The nature, function, meaning and methodology of philosophy practice questions.

What does a classical conceptual analysis of a term such as 'knowledge' or 'person' set out to state?

• How frequently the word is used in ordinary speech, measured across a corpus of texts
• The historical origin of the word and the changes its meaning has undergone
• The conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the term to apply
• The psychological process by which children acquire the concept

Answer: The conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the term to apply

An analysis states what must hold for a term to apply, which is why one well-described case can refute it while frequency data cannot. Etymology and acquisition are questions about the word and its users, not about the conditions the concept imposes.

Metaphilosophers cite the Gettier cases as the clearest illustration of which philosophical method?

• Deriving a conclusion from premises the opponent already accepts
• Generalising from a large sample of ordinary uses of the word 'knowledge' in speech
• Showing that a thesis contradicts itself once it is stated as a universal law
• Refuting an analysis with a case that meets its conditions yet is not knowledge

Answer: Refuting an analysis with a case that meets its conditions yet is not knowledge

The method is refutation by counterexample: a single case that satisfies the stated conditions without falling under the concept shows that the conditions are not jointly sufficient. That is why some replies add a fourth condition, such as the absence of a false lemma, while others replace the justification condition altogether, as the causal theory and reliabilism do.

Which philosopher is standardly associated with the view that philosophy is continuous with the natural sciences rather than a first philosophy that grounds them?

• René Descartes
• W. V. O. Quine
• Immanuel Kant
• Ludwig Wittgenstein

Answer: W. V. O. Quine

Quine's naturalism denies any standpoint outside enquiry from which enquiry could be certified. Descartes and Kant both sought exactly such a prior standpoint, and the later Wittgenstein separates philosophy from science in a different way again, as clarification rather than as theory.

Which claim best captures the later Wittgenstein's conception of philosophical problems?

• They are empirical problems that the sciences have not yet had time to address
• They are settled once a formal notation is constructed in which every term is precisely defined
• They arise when language idles away from its ordinary use, and are dissolved rather than solved
• They are answered by recording how the majority of speakers report using a word

Answer: They arise when language idles away from its ordinary use, and are dissolved rather than solved

The later view treats philosophical puzzles as symptoms of misused grammar, so the aim is therapeutic clarity rather than a theory. That is not the ideal-language project of replacing ordinary speech with a formalism, and it is not a survey of usage either.

In Rawls' method of reflective equilibrium, how do principles and particular judgements stand to each other?

• The principles are fixed first and the judgements are deduced from them
• The judgements are fixed first and the principles are simply read off them
• Neither may be revised, since both are treated as self-evident
• Each may be revised in the light of the other until the set coheres

Answer: Each may be revised in the light of the other until the set coheres

Reflective equilibrium is a coherence method: a firm judgement can defeat a principle and a well-supported principle can defeat a judgement. That is what separates it from a foundationalist derivation, in which the starting points are immune to revision.

Which of these questions is metaphilosophical rather than first-order?

• Are there moral facts that hold independently of what anyone believes?
• Does a person survive the gradual replacement of all the cells in her body?
• What kind of evidence, if any, do intuitions about cases provide?
• Is a state ever entitled to restrict speech that causes no direct harm?

Answer: What kind of evidence, if any, do intuitions about cases provide?

A metaphilosophical question is about the aims, methods or standing of philosophy itself, whereas the other three are substantive questions within metaethics, personal identity and political philosophy. The HL extension asks for both levels: doing philosophy on an issue and reflecting on what that activity is.