1. In the essay version of the Turing test, an examiner decides which of two essays was written by a human and which by a machine. Convince the examiner that you are the human.

This entire comment has exactly 4145 characters.

2. Is body language a language?

Yes, obviously.

3. Are dreams more like movies or video games?

Video games. We have autonomy to interact with their content.

4. ‘Only animals who are below civilization and the angels who are beyond it can be sincere’ (W.H. AUDEN). Discuss.

Animals have no ability to lie. Angels have no need to lie. Civilization is irrelevant.

5. Should the UN pass a declaration of rights extending beyond humans?

The UN struggles enough to get human rights recognized, let alone animals, aliens, or AI.

6. Invent a new punctuation mark!

The mark {insert mark here} can be used to distinguish the use of restrictive vs. non-restrictive descriptors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictiveness). It will stop many arguments before they begin. Or not.

7. Is the contemporary art market a form of tulip fever?

No. While overpriced fine art can be a speculative asset, it is more commonly a vehicle for money laundering, tax evasion, or wealth storage.

8. When did the beautiful become the good?

It hasn't. But beautiful bad things can appeal to us because beautiful is, by definition, appealing.

9. Should Job Centres offer opportunities for sex work?

Yes. But the world isn't remotely ready for that on multiple levels, so don't bother.

10. Are all asylum seekers equal?

All humans are equal in a moral sense. No two humans are equal by identity. All applications for asylum are not equally valid.

11. Write a dialogue between Socrates and Elon Musk.

No.

12. In a multimedia age, what is the point of zoos?

So people can see animals in person.

13. The organ has been considered the king of instruments. Is it?

Any claim to the preeminence of any one instrument is a value judgment biased primarily by classist baggage attached to the arts. Doubly so if the instrument in question is a staple of either Western canon or church music.

14. What is the difference between an ideology and a religion?

Religion has existed longer than we have cared to define it, so religion is whatever people agree it is, but broadly, religion appeals to a supernatural basis for beliefs in fundamental tenets of how life should be lived.

15. Does a pope matter?

Yes. The pope plays a central role in Catholicism.

16. ‘Mercy has a human face’ (WILLIAM BLAKE). Do you agree?

We can and must learn to embody human virtues intellectually and deliberately rather than emotionally and instinctively. Such is the only hope for our species in an increasingly transhuman (or perhaps just inhuman) future.

17. Can philosophy help someone who is facing death?

Yes. This is the most likely explanation for the popularity of beliefs about the afterlife.

18. Why are most intellectuals left-wing?

Let's say I don't know.

19. What do we owe our parents?

Depends on the culture. Broadly, what both parent and child have implicitly or explicitly agreed upon the time of their separation.

20. Is one’s life more than the sum of one’s days?

No.

21. Has photography deepened empathy ‘regarding the pain of others’ (SUSAN SONTAG)?

Yes. As a single example, war journalism might as well have not existed prior to the invention of photography.

22. Can there be freedom without rules?

There is unbounded negative freedom but very little positive freedom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_liberty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_liberty

23. ‘Humans are only fully human beings when they play’ (FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER). Discuss.

Humans get bored easily, likely on account of their sophisticated information processing capabilities and rich interiority, both deriving from their complex brains.

24. ‘Different verbal communities generate different kinds and amounts of consciousness or awareness’ (B.F. SKINNER). Do they?

In some spooky panpsychist sense, of course not. In the sense that all culture acts as a thick lens for individual sensitivities, of course.

25. Should virtue signalling be encouraged?

26. Defend ghosting.

27. What is regret good for?

Learning from past mistakes.

Oxford All Souls College General Examination (2025) [pdf]