Past Prompts

Nothing can prepare you for the APO as well as practicing writing essays with actual past APO prompts!

APO 2024

TOPIC 1:

In an interview with Richard Marshall, Ernest Sosa, the Rutgers University philosopher, said the following.

"Knowledge in my view is a form of action. It involves endeavors to get it right, and more broadly it concerns aimings, which can be functional rather than intentional. Through our perceptual systems, we represent our surroundings, aiming to do so accurately, where the aiming is functional or teleological, rather than intentional. And the same goes for our functional beliefs. Through our judgments, however, we do intentionally, even consciously, attempt to get it right."

TOPIC 2:

In a Wikipedia article on the philosopher and ethicist, Peter Singer, the following is written.

"In Practical Ethics, Singer argues in favour of abortion rights on the grounds that fetuses are neither rational nor self-aware, and can therefore hold no preferences. As a result, he argues that the preferences of a mother to have an abortion automatically takes precedence. In sum, Singer argues that a fetus lacks personhood."

APO 2023

For a session at the annual Eastern conference of the American Philosophical Association held in Montreal in 2023, one of the presenters wrote a paper from which we have extracted two quotations, which have become our two APO topics this year. Please choose one of the quotations and write about whether you agree or disagree with the viewpoint expressed and why?

TOPIC 1:

“Our culture … seems to imagine that philosophers are born and not made. We are nurtured in the cradle, climb out and go straight to the Ivory Tower. This is an unfortunate stereotype that hurts philosophers as much as it does the general public and pre-college students particularly.”

TOPIC 2:

“Every academic discipline is rooted in philosophical thinking from mathematics and the quantification of the universe as we see it to creative literature and art as we imagine it. There are implicit and explicit questions in the very nature of our academic organization of life. A person’s self-concept, understanding of the world and human behavior are all molded by the philosophical thinking and wonder implicit in our subject matters. Indeed, it is a sense of wonder and philosophical investigation that structures our consciousness, shapes our world and helps to give rise to culture.”

APO 2022

TOPIC 1:

What is philosophy and why is it important to study it in high school?

TOPIC 2:

Many philosophers consider there to be four main theories of moral philosophy: Virtue Ethics, Kantianism, Utilitarianism, and Care Ethics. These theories may be used as conceptual tools to examine ethical dilemmas. Which one or combination of theories do you think most helpful to you in your considerations and why?

APO 2020

TOPIC 1:

In his new book, The History of Philosophy, the philosopher A. C. Grayling writes, "Logic -- the science of valid and sound reasoning -- is the general instrument of philosophy, as mathematics is in science." Please explain your understanding of this quotation.

TOPIC 2:

There are various ethical theories that have been developed in the past three millennia. You may have studied some of them in philosophy or in an ethics course. Please explain why you think one of them more reliably describes what makes an action right or a person good.

APO 2019

TOPIC 1:

"The dreams we imagine when we are asleep should not in any way make us doubt the truth of the thoughts we have when we are awake."

-- René Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

Guiding Question: Discuss the relationship between knowing for certain and the value of doubt.

TOPIC 2:

“Assuming that it is possible for humans to one day build a replica of ourselves and make all the necessary neural connections into which we can upload all the “data” that makes us conscious, and that this replicant would then be considered conscious, it should be considered murder to delete that replicant’s data.”

-- David Chalmers, 2018

Guiding Question: Is it morally permissible to terminate (kill?) a manufactured form of consciousness?

APO 2018

TOPIC 1:

"No knowledge is intellectually respectable unless it can be put into words."

TOPIC 2:

Is there in fact objective reality or is your nervous system creating it?

APO 2017

TOPIC 1:

Is there danger or irresistible beauty in creating artificial intelligence in any container that has the capacity to think for itself, learn on its own and replicate human cognition?

TOPIC 2:

Who or what am I?

TOPIC 3:

"Human Consciousness shapes, informs and determines reality. Reality is dependent upon human consciousness. There is no reality apart from human consciousness."

TOPIC 4:

Is an act right because God commands it or because it is right?

APO 2016

TOPIC 1:

Are the recent advances in digital technology that give individuals and groups the ability to communicate near-instantaneously worldwide through social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Whatsapp, Skype, etc.) altering, aiding, or hampering humanity’s ethical progress? How does technological progress relate to ethical progress?

TOPIC 2:

Here are some idioms that are commonly heard. “It is what it is.” “What goes around comes around.” “It was destined to happen that way.” “He’s in a better place now.” “Maybe it’s all for the best.” “Life’s not fair.” “It’s just fate.” “That’s just how it goes.” “He’ll get his.” “That’s the way the ball bounces.” “You can’t make this stuff up.” These sentences all seem to imply some sort of philosophical meaning. In your philosophical analysis of them, what implications or worldviews do you read in them?

APO 2015

TOPIC 1:

In ancient Greece, the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, concluded that fundamental reality is never constant and always in a state of flux. To illustrate this point, he was famously quoted as saying “no man ever steps in the same river twice.” Another pre-Socratic philosopher, Parmenides, concluded the opposite, namely that ultimate reality was changeless and indivisible. This became known as the Atomistic (from the Greek word “atomos” or not sliceable) view of the world in which there are unchanging, perfect Forms that comprise reality. In your view, is the fundamental nature of reality in a state of flux (changeable) or is it atomistic (changeless)? Explain and defend your view.

TOPIC 2:

Assume either that God exists or does not exist, then write about the ethical or moral decision-making process that one would use in either case to make good moral judgments. Assume that the social context of the decision required is religiously pluralistic. Make sure to discuss how one would justify the decision to all involved in such a pluralistic social context in either case. You may use any examples you need to clarify your ideas whether real or invented.