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Philosophical Questions: 131 Big Questions and Their Rival Answers

131 big questions in philosophy with the answers philosophers have actually defended, side by side: 15 to start with, 13 contested ones, and all 131.

Updated 13 October 2026

On this page
  1. What makes a question philosophical?
  2. Are philosophical questions unanswerable?
  3. How to think through a philosophical question
  4. 15 deep philosophical questions and their rival answers
  5. The 13 contested questions (△)
  6. All 131 questions with their rival answers

Philosophical questions are questions that no observation settles: Could you have done otherwise? Is an unjust law still a law? Does a life need a point? The facts can be agreed and the disagreement remains, because it is about what the facts mean. Below are the big questions in philosophy, each with its rival answers.

Most lists of deep philosophical questions give you three hundred one-liners and stop there. That is a list of prompts. This page does the other half: for each real question it shows the answers philosophers have actually defended, across traditions, side by side. All 131 come from the question cards of The Coordinates of Thought. Start with the fifteen hand-picked below, or go straight to the full list at the end.

What makes a question philosophical?

On the definition this site uses, a question belongs to philosophy when no observation settles it, not because the answer is unknowable, but because the disagreement is about what the observations mean. Compare “How old is the universe?” with “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Telescopes and physics answer the first. Every observation you could make for the second already assumes there is something.

Or take death. Everyone agrees on what happens to the body. Epicurus argued that death is nothing to us, since where death is, we are not. Others answer that death is bad because it deprives you of goods you would otherwise have had. No new fact about bodies would decide between them. That is the mark of a philosophical question: the facts are agreed, and the disagreement remains.

On this view, philosophy is better described as a discipline of justification than as a subject matter. It can be aimed at anything (science, law, love, humour) wherever a question resists the other methods we have. See What is philosophy? for more.

Are philosophical questions unanswerable?

Not in the way people usually mean. Most have several candidate answers; the difficulty is that there are several, each with serious reasons behind it and a known problem. So-called unanswerable questions are better described as unsettled ones.

Progress in philosophy looks different from progress in a laboratory. Options become clearer, hidden assumptions are exposed, and weak answers are retired. The Gettier cases, for example, showed that a belief can be true and justified and still not be knowledge, and every theory of knowledge since has had to deal with them. Some questions also left philosophy once a method arrived to settle them: questions about motion and the structure of matter became physics. What remains are the questions that resist other methods. Some philosophers go further and argue that certain questions dissolve on analysis; that view, too, appears among the rival answers.

How to think through a philosophical question

A short method works for any of the questions on this page.

  1. Say it precisely. “Do we have free will?” becomes “Could I have chosen otherwise, given everything that came before?” Vague questions produce vague disagreements.
  2. Write your first answer down before reading anyone else’s.
  3. List the rival answers. Usually there are four to eight serious ones. The cards give them.
  4. For each answer, find its best reason and its strongest objection. If you cannot state why a sensible person holds a view, you do not yet understand it.
  5. Test with a case. Thought experiments (a transplanted brain, a perfect deception, a machine that passes every test) show where an answer bends or breaks.
  6. Check what else you are committed to. An answer about free will has consequences for blame and punishment. Each card’s “Where it sits” line shows the connections.
  7. State your view and what would change your mind. Then put it to someone who disagrees: ask a question or join a debate.

15 deep philosophical questions and their rival answers

These are some of the most thought-provoking questions in philosophy, chosen for beginners and grouped by theme. Each line gives the main rival answers in brief; the card gives all of them, with who held them.

Existential questions: life, death and meaning

  • Can something be bad for you if you are not there for it? Epicureans say death is nothing to us; the deprivation account says it takes goods you would have had; some argue that an endless life would be worse. Card 6.20
  • Does a life need a point, and where would it come from? From God or a cosmic order; from engaging with things of real value; from whatever you care about; from nowhere (nihilism); or from nowhere, with persistence rather than despair as the response (absurdism). Card 6.21
  • Why is there something rather than nothing? A necessary being explains it (theism); no explanation is owed (brute fact); the universe exists necessarily; or an eternal cosmos removes the question of a first cause, though not of why it exists. Card 1.2

