Past exam questions

Tripos questions from previous years, grouped by author.

Kant

Either (a) Can Kant's philosophy allow for the possibility of nonconceptual content? Should it? Or (b) 'The key to Kant's response to Hume is the Critique's use of transcendental arguments.' Discuss.
Critically assess Kant's conception of either logic or imagination.
Why does Kant hold that space and time are 'ideal'? What are the philosophical advantages, if any, of doing so?
'Kant cannot coherently make any claims about things in themselves.' Discuss.
Does geometry confirm Kant’s transcendental idealism?
EITHER (a) What is experience according to Kant? OR (b) ‘Everything that happens…presupposes something upon which it follows according to a rule.’ (KANT). Discuss.
‘The transcendental dialectic…can never bring it about that transcendental illusion…should ever disappear and cease to be an illusion (KANT).’ Discuss.
Critically assess Kant’s analysis of freedom in the Antimonies.
‘It must be possible for the “I think” to accompany all my representations’ (KANT). Explain and evaluate the role of this claim in the B-deduction.
What is Kant’s central argument in the Second Analogy? How plausible is it?
Kant claims that we are ignorant of things in themselves. Why does he claim this? Is he right?
Kant claims that space is transcendentally ideal. What does he mean by that? Explain and evaluate his most convincing argument for the claim.
Explain and assess EITHER (a) Kant’s arguments for the apriority of space OR (b) Kant’s arguments for space being an intuition.
Can there be a transcendental deduction of the category of cause?
What is the relation between the categories and the ‘transcendental unity of apperception’?
According to Kant, can we know whether or not we are free agents?
Do non-Euclidean geometries refute Kant’s doctrine of space?
Is Kant right to hold that Reason prescribes laws to nature?
Is Kant successful in showing that the subjective conditions of thought have objective validity?
What conclusions should we draw from Kant’s discussion of freedom in the Antinomies?
EITHER: (a) If space is a form of intuition, can it also be a property of things in themselves? OR: (b) What is the distinction between phenomena and noumena a distinction of?
‘The analytical unity of apperception is only possible under the presupposition of some synthetic one.’ (KANT) Analyse this claim and explain its significance for Kant's argument in the Transcendental Deduction.
‘Objective significance is conferred on our representations only insofar as a certain order in their temporal relation is necessary.’ (KANT) Explain and assess Kant's argument for this claim in the Second Analogy of Experience.
EITHER: (a) Is Kant’s argument in the Antinomy of Pure Reason successful? Assess with reference to one of the Antinomies.
EITHER: (a) Present one of Kant’s arguments for Transcendental Idealism. Does it succeed? OR: (b) ‘The apodeictic certainty of all geometrical propositions, and the possibility of their a priori construction, is grounded in the a priori necessity of space’ (KANT). Do you agree?
‘The principle [of the Analogies of Experience] is: experience is possible only through the representation of a necessary connection of perceptions’ (KANT). Discuss in relation to one of the Analogies of Experience.
Does Kant show that the existence of objects in space outside me is a condition of the possibility of my being conscious of my existence as determined in time?
Is Kant’s attack on rational psychology successful?
Why does Kant think we have synthetic a priori knowledge of space? Do his reasons imply that space is ideal?
‘We have […] defined the understanding in various different ways: as a spontaneity of knowledge (in distinction from the receptivity of sensibility), as a power of thought, as a faculty of concepts, or again of judgments. All these definitions, when they are adequately understood, are identical’ (KANT). Discuss.
What is the purpose of Kant’s contrast between our perception of a house and our perception of a moving boat? Does he succeed?
‘It must be possible for the “I think” to accompany all my representations’ (KANT). Explain and evaluate the significance of this claim in Kant’s Transcendental Deduction
What does Kant mean by saying that space is an a priori intuition? How does he try to prove this?
‘Kant’s distinction between appearances and things in themselves is, fundamentally, a distinction between relational and intrinsic properties of things.’ Discuss.
EITHER: (a) ‘We can trace all actions of the understanding back to judgements, so that the understanding in general can be represented as a faculty for judging’ (KANT). Discuss. OR: (b) Kant argues that we must apply the category of substance to experience. Explain and evaluate his argument.
‘Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind’ (KANT). Explain what Kant means by this claim. What are its implications for the relationship between sensibility and the understanding?

