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The Philosophiser A compendium of philosophical questions to get you thinking about thinking. Made by Mike Gershon – [email protected]
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The philosophiser[1]

Nov 19, 2014

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Nina Moore

A brilliant resource by Mike Gershon from the TES Website.
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Page 1: The philosophiser[1]

The Philosophiser

A compendium of philosophical questions to get you thinking about thinking.

Made by Mike Gershon – [email protected]

Page 2: The philosophiser[1]

Click a button…get a question

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Why is there something rather than nothing?

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How should one live?

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Can you prove you are not a figment of my imagination?

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What is the nature of justice?

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Do physical objects exist independently of minds?

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What is the nature of being?

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What should we accept as valid evidence?

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How can we come to know the world?

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Are there different types of knowledge?

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How can we know if something is true?

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What is the origin of the universe?

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Does the universe have a first cause?

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Does the universe have purpose?

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Do human beings possess free will?

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To what extent are our actions determined?

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What are the constituents of change?

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What (if any) is the relationship between the mind and the

body?

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Do space and time exist independently of human

perceptions?

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Are you the same person now as you were twenty minutes ago?

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Does the nature of an object persist through time?

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What is knowledge?

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How is knowledge acquired?

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How do we know what we know?

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On what grounds can a piece of knowledge be justified as true?

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How can knowledge be justified?

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Can we trust knowledge derived from our senses?

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Is reason a universal feature of human beings?

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Can we acquire knowledge through pure reason?

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Is it true to say, as Socrates did, that ‘The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.’?

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Should we be ruled?

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How should we be ruled?

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What is the nature of liberty?

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What is the nature of equality?

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Should we seek to reconcile ideals of liberty and equality?

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How might rule be made just?

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To what extent is justice based on custom?

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What is the best form of government?

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Should a religious believer accept the rule of the state?

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Are rights based on custom?

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What guarantee is there of the continuance of rights?

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Are individuals inherently selfish?

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Do men and women require a strong central power to protect

them from one another?

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Are men and women social animals?

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Do men and women seek happiness within a social

system?

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When a person is born, what is the nature of their mind?

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By what right or need do people form states?

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What is the best form a state could take?

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Should a government interfere in the private lives of

individuals?

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Are there separate domains in which a government should and

should not act?

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What ought the ideal relationship between individual and state to be?

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To what extent should economic interactions be regulated?

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Is there such a thing as ‘the common good’?

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What might ‘the common good’ be?

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Is it ever just for the state to use violence?

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Is it a necessary condition of a state that it has a monopoly on the

use of force?

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Can minorities be safe in a democracy?

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Of what value is a constitution?

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What is a ‘good society’?

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Do rulers have an obligation to the ruled?

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Is the ‘social contract’ simply a useful myth?

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What is beauty?

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What is art?

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To what does an artwork refer?

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Does aesthetic judgement change over time?

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Is one more free when contemplating beauty and/or

perfection?

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Can beauty be an objective fact?

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How does a sense of beauty differ from the idea of taste?

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What should we judge when we judge art?

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What should art be like?

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Does art have value?

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Are there certain things to which language cannot refer?

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Could a private language exist?

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Does language operate on a logical basis?

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What is the relationship between language and power?

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Do words have exact definitions?

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What is the relationship between language and the world?

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To what extent is our description of the world an

interpretation of it?

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Do the written and spoken word represent experience in the same

way?

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Does language condition our thinking?

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Can the existence of God be proven or disproven?

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Is revelation a form of knowledge?

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If God exists, how can evil be explained?

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What is the difference between ‘good and bad’ and ‘good and evil’?

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Is there evidence for purpose within nature?

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Was God the first cause of the universe?

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What is knowable as regards religious claims?

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Do we have any good reason to think that God does or does not

exist?

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Is belief in God a way of life rather than a proposition with

some sort of truth value?

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Can notions of truth and falsity be applied to religious

questions?

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Does scientific progress dispel belief in God?

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Do religion and science share a methodology?

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Is there a difference between science and scientific method?

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Are we able to definitively prove the truth of scientific facts or

theories?

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Can inductive reasoning be relied upon?

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Maths is predicated on deductive logic. Is it thus a falsehood to apply

its methods to science, where experiments follow inductive

method?

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Are scientific results the study of truth?

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Can a single account of the difference between science and

non-science be made?

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What are the aims of science?

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How should one interpret the results of science?

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What criteria could we use in order to say a scientific theory has successfully explained a

phenomenom?

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Can we prove a link of cause and effect?

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Can all phenomena be explained by reduction to constituent parts?

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To what extent are scientific observations conditioned by the

theories or paradigms to which they relate?

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Is it possible to be objective?

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What is the proper unit for study of the human past?

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Are there any patterns we can discern through the study of the

human past?

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Does history have a purpose, or, make progress?

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Should history have a moral purpose?

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Can scientific method be applied to the study of history?

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Is it possible for us to know the past?

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Is a description of an event simply a construction of some series of things as an event?

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Is there any knowledge which we cannot doubt?

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How might the experience of time condition our understanding of the

world?

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Should we accept the future is uncertain as far as our knowledge

is concerned?

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What are the implications of uncertainty (regarding the future)

for our actions?

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Do ideas exist outside of physical reality?

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Is the soul immortal?

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Is tolerance a desirable good?

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What are the limits of tolerance?

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Is it necessary for humans to have freedom of speech?

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What ought be the limits of freedom of speech?

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Is there such a thing as nothing?

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Do words such as ‘nothing’ refer to what we think they refer to?

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Do humans make rational choices?

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What does it mean to describe a person or a choice as rational?

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Can knowledge be gained through intuition?

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What are the characteristics of personhood?

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What is a person?

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What is determinism?

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What is free will?

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What are the implications of determinism?

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Can free will and determinism be reconciled?

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From where do our concepts derive?

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Is chance an inherent feature of the world?

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Can a reason be a cause?

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Do human beings have autonomy?

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If an animal could speak, would you be able to understand it?

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Could a non-human possess the characteristics of

personhood?

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Do our personalities (or our selves) persist through time?

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Do we possess innate ideas?

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What can be known through reason alone?

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What is a mind?

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How do the terms for mental states that occur in ordinary natural languages get their

meaning?

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What can we know through introspection?

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Is the concept of evidence appropriate to every context?

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What is evidence?

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Do natural laws exist?

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What is the relationship between law and morality?

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What are laws?

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What is the law?

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Is a person responsible for the totality of their actions?

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Is the individual responsible for giving their life meaning?

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What is meaning?

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Do myths animate or underpin claims to knowledge made in

any age?

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To what extent should we be sceptical about our own

capacities to know?

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To what extent should we be sceptical bout our own knolwedge?

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Is mind an intrinsic part of the universe?

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What is consciousness?

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Does duty exist?

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What is the best way to live?

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Are there irrenconcilable ends in life?

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Do all goods coalesce?

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Is there an ultimate truth?

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Why have so many people been concerned to try and create a

‘science of ethics’?

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Could there be a science of ethics?

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What causes us to act?

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What is the relationship between reason and emotion?

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What might be the difference between knowledge by

acquaintance and knowledge by description?