Questions about the self and the mind

  • Are you the same person you were at five? The same organism; the same brain; a continuous chain of memory and character; a self-told narrative; an immaterial soul; or, on the Buddhist no-self view, no permanent self at all. Card 1.3.2
  • Why isn’t it all dark inside? △ Experience is wholly physical; it is a further, non-physical property; it is fundamental and widespread (panpsychism); the problem is an introspective illusion; or it is beyond our capacity to solve. Card 1.3.4
  • Could you have done otherwise? △ Hard determinism says no and denies free will; libertarianism says yes, because some choices are not determined; compatibilism says freedom survives determinism; hard incompatibilism says it fails either way. Card 1.7

Questions about right and wrong

  • If everyone approved of torturing children, would it still be wrong? Moral realists say yes, since moral facts do not depend on approval; relativists tie wrongness to a framework; constructivists say partly; error theorists say all positive moral claims are false. Card 3.1.1
  • If an act produces the best outcome, can it be wrong? Consequentialists from Mozi to Bentham and Mill say rightness depends on outcomes alone; duty-based and character-based ethics reply that some acts are wrong whatever they bring about. Card 3.2.1
  • What is it about humans that makes us count? The capacity to suffer, which animals share; being the subject of a life, which grounds rights; taking part in agreements; or a duty of stewardship, with other answers between. Card 3.3.6

Questions about knowledge

  • How do you know you are not being deceived about everything? Pyrrhonists suspend judgement; Descartes used doubt as a tool to reach certainty; fallibilists say knowledge never needed certainty; common-sense realists put the burden on the doubter; contextualists say it depends on the standards in play. Card 2.4
  • Should the fact that someone disagrees with you change your mind? Move towards their view (conciliationism); keep yours (steadfastness); weigh who is better placed (total evidence); or hold firm if you reasoned correctly (right reasons). Card 2.7.1

Questions about society

  • Is an unjust law still a law? Natural law says it is defective as law; legal positivism says validity and merit are separate questions; legal realism looks at what officials do; interpretivism includes the principles behind the practice. Card 6.2
  • Who should get what, and why? △ Equal shares; priority to the worst off; enough for everyone; Rawls’s principle that inequalities must benefit the least advantaged; Nozick’s entitlement theory; desert; Sen’s capabilities; or obligatory transfers such as zakat. Card 6.4.1

Questions about art and beauty

  • Is beauty in the object or in the eye? A real property of things; a matter of proportion and harmony; a disposition to move suitable observers; Kant’s subjective judgement that still claims everyone’s agreement; or simply the response. Card 5.1
  • Why is the sadness of a sad song enjoyable? Accounts of aesthetic experience point to attention detached from practical concern, engagement held at a distance, or, in Indian rasa theory, emotion savoured in a non-ordinary mode. Card 5.5

The 13 contested questions (△)

On most cards, philosophers agree on how to ask the question and disagree on the answer. Thirteen cards are marked △. On these, the disagreement reaches the question itself (how to frame it, what would count as settling it), and presenting any position as the answer would mislead.

Card Question What is in dispute
1.3.4 Qualia and the Hard Problem Why isn’t it all dark inside? Whether there is a further problem at all, or only a misleading picture of our own minds.
1.7 Free Will and Determinism Could you have done otherwise? Whether freedom and determinism can both be true, and what “could have done otherwise” requires.
1.8 Natural Theology Can argument alone settle whether God exists? Whether argument is the right route, as well as which arguments succeed.
1.10 Meta-Metaphysics Are metaphysical arguments about anything? Whether metaphysical disputes concern the world or only how we choose to talk.
2.2.5 Revelation Can something be known because it was disclosed rather than discovered? Whether disclosure is a source of knowledge in its own right or a kind of testimony judged by ordinary standards.
3.3.1 Bioethics and Medical Ethics Who counts, who decides, and who gets it? How autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice weigh against each other when they conflict.
3.3.5 War and Political Violence Can killing be permitted when it would otherwise be murder? Whether moral categories apply between states at all, as well as when war could be just.
4.4 Non-Classical Logics Which parts of classical logic, if any, should be revised? Whether logic itself is open to revision, and for which problems.
6.4 Political Philosophy When is political power legitimate, and what may it rightly do? Whether any state authority is legitimate, and on what grounds, from anarchism to Confucian and Legalist views.
6.4.1 Distributive Justice Who should get what, and why? What should be distributed, and whether equality, priority, sufficiency, entitlement or desert is the test.
6.17 Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence What would a machine have to do to count as thinking? What would settle the question, and whether behaviour could ever be enough.
6.29 Philosophy of Gender What kind of thing is a gender category? Whether the category is biological, social, identity-based, several of these, or none.
6.30 Philosophy of Race If race is not biological, what is it? Whether racial terms refer to anything real, and whether they should be kept or retired.