Hegel

In what sense is Hegel an idealist? Is that sense incompatible with realism?
What, if anything, can we learn from Hegel's claim that 'selfconsciousness finds its satisfaction only in another selfconsciousness'?
What would Hegel think is wrong with modern epistemology? Would he be right?
EITHER: a) Is Hegel a metaphysician? OR: b) Are Hegel’s arguments against ‘immediacy’ in epistemology convincing?
Is Hegel’s concept ‘spirit’ of any continuing philosophical significance, and if it is, of what significance?
Does Hegel have any good arguments against those who might think that self-preservation is the fundamental purpose of human life?
Is Hegel right to think that his philosophy is the ultimate solution to the problem of theodicy?
To what extent can Hegel be called an idealist?
‘Self-consciousness finds its satisfaction only in another selfconsciousness.’ Explain and evaluate Hegel’s claim.
What are the methodological implications of a ‘phenomenology of spirit’?
Critically examine Hegel’s ‘master-slave dialectic’.
Does the ‘Sense-Certainty’ chapter of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit show that empiricism is misguided?
Is Hegel’s response to scepticism in the Phenomenology of Spirit satisfactory?
Is Hegel right in thinking that self-consciousness requires reference to desire?
What is the most defensible account of Hegel’s absolute idealism?
‘The very idea of a “non-metaphysical” Hegel is absurd.’ Discuss.
What is Hegel’s purpose in the Sense-Certainty chapter of the Phenomenology? Does he succeed?
Is Hegel right to think that self-consciousness requires recognition?
EITHER (a) Assess Hegel’s critique of the arbitrary will (Willkür). OR (b) ‘The abstract concept of the idea of the will is in general the free will which wills the free Will.’ (Hegel). What does this mean? Is it plausible?
What is ‘absolute’ about Hegel’s absolute idealism?
EITHER: (a) ‘The true is the whole’ (HEGEL). Explain and evaluate this claim. OR: (b) What role does contradiction play in Hegel’s philosophy?
Critically examine Hegel’s analysis of ‘here’, ‘now’ and ‘this’.
‘The state is the actuality of concrete freedom’ (HEGEL). Is this claim defensible?
EITHER (a) What role(s) does Geist play in Hegel’s philosophy? OR (b) ‘Spirit is … the unity of the different independent selfconsciousnesses …: “I” that is “We” and “We” that is “I”’ (HEGEL). Discuss.
What is wrong, according to Hegel, with an ‘approach to the object’ that is merely ‘immediate or receptive’? Is he right?
Is the biggest problem with Hegel’s dialectic the claim that ‘negation’ can issue in a ‘positive result’?
What is most attractive about Hegel’s conception of freedom?
Is Hegel a realist?
‘Hegel’s so-called “dialectical method” is too haphazard to warrant the title of a “methodology”.’ Discuss.
Can we have ‘knowledge of the immediate or of what simply is’? (HEGEL)
EITHER: (a) Who does Hegel think wins the struggle between master and slave? Is he right? OR: (b) To view freedom as the ability to ‘do whatever one pleases’ is a product of ‘completely uneducated, crude, superficial thinking’ (HEGEL). Discuss.
Must Hegel reject materialism?
‘Sense-certainty itself has thus to be asked: What is the This?’ (HEGEL) Does sense-certainty have a good answer to Hegel’s question?
EITHER: (a) Examine and evaluate Hegel’s use of dialectic in his analysis of ‘being’ and ‘nothingness’. OR: (b) Examine and evaluate Hegel’s use of dialectic in his analysis of ‘lord’ and ‘bondsman’.
‘Hegel’s theory of freedom is intelligible only in the context of his metaphysics.’ Discuss.

