Thus I was right to begin by rejecting all
my beliefs.’ (DESCARTES) Is this defence of Descartes’s method satisfactory?
8. ‘In the second Meditation, Descartes is not entitled to the premise that he thinks;
he is only entitled to the premise that there is thought.’ Is this a successful
objection?
SECTION C
9. EITHER (a) Is there anything simple about Mill’s one very simple principle?
OR (b) Does Mill’s argument in On Liberty provide the right rationale for
coercive restrictions on hate speech?
10. Why does Mill attribute so much importance to the notion of genius? Is he right
to do so?
11.‘Neither does it avail anything to say that the nature of the two sexes adapts
them to their present functions and position, and renders these appropriate to
them.’ (MILL) Does Mill make effective use of this claim in his argument for the
equality of women?
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12.Does Mill’s analogy with slavery advance or undermine his case for female
emancipation?