All 131 questions with their rival answers

Here is every question on The Coordinates, grouped by root: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, logic, aesthetics and the fields of philosophy. Each line gives the rival answers in brief; each card adds the philosophers who held them across traditions, the connections to other questions, and a live conversation to join. For philosophy questions to think about over a longer stretch, the beginners’ guide turns ten of them into a path.

Metaphysics

  1. What is there?1.1 OntologyRival answers: Materialism · Idealism · Dualism · Neutral monism · Pluralism
  2. Is a river a thing, or an event?1.1.1 Substance TheoryRival answers: Substance ontology · Process philosophy · Bundle theory · Trope theory · Substratum theory
  3. A tomato and a fire engine are both red. Is there something they share?1.1.2 Universals and ParticularsRival answers: Platonic realism · Aristotelian realism · Conceptualism · Resemblance nominalism · Predicate nominalism · Trope theory · Apoha (exclusion nominalism)
  4. When do some things make one thing?1.1.3 MereologyRival answers: Universalism · Nihilism · Restricted composition · Organicism · Deflationism
  5. Does the number seven exist?1.1.4 Abstract ObjectsRival answers: Platonism · Nominalism · Fictionalism · Conceptualism · Trope theory · Deflationism
  6. Why is there something rather than nothing?1.2 Cosmology (Philosophical)Rival answers: Theism · Deism · Pantheism · Brute-fact naturalism · Necessitarianism · Eternal cosmos
  7. Did anything ever start, or has it always been running?1.2.1 Origins and First CauseRival answers: Temporal finitism · Eternal cosmos · Cyclical cosmology · Timeless origination · Quantum origination
  8. Could the universe have had different laws?1.2.2 Fine-Tuning and NecessityRival answers: Design · Multiverse · Necessitarianism · Brute contingency · Anthropic deflation
  9. What is a mind, and how does it relate to the body and the world?1.3 Philosophy of MindRival answers: Eliminative materialism · Behaviourism · Identity theory · Functionalism · Property dualism · Substance dualism · Panpsychism
  10. How can a thought move an arm?1.3.1 The Mind–Body ProblemRival answers: Substance dualism · Property dualism · Identity theory · Functionalism · Eliminative materialism · Epiphenomenalism · Panpsychism
  11. Are you the same person you were at five?1.3.2 Personal IdentityRival answers: Biological view (animalism) · Brain theory · Memory theory · Psychological continuity · Narrative identity · No-self (anattā) · Soul theory
  12. How can one thing be about another thing?1.3.3 IntentionalityRival answers: Causal theories · Teleological theories · Interpretivism · Phenomenal intentionality · Brentano’s thesis · Language of thought
  13. Why isn't it all dark inside? △ contested1.3.4 Qualia and the Hard ProblemRival answers: Illusionism · Reductive physicalism · Property dualism · Panpsychism · Mysterianism · Higher-order theories
  14. Does time pass, or does it only seem to?1.4 Philosophy of TimeRival answers: Presentism · Growing block · Moving spotlight · Eternalism
  15. If you are bent when sitting and straight when standing, how can both be true of you?1.4.1 Persistence and ChangeRival answers: Endurantism · Perdurantism · Exdurantism · Presentism · Momentariness
  16. What do you actually see when you see one thing cause another?1.4.2 CausationRival answers: Regularity theory · Counterfactual theory · Probabilistic theory · Process theory · Powers theory · Interventionism · Occasionalism
  17. If every object vanished, would space still be there?1.5 Philosophy of SpaceRival answers: Substantivalism · Relationism · Kantian idealism about space · Supersubstantivalism
  18. What does it mean to say something could have been different?1.6 ModalityRival answers: Modal realism · Ersatzism · Modal fictionalism · Dispositionalism · Conventionalism
  19. When you say something could have gone differently, what are you talking about?1.6.1 Possible WorldsRival answers: Modal realism · Ersatzism · Actualism · Fictionalism · Combinatorialism
  20. Could you have done otherwise? △ contested1.7 Free Will and DeterminismRival answers: Hard determinism · Compatibilism · Libertarian free will · Hard incompatibilism
  21. Can argument alone settle whether God exists? △ contested1.8 Natural TheologyRival answers: Cosmological · Kalam variant · Teleological · Ontological · Moral · Argument from evil · Argument from divine hiddenness
  22. Do laws of nature make things happen, or only describe what happens?1.9 Laws of NatureRival answers: Simple regularity theory · Best-system theory (Humean) · Universals approach (Armstrong, Dretske, Tooley) · Dispositional essentialism · Anti-realism about laws · Primitivism / antireductionism
  23. Are metaphysical arguments about anything? △ contested1.10 Meta-MetaphysicsRival answers: Metaphysical realism · Logical positivism · Carnapian deflationism · Quietism · Verbalism · Neo-Aristotelian revival
  24. Is chemistry just physics, and biology just chemistry?1.11 Emergence and ReductionRival answers: Reductionism · Weak emergence · Strong emergence · Downward causation · Non-reductive physicalism

