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PHIL0012: METAPHYSICS
SUMMATIVE ESSAY QUESTIONS 2022/23
INSTRUCTIONS:
? Your mark for this module will be determined by a summative essay.
? In addition, you have the opportunity to write a formative essay prior to
completing your summative essay. The formative essay doesn’t count
towards your mark for the module. It is nevertheless an invaluable
opportunity to gain feedback that will help guide you in producing a good
summative essay.
? Choose and answer ONE of the following essay questions for your
formative essay.
? Choose and answer ONE of the following essay questions for your
summative essay.
? You may answer the same question for both your formative and your
summative essays.
? Your formative essay must be no longer than 1,500 words. Formative
essays over this word limit will not be read.
? Your summative essay must be no longer than 2,500 words. UCL has
severe penalties for overlength essays.
? Formative essays must be submitted via email to your seminar group
leader by 4pm on Monday 14th November (i.e. the first Monday following
Reading Week.) Essays submitted after this time will not be read.
? The deadline for Summative essays is 4pm Monday 9th January 2023 (i.e.
the first Monday of Term 2). These must be submitted electronically via
Turnitin. The Philosophy Department Office will email you with instructions
on how to submit in due course. UCL has severe penalties for late essays.
? There are severe penalties for plagiarism, and your summative essay will be
subjected to anti-plagiarism software: .
ESSAY QUESTIONS:
1. Do ordinary objects (tables, rocks, trees, human beings, etc.) have temporal
parts?
2. Do non-actual possible worlds exist? Are they entities of the same kind as
the actual world?
3. Is Kripke correct to claim that ‘Hesperus is Phosphorus’ is necessary a
posteriori?
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4. Can causation be successfully analyzed in terms of regularities?
5. “Event c is a cause of event e if and only if (iff) it’s a true counterfactual that
if c hadn’t occurred, then e wouldn’t have occurred.” Discuss.
6. Is space a substance?
7. Is the ‘A Series’ coherent? If so, what’s wrong with McTaggart’s argument
that it’s incoherent? If not, does this show that time is unreal?
8. Do the past and future exist?
9. In what sense, if any, is time travel possible?