Philosophy profile

1 of 15 · Free willA neuroscientist predicts your next decision from your brain activity, seconds before you make it. What follows? The decision was never really mine; the brain had already settled it.Nothing much. My brain making the decision is me making it.The prediction must be imperfect; real choices cannot be fixed in advance.

2 of 15 · Free willCould you have chosen differently this morning, with everything about the past exactly the same? No. Same past, same laws, same choice.Not in that strict sense, but I could have if I had wanted to, and that is what counts.Yes. That is what it means to choose.

3 of 15 · Free willA person commits a crime. Brain scans later show a tumour that made violent impulses far stronger. Do they deserve blame? No, and in the end none of us deserves blame in the deep sense; we are all products of causes.Less than usual: the tumour bypassed their normal capacity to respond to reasons.Somewhat. Impulses influence us, but the final choice is still the person's.

4 of 15 · MindScientists map every neuron in your brain and every signal between them. Will they have explained your experience of the colour red? Yes, completely. There is nothing else to explain.They will have explained everything except why it feels like anything at all.No. Experience is not the kind of thing a physical map could capture.

5 of 15 · MindA machine passes every test of conversation you can devise. Does it understand? If it behaves exactly like an understanding being, it understands.It depends on how it works inside, not just how it behaves.No. Running a program is not the same as having a mind.

6 of 15 · MindCould there be a being physically identical to you, but with no inner experience at all? No. That idea is incoherent once you think it through.I can imagine it, but I doubt that shows it is really possible.Yes, and that shows consciousness is something over and above the physical.

7 of 15 · IdentityA teleporter scans you, destroys your body, and builds a perfect copy on Mars. Is the person on Mars you? Yes. Same memories, same personality, same person.The question has no deep answer; what matters is that someone like me continues.No. I died and someone new was made.

8 of 15 · IdentityThrough illness, you lose every memory of your life before today. Are you the same person? In the most important sense, no: that person is gone.Partly. Identity comes in degrees.Yes. Same living body, same person, just tragically changed.

9 of 15 · IdentityWhen you look inward, what do you find? A self: a continuing mind with a character and a history.Thoughts, feelings and sensations, but no separate self that has them.Something that only makes sense as part of this body and its life.

10 of 15 · EthicsYou can divert a runaway trolley, killing one person to save five. Do you? Yes, clearly. Five lives outweigh one.Probably, but it would weigh on me as something I did.No. I would not make myself the cause of an innocent person's death.

11 of 15 · EthicsIs lying always wrong, even to protect someone from harm? No. Lying is wrong only when it leads to worse outcomes.Usually wrong, but a good person knows when an exception is called for.Yes. Truthfulness is a duty, not a calculation.

12 of 15 · EthicsBy giving away most of your money, you could save several lives. Are you morally required to? Yes. Distance and comfort do not change the maths of suffering.It would be admirable, but morality also leaves room for a life of one's own.No. Charity is good, but we have no duty to sacrifice that much.

13 of 15 · MeaningIf the universe has no purpose, can a human life still be meaningful? Yes. Meaning is what we make it, and that is enough.The gap never closes, but we can live well in full view of it.Only if some things are genuinely worth caring about, whatever we think of them.

14 of 15 · MeaningWould you plug into a machine that guaranteed a lifetime of wonderful experiences, none of them real? Maybe, if that is the life I chose and endorsed.No, though I find it hard to say exactly why.No. Real achievements and real relationships matter, not just how life feels.

15 of 15 · MeaningYou must live your life again, exactly the same, forever. How do you take the news? With joy, if I make my life one I could will to repeat.With a shrug and a smile. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.It would not change what is truly good or bad in my life.

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