Epistemology

  1. What has to be added to a true belief to make it knowledge?2.1 Theories of KnowledgeRival answers: Justified true belief · Reliabilism · Virtue epistemology · Causal theory · Safety accounts · Knowledge-first
  2. Can you be right for the wrong reasons and still count as knowing?2.1.1 The Gettier ProblemRival answers: No-false-lemmas · Defeasibility · Reliabilism · Safety · Knowledge-first · Contextualism
  3. Which ways of finding things out actually work?2.2 Sources of KnowledgeRival answers: Empiricism (strict form) · Empiricism · Kantian synthesis · Rationalism · Innatism · Carvaka · Buddhist (Dignāga)
  4. When you see a tree, what are you actually seeing?2.2.1 PerceptionRival answers: Direct realism · Indirect realism · Sense-datum theory · Adverbialism · Disjunctivism · Phenomenalism
  5. How, if at all, do you know that a surface cannot be wholly red and wholly green at the same time and in the same respect?2.2.2 Reason and IntuitionRival answers: Rationalism · Innatism · Conceptual analysis · Conventionalism · Empiricism (Millian) · Kantian
  6. Is remembering a kind of perceiving, or a kind of imagining?2.2.3 MemoryRival answers: Causal theory · Simulationism · Direct realism · Preservationism · Epistemic generativism
  7. Do you need a reason to trust, or a reason not to?2.2.4 TestimonyRival answers: Reductionism · Anti-reductionism · Dual-aspect views · Assurance views · Nyaya sabda
  8. Can something be known because it was disclosed rather than discovered? △ contested2.2.5 RevelationRival answers: Revelation as irreducible source · Harmonisation · Subordination of reason · Subordination of revelation · Reformed epistemology · Fideism · Evidentialism
  9. Why do you believe that? And why do you believe that?2.3 Structure of JustificationRival answers: Foundationalism · Coherentism · Infinitism · Foundherentism · Externalist dissolution · Pyrrhonian conclusion
  10. Is knowledge a building or a raft?2.3.1 Foundationalism vs CoherentismRival answers: Classical foundationalism · Modest foundationalism · Pure coherentism · Weighted coherentism · Foundherentism
  11. Do you have to know why you know?2.3.2 Internalism vs ExternalismRival answers: Access internalism · Mentalist internalism · Process reliabilism · Proper functionalism · Virtue externalism
  12. How do you know you are not being deceived about everything?2.4 SkepticismRival answers: Academic skepticism · Pyrrhonian skepticism · Cartesian methodical doubt · Fallibilism · Common-sense realism · Contextualism · Relevant alternatives
  13. Can you doubt everything, or only something?2.4.1 Global vs Local SkepticismRival answers: Global skepticism · Local skepticism · Self-refutation objection · Pyrrhonian evasion · Transcendental reply
  14. What makes a statement true?2.5 TruthRival answers: Correspondence · Coherence · Pragmatic theories · Deflationary · Identity · Truthmaker
  15. Is it rational to believe what the evidence supports, or what serves you?2.6 RationalityRival answers: Evidentialism · Instrumental rationality · Bayesian rationality · Ecological rationality · Reasons-responsiveness
  16. Much of what you know depends on other people. What follows?2.7 Social EpistemologyRival answers: Veritistic · Consensus-centered accounts · Standpoint theory · Individualist reduction · Distributed cognition
  17. Should the fact that someone disagrees with you change your mind?2.7.1 Disagreement and ExpertiseRival answers: Conciliationism · Steadfastness · Total evidence view · Right reasons view
  18. By how much should this evidence move you?2.8 Formal EpistemologyRival answers: Subjective Bayesianism · Objective Bayesianism · Dempster–Shafer · Imprecise probability · Belief-first approaches