Nietzsche

Either (a) 'Nietzsche's attack on the ascetic ideal has no relevance for contemporary Western society.' Discuss. Or (b) 'Nietzsche's Genealogy is fatally undermined by its lack of attention to economics.' Discuss.
Why, according to Nietzsche, did the slave revolt succeed? How plausible is his theory?
What implications, if any, do Nietzsche's arguments in the Birth of Tragedy have for contemporary artistic practice?
Is Nietzsche right to hold that society would be boring without priests?
If Nietzsche’s genealogy is not an instance of the ‘genetic fallacy’, how is it best understood?
If Nietzsche is right about the role of the ascetic ideal in modern conceptions of ‘science’, should we close all laboratories?
EITHER: a) Has there been any play (or opera) since the Renaissance that is a ‘tragedy’ in Nietzsche’s sense? OR: b) Is Nietzsche right to think that ‘philosophy’ is essentially a comic, not a tragic genre?
‘Nietzsche’s critique of morality amounts to nihilism’. Discuss.
’Every great philosophy to date has been the personal confession of its author.’ (Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil). Discuss.
What is wrong with Nietzsche’s account of art in The Birth of Tragedy?
What is a ‘genealogy of morals’?
Does Nietzsche offer any good reasons why we should adopt the master morality, rather than the slave morality?
Why does Nietzsche insist, in The Birth of Tragedy, that ‘only as an aesthetic phenomenon are existence and the world justified’? Evaluate this claim.
‘On the Genealogy of Morality is a study in history, psychology, and even physiology. A work of philosophy it is not.’ Discuss.
‘There are absolutely no moral phenomena, only a moral interpretation of the phenomena…’ (NIETZSCHE, Beyond Good and Evil). Discuss.
Does Nietzsche’s view of the nature and significance of tragedy imply a pessimistic view of life?
What, according to Nietzsche, is wrong with the ascetic ideal? Is he right?
‘Nietzsche is more of a psychologist than a philosopher.’ Discuss.
‘There is only a perspectival seeing, only a perspectival “knowing”’ (Nietzsche). Is this true? How do you know?
‘Saying Yes to life even in its strangest and hardest problems […] that is what I call Dionysian’ (NIETZSCHE). How, if at all, does Nietzsche say ‘Yes’ to life?
‘Nietzsche’s injunction “to become who we are” is fundamentally incoherent.’ Discuss.
‘Master morality for masters, slave morality for slaves.’ Is this an accurate reading of Nietzsche?
Is Nietzsche right to believe that untruth is ‘a condition of life’?
EITHER (a) What role, if any, does ‘honesty’ play in Nietzsche’s epistemology OR (b) What role, if any, does ‘honesty’ play in Nietzsche’s aesthetics?
Should we accept Nietzsche’s claim that ‘only that which has no history can be defined’?
How would you convince Nietzsche that you are not a slave?
‘What is good? – Everything that enhances people’s feeling of power, will to power, power itself.’ (NIETZSCHE) Discuss.
What good, if any, could come from a ‘slave revolution in values’?
EITHER: (a) Can genealogy be philosophical? OR: (b) 'Psychology is again the path to the fundamental problems' (NIETZSCHE). Do you agree?
‘There is no such thing as pessimistic art – Art affirms’ (NIETZSCHE). Is Nietzsche right?
Is Nietzsche’s perspectivism true?
‘It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified.’ (NIETZSCHE) Discuss.
Does the genealogy of a belief make a difference to the truth of that belief? Answer with reference to Nietzsche.
‘The world itself is the will to power – and nothing else!’ (NIETZSCHE) Is this a metaphysical claim?
What is the value of moral values? Answer with reference to Nietzsche.

Across the paper

'Kant's conception of the self is a historically contingent phenomenon.' Discuss with reference to either Hegel or Nietzsche.
'It has gradually become clear what every great philosophy up till now has consisted in — namely unconscious autobiography.' Discuss with reference to any two authors on the syllabus.