SECTION A
1. ‘Socrates is only vulnerable to the paradox of inquiry because he insists,
absurdly, that one must know the definition of something before one can know
anything else about it.’ Discuss.
2. Does Socrates give good reasons for supposing the soul to be immortal?
3. ‘Socrates leaves it entirely unclear what is involved in “reasoning out the
cause”, because his discussion consists entirely of obscure examples and
analogies.’ Is this a fair charge?
4. How seriously should we take the proposal that virtue comes to us as a gift
from the gods?
SECTION B
5. In what sense, if any, are Descartes’s Meditations meditations?
6. How successful are the Meditations in providing a firm foundation for the
sciences?
7. ‘… we must necessarily conclude that, from the bare fact that I exist, and
that in me there is an idea of a supremely perfect being, that is, God, it is
proved beyond question that God also exists.’ (DESCARTES) Must we?
8. What is Descartes’s best argument for substance dualism?
SECTION C
9. Would Mill have supported the various restrictions on liberty imposed in
relation to Covid-19?
10. ‘Mill claims that speech must not be prohibited unless it is “a positive
instigation to some mischievous act”. But this claim either rules out too much
speech, or too little.’ Discuss.
11. ‘Laws and institutions require to be adapted, not to good men, but to bad.’
(MILL) Discuss.
12. ‘I deny that any one knows, or can know, the nature of the two sexes, as
long as they have only been seen in their present relation to one another.’
(MILL) Assess this statement, bringing out its political and philosophical
implications.