Ethics and Axiology

  1. When you say cruelty is wrong, what kind of statement are you making?3.1 Meta-EthicsRival answers: Non-natural realism · Natural realism · Theological voluntarism / divine command · Natural law · Constructivism · Relativism · Subjectivism
  2. If everyone approved of torturing children, would it still be wrong?3.1.1 Moral Realism vs Anti-RealismRival answers: Non-natural realism · Naturalist realism · Divine command realism · Constructivism · Relativism · Quasi-realism · Error theory
  3. Does "wrong" describe an act, or do something to the listener?3.1.2 Moral SemanticsRival answers: Cognitivism · Naturalism · Non-naturalism · Emotivism · Prescriptivism · Expressivism · Hybrid views
  4. How would you check whether a moral claim is true?3.1.3 Moral EpistemologyRival answers: Intuitionism · Reflective equilibrium · Moral perception · Empirical naturalism · Revelation-based · Skepticism
  5. Can you know an act is wrong and be entirely unmoved?3.1.4 Moral MotivationRival answers: Motivational internalism · Motivational externalism · Humean theory of motivation · Anti-Humean · Virtue accounts
  6. What should I look at to tell whether an act is right?3.2 Normative EthicsRival answers: Consequence-based · Duty-based · Character-based · Contract-based · Care-based · Divine command · Confucian role ethics ◈
  7. If an act produces the best outcome, can it be wrong?3.2.1 Consequence-Based ApproachesRival answers: Act utilitarianism · Rule utilitarianism · Negative utilitarianism · Preference utilitarianism · Mohist consequentialism · Motive consequentialism
  8. Are some things wrong even when they would do good?3.2.2 Duty-Based ApproachesRival answers: Kantian deontology · Rights-based · Rossian pluralism · Threshold deontology · Natural law · Agent-centred restrictions
  9. Should ethics ask what to do, or who to be?3.2.3 Character-Based ApproachesRival answers: Aristotelian · Stoic · Neo-Aristotelian · Exemplarist · Islamic adab and akhlaq · Confucian role ethics ◈ · Ubuntu ◈
  10. Could you justify this to everyone it affects?3.2.4 Contract-Based ApproachesRival answers: Hobbesian contractarianism · Kantian contractualism · Rawlsian · Scanlonian · Global contractualism
  11. Does morality start with rules, or with the people you are responsible for?3.2.5 Care and Relational ApproachesRival answers: Ethics of care · Relational autonomy · Dependency-based · Feminist ethics broadly
  12. How does a command create an obligation?3.2.6 Divine Command ApproachesRival answers: Voluntarism · Modified divine command · Natural law · Nature-identity views · Maqasid approaches · Mu'tazili rationalism
  13. What should be done in this case?3.3 Applied EthicsRival answers: Moral status · Threshold and line-drawing · Acts and omissions · Double effect · Distribution under scarcity · Consent and capacity · Precaution under uncertainty
  14. Who counts, who decides, and who gets it? △ contested3.3.1 Bioethics and Medical EthicsRival answers: Autonomy · Beneficence · Non-maleficence · Justice
  15. Does a forest matter only because people value it?3.3.2 Environmental EthicsRival answers: Anthropocentrism · Sentientism · Biocentrism · Ecocentrism · Stewardship · Deep ecology
  16. Does a company owe anything to anyone but its owners?3.3.3 Business and Economic EthicsRival answers: Shareholder primacy · Stakeholder theory · Corporate social responsibility · Market-failure approach · Islamic commercial ethics · Catholic social teaching
  17. Who is responsible when a machine causes harm and no one intended it?3.3.4 Ethics of Technology and AIRival answers: Responsibility gap · Value alignment · Opacity · Embedded bias · Autonomy and manipulation · Displacement · Moral status of artificial systems
  18. Can killing be permitted when it would otherwise be murder? △ contested3.3.5 War and Political ViolenceRival answers: Pacifism · Contingent pacifism · Just war theory · Realism · Militarism
  19. What is it about humans that makes us count?3.3.6 Animal EthicsRival answers: Moral standing on sentience · Rights-based · Indirect duties · Contractualist exclusion · Welfarism · Religious stewardship · Abolitionism
  20. Are people naturally good, naturally selfish, or naturally neither?3.4 Moral PsychologyRival answers: Original goodness · Original self-interest · Blank slate · Sentimentalism · Rationalism · Dual-process · Situationism
  21. What would make your life go well, apart from being moral?3.5 Value TheoryRival answers: Hedonism · Desire satisfaction · Objective list · Perfectionism · Eudaimonism · Asceticism

Logic

  1. What makes an argument work, regardless of its subject?4.1 Formal LogicRival answers: Valid vs sound · Deductive vs inductive · Syntax vs semantics · Completeness vs soundness of a system
  2. What follows from "if this, then that"?4.1.1 Propositional LogicRival answers: ¬ · P ∧ Q · P ∨ Q · → · ↔
  3. Why could two thousand years of logic not handle "every boy loves some girl"?4.1.2 Predicate LogicRival answers: Predicates · Quantifiers · Variables and binding · Scope · Identity
  4. What follows from two statements about classes of things?4.1.3 Syllogistic LogicRival answers: A · E · I · O
  5. Why does formal logic tell you so little about whether an argument is any good?4.2 Informal LogicRival answers: Deductive vs defeasible · Argument vs explanation · Enthymeme · Burden of proof · Charity
  6. When is a bad-looking argument actually bad?4.2.1 FallaciesRival answers: Ad hominem · Appeal to authority · Slippery slope · Appeal to emotion · Appeal to nature · Straw man · False dilemma
  7. What does an argument have to do, besides be valid?4.2.2 Argumentation TheoryRival answers: Toulmin model · Pragma-dialectics · Argumentation schemes · Dialectical models · Nyaya vada
  8. Is persuading someone different from giving them a reason?4.2.3 RhetoricRival answers: Platonic suspicion · Aristotelian integration · Sophistic · Modern rhetoric of inquiry · Manipulation-based distinction
  9. How do you reason validly about what must be, and what merely might?4.3 Modal LogicRival answers: □P · ◇P · ¬□P · □¬P
  10. What follows logically from "you must"?4.3.1 Deontic LogicRival answers: OP · PP · FP
  11. If you know something, do you know that you know it?4.3.2 Epistemic LogicRival answers: KᵢP → P · KᵢP → KᵢKᵢP · ¬KᵢP → Kᵢ¬KᵢP · Closure
  12. Is it already true that it will rain tomorrow?4.3.3 Temporal LogicRival answers: FP · GP · PP · HP
  13. Which parts of classical logic, if any, should be revised — and for which problems? △ contested4.4 Non-Classical LogicsRival answers: Classical · Intuitionistic · Many-valued · Fuzzy · Paraconsistent · Dialetheist · Relevance
  14. Can a statement be partly true?4.4.1 Many-Valued and Fuzzy LogicRival answers: Łukasiewicz three-valued · Kleene · Fuzzy · Supervaluationism · Jain syadvada
  15. If you believe one contradiction, must you believe everything?4.4.2 Paraconsistent LogicRival answers: Classical · Paraconsistent · Dialetheism · Relevance logic
  16. Is logic discovered or invented?4.5 Philosophy of LogicRival answers: Logical realism · Psychologism · Conventionalism · Logical pluralism · Logical monism · Instrumentalism

Aesthetics

  1. Is beauty in the object or in the eye?5.1 Theories of BeautyRival answers: Aesthetic objectivism · Proportion theories · Neoplatonic · Response-dependence · Kantian universalism · Aesthetic relativism · Aesthetic subjectivism
  2. What is art, what does it do, and why does it matter?5.2 Philosophy of ArtRival answers: Mimeticism · Expressivism · Formalism · Institutional theory · Historical approaches · Cluster accounts · Rasa theory
  3. Can anything be art if someone says it is?5.2.1 Definition and BoundariesRival answers: Classical definition · Anti-essentialism · Institutional theory · Historical narrativism · Cluster account · Functional definitions
  4. Does the artist get to say what the work means?5.2.2 Artistic IntentionRival answers: Actual intentionalism · Hypothetical intentionalism · Anti-intentionalism · Conventionalism · Value-maximising
  5. Can you misread a poem?5.2.3 InterpretationRival answers: Critical monism · Critical pluralism · Constructivism · Deconstruction · Hermeneutic tradition · Constraint accounts
  6. Is someone who prefers worse art making a mistake?5.3 Taste and JudgementRival answers: Critical realism · Humean standard · Kantian universalism · Relativism · Subjectivism · Institutional
  7. Why do we seek out what frightens us?5.4 The SublimeRival answers: Longinian · Burkean · Kantian mathematical · Kantian dynamical · Romantic · Contemporary
  8. Why is the sadness of a sad song enjoyable?5.5 Aesthetic ExperienceRival answers: Disinterestedness · Psychical distance · Empathy theories · Cognitive accounts · Deflationary · Rasa theory
  9. Can a beautiful work be evil, and still beautiful?5.6 Art and MoralityRival answers: Radical autonomism · Moderate autonomism · Moralism · Ethicism · Immoralism · Contextualism
  10. Is a mountain beautiful in the same way a painting is?5.7 Everyday and Natural AestheticsRival answers: Scientific cognitivism · Non-cognitivism · Aesthetics of engagement · Everyday aesthetics · Wabi-sabi · Islamic aesthetics of pattern
  11. How can a piece of music be sad?5.8 Philosophy of Music and LiteratureRival answers: Arousal theory · Resemblance theory · Persona theory · Formalism · Cognitivist

The Philosophy of X Family

  1. What kind of claim is a religious claim?6.1 Philosophy of ReligionRival answers: Divine attributes · Foreknowledge and freedom · The problem of evil · Religious language · Religious diversity · Miracles · Religious experience
  2. If someone tells you they have met God, what have you learned?6.1.1 Religious ExperienceRival answers: Perceptual realism · Credulity principle · Cumulative case · Naturalistic explanation · Ineffability thesis · Constructivist · Transformative knowledge
  3. Is an unjust law still a law?6.2 Philosophy of LawRival answers: Natural law · Legal positivism · Legal realism · Interpretivism · Critical legal studies · Usul al-fiqh
  4. Is education filling someone up, or drawing something out?6.3 Philosophy of EducationRival answers: Transmission · Liberal education · Progressive · Critical pedagogy · Vocational · Confucian cultivation · Tarbiya and ta'lim
  5. When is political power legitimate, and what may it rightly do? △ contested6.4 Political PhilosophyRival answers: Anarchism · Libertarianism · Classical liberalism · Social liberalism · Republicanism · Communitarianism · Socialism
  6. Who should get what — and why? △ contested6.4.1 Distributive JusticeRival answers: Strict egalitarianism · Luck egalitarianism · Prioritarianism · Sufficientarianism · Rawlsian · Entitlement theory · Desert-based
  7. Are you free when nobody stops you, or when you could actually do it?6.4.2 Rights and LibertyRival answers: Natural rights · Legal positivist · Interest theory · Will theory · Rights skepticism
  8. Who holds final authority, and what makes it final?6.4.3 Sovereignty and the StateRival answers: Absolutist · Popular sovereignty · Parliamentary · Constitutional · Pluralist · Divine sovereignty · Post-sovereign
  9. Are economic models describing people, or a convenient fiction about them?6.5 Philosophy of EconomicsRival answers: Idealisation · Rational agent models · Value-freedom · Measurement · Causal inference · Prediction
  10. Is history going anywhere?6.6 Philosophy of HistoryRival answers: Providential · Progressive · Cyclical · Dialectical · Contingent · Narrativist
  11. What makes social facts and entities real, and how do they depend on individuals?6.7 Social OntologyRival answers: Methodological individualism · Social holism · Social constructionism · Structuration · Collective intentionality · Confucian relationalism
  12. What makes a claim scientific?6.8 Philosophy of ScienceRival answers: Verification · Falsification · Inductive support · Method-based · Institutional · Family resemblance
  13. When have you explained something, rather than just described it?6.8.1 Scientific ExplanationRival answers: Deductive-nomological · Statistical relevance · Causal-mechanical · Unificationist · Pragmatic · Functional
  14. Do electrons exist, or do they just work?6.8.2 Scientific RealismRival answers: Scientific realism · Constructive empiricism · Instrumentalism · Structural realism · Entity realism
  15. Does science build on what came before, or replace it?6.8.3 Scientific RevolutionsRival answers: Cumulativism · Falsificationist · Paradigm theory · Research programmes · Epistemic anarchism · Evolutionary
  16. Are numbers discovered or invented?6.9 Philosophy of MathematicsRival answers: Platonism · Logicism · Formalism · Intuitionism · Structuralism · Fictionalism · Empiricism
  17. How do noises come to be about things?6.10 Philosophy of LanguageRival answers: Referential · Ideational · Truth-conditional · Use theory · Gricean · Inferentialist · Apoha
  18. What makes your word for a thing refer to that thing?6.10.1 ReferenceRival answers: Simple descriptivism · Cluster descriptivism · Millian / direct reference
  19. How does saying "I promise" make a promise?6.10.2 Speech ActsRival answers: Locutionary · Illocutionary · Perlocutionary
  20. What is quantum theory telling us about the world?6.11 Philosophy of PhysicsRival answers: Copenhagen · Many-worlds · Pilot wave · Objective collapse · QBism · Relational
  21. Is there purpose in living things?6.12 Philosophy of BiologyRival answers: Teleology · Species · Units of selection · Fitness · Reductionism · Adaptationism
  22. What makes something a disease rather than a difference?6.13 Philosophy of MedicineRival answers: Naturalism · Normativism · Hybrid · Social model · Phenomenological
  23. Can a science study something only one person can observe?6.14 Philosophy of PsychologyRival answers: Introspection · Reduction · Natural kinds · Folk psychology · Replication · Operationalisation
  24. Can there be laws of human behaviour?6.15 Philosophy of Social ScienceRival answers: Naturalism · Interpretivism · Critical realism · Methodological individualism · Holism · Value-freedom vs value-ladenness
  25. Do we shape our tools, or do they shape us?6.16 Philosophy of TechnologyRival answers: Instrumentalism · Substantivism · Social construction of technology · Determinism · Mediation theory · Critical theory of technology
  26. What would a machine have to do to count as thinking? △ contested6.17 Philosophy of Artificial IntelligenceRival answers: Strong AI · Weak AI · Functionalism · Biological naturalism · Behaviourist criterion · Mysterianism
  27. Is information something in the world, or something we bring to it?6.18 Philosophy of InformationRival answers: Mathematical (Shannon) · Semantic · Physical · It-from-bit · Deflationary
  28. Do you love someone for their qualities, or for being them?6.19 Philosophy of Love and FriendshipRival answers: Quality theory · Relationship theory · Bestowal theory · Union theory · Robust concern · Aristotelian friendship
  29. Can something be bad for you if you are not there for it?6.20 Philosophy of DeathRival answers: Epicurean · Deprivation account · Annihilation is bad in itself · Survival views · Immortality is worse · Neutral
  30. Does a life need a point, and where would it come from?6.21 Meaning in LifeRival answers: Supernaturalism · Objective naturalism · Subjectivism · Hybrid · Nihilism · Absurdism · Dissolution views
  31. Is work a cost to be minimised or a good in itself?6.22 Philosophy of WorkRival answers: Instrumentalist · Perfectionist · Alienation critique · Craft tradition · Anti-work · Work as vocation
  32. Can an emotion be wrong?6.23 Philosophy of EmotionRival answers: Feeling theory · Judgement theory · Perceptual theory · Componential · Social constructionist · Rasa-informed
  33. What is the difference between your arm rising and your raising it?6.24 Philosophy of ActionRival answers: Causal theory · Agent causation · Volitionist · Anscombean · Teleological · Disjunctivist
  34. Why does it matter whether the ball crossed a line we drew?6.25 Philosophy of Sport and PlayRival answers: Formalist · Conventionalist · Broad internalism · Suits's definition · Developmental · Cultural
  35. Can you be wrong about what tastes good?6.26 Philosophy of FoodRival answers: Gustatory subjectivism · Aesthetic cognitivism about food · Hierarchical exclusion · Cultural constitution · Ethical gastronomy
  36. Why is anything funny?6.27 Philosophy of HumourRival answers: Superiority · Relief · Incongruity · Benign violation · Play theory
  37. Is the difficulty in the body or in the world it meets?6.28 Philosophy of DisabilityRival answers: Medical model · Social model · Interactional · Capability approach · Value-neutral difference · Welfarist
  38. What kind of thing is a gender category? △ contested6.29 Philosophy of GenderRival answers: Biological realism · Social position accounts · Norm-relevancy accounts · Identity-based accounts · Cluster accounts · Gender eliminativism · Gender pluralism
  39. If race is not biological, what is it? △ contested6.30 Philosophy of RaceRival answers: Biological realism · Racial eliminativism · Social constructionism · Racial naturalism (population) · Conservationism · Racial scepticism
  40. Can you understand a culture from outside it?6.31 Philosophy of CultureRival answers: Cultural relativism · Universalism · Hermeneutic · Incommensurability · Cosmopolitanism · Constitutive
  41. How do images argue?6.32 Philosophy of Film and MediaRival answers: Realism about film · Formalism · Film as philosophy · Illustration view · Medium theory · Cognitive film theory

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