Philosophy · Unit 8

Reality

Being, free will, time and personal identity

Metaphysics asks what exists and what kind of thing it is, which sounds unanswerable until you notice that every science quietly assumes an answer.

The unit covers being and existence, free will and determinism, time, personal identity, and universals and particulars.

This unit breaks down into 23 short steps and 121 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 5. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 23
Questions: 121
Difficulty: 1-5

What this unit covers

Being and Existence
Free Will and Determinism
Time
Personal Identity
Universals and Particulars

Where this fits

Follows Big Questions. Pairs with Philosophy of Mind.

Where people slip

Free will and determinism may not be opposites. Compatibilism argues both can be true at once, and dismissing that as a dodge misses the actual argument.

How the unit is structured

Reality runs as 23 short steps that unlock in order. 17 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 5 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 23 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 121 in the unit altogether.

Being and Existence

Fill the blankLevel 1
1. Metaphysics tries to understand what is ____, that is, what really exists.
- realcorrect
- silly
- tasty
- tiny
Metaphysics is about what is real, so the word that fits is real.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
2. The branch of philosophy that studies what exists and the nature of reality is called...
- Metaphysicscorrect
- Cooking
- Geography
- Grammar
Metaphysics is the study of what is real and what it means for anything to exist.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
3. Which of these are metaphysics questions? Choose all that apply.
- What does it mean to exist?correct
- Is time real?correct
- What is 3 times 4?
- How do you spell dog?
Questions about existence and whether time is real are metaphysics, while spelling and arithmetic are not.
Match the pairsLevel 2
4. Match each philosophy word to what it studies.
Answer: Metaphysics = what exists and the nature of reality; Ontology = being and existence; Ethics = right and wrong; Logic = good and bad reasoning
Each branch has its own focus, from what exists to how we reason well.
Odd one outLevel 2
5. Which is NOT a question that metaphysics asks?
- How do you fry an egg?correct
- What is time?
- What makes you the same person over the years?
- Do numbers really exist?
Frying an egg is a cooking task, not a metaphysics question about reality.
Guess the numberLevel 3
6. Aristotle, whose works on being were later grouped as the Metaphysics, lived in roughly which century BCE? Answer with a whole number, for example 4 for the 300s BCE.
Answer: 4 century BCE
Aristotle lived from 384 to 322 BCE, so mainly in the fourth century BCE.

Free Will and Determinism

Multiple choiceLevel 1
7. Free will is usually described as the ability to...
- genuinely choose or act otherwisecorrect
- run very fast
- read minds
- live forever
Free will means your choices are genuinely up to you, so you could have acted otherwise.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
8. Which words belong to the free will debate? Choose all that apply.
- determinismcorrect
- free willcorrect
- choicecorrect
- photosynthesis
- erosion
Determinism, free will, and choice are all part of the free will debate, unlike photosynthesis or erosion.
Fill the blankLevel 2
9. Determinism says that, given the past and the laws of nature, only one ____ is possible.
- futurecorrect
- color
- planet
- word
Determinism leaves just one possible future once the past is set.
True or falseLevel 2
10. If determinism is true, then the future is fixed by what came before.
Answer: True
True, that is exactly what determinism claims about how events unfold.
Match the pairsLevel 3
11. Match each free will position to what it claims.
Answer: Hard determinism = determinism is true, so free will is an illusion; Compatibilism = free will and determinism can both be true; Libertarianism = we have free will, so determinism is false; Determinism = every event is fully caused by the past
Each stance takes a different line on whether choices are caused and whether they are still free.
Sort into groupsLevel 4
12. Sort each free will position as Compatibilist or Incompatibilist.
Answer: Hard determinism = Incompatibilist; Classical compatibilism = Compatibilist; Metaphysical libertarianism = Incompatibilist; Frankfurt's hierarchical view = Compatibilist; Hard incompatibilism = Incompatibilist
Compatibilists say freedom survives determinism, while incompatibilists say the two cannot both hold.

Personal Identity

Fill the blankLevel 1
13. You have changed a lot since you were a baby, yet you feel like the ____ person.
- samecorrect
- tallest
- richest
- loudest
Feeling like the same person across huge changes is the personal-identity puzzle.
True or falseLevel 1
14. Personal identity asks what makes you the same person over time.
Answer: True
True, personal identity is about what keeps you you across the years.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
15. Which everyday situation raises a personal-identity question?
- Wondering if you are the same person as in your baby photocorrect
- Choosing what to eat for lunch
- Counting the coins in your pocket
- Tying your shoelaces
Asking whether you are the same person as your younger self is exactly the personal-identity puzzle.
Put in orderLevel 2
16. Put the stages of one person's life in order, from earliest to latest.
Answer: newborn baby -> young child -> teenager -> adult -> elderly person
Personal identity asks how one and the same person can persist through all these life stages.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
17. Which of these are theories of what keeps a person the same over time? Choose all that apply.
- memory or psychological continuitycorrect
- having the same living bodycorrect
- owning the same house
- keeping the same phone number
Psychological continuity and having the same living body are theories of identity, while a house or phone number is not.
Match the pairsLevel 5
18. Match each personal-identity theory to its core claim.
Answer: Psychological continuity = same person if memories and psychology connect; Animalism = same person if the same living organism; Bundle theory = the self is just a bundle of experiences; Parfit's view = identity is not what matters, continuity is
These theories disagree about what makes you one and the same person across time.

Time

Fill the blankLevel 1
19. We usually divide time into past, present, and ____.
- futurecorrect
- music
- money
- weather
The three familiar parts of time are past, present, and future.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
20. Which of these is a classic philosophy-of-time question?
- Does time really flow, or does it only seem to?
- What is the fastest car?
- How are clocks made?
- What is today's date?
Whether time truly flows or only seems to is a real puzzle philosophers ask about time.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
21. Which of these are the three usual divisions of time? Choose all that apply.
- pastcorrect
- presentcorrect
- futurecorrect
- distance
- weight
Past, present, and future are the three familiar parts of time, while distance and weight are not.
Odd one outLevel 2
22. Which word does NOT belong with the parts of time?
- distancecorrect
- past
- present
- future
Distance is about space, not time, so it is the odd one out among past, present, and future.
Put in orderLevel 2
23. Put these moments in time order, from earliest to latest.
Answer: the distant past -> yesterday -> right now -> tomorrow -> the far future
Time runs from the distant past through now and on toward the far future.
Match the pairsLevel 3
24. Match each view about time to its claim.
Answer: Presentism = only the present exists; Eternalism = past, present, and future all exist; A-series = orders events as past, present, and future; B-series = orders events as earlier than and later than
Presentism and eternalism say what exists, while the A-series and B-series describe how we order events.

Universals and Particulars

Multiple choiceLevel 1
25. A single individual thing you can point to, like this one red apple, is called a...
- particularcorrect
- universal
- planet
- promise
A particular is one specific individual object, not a shared property.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
26. Which of these are universals, features that many things can share? Choose all that apply.
- rednesscorrect
- roundnesscorrect
- triangularitycorrect
- this exact chair
- that single apple
Redness, roundness, and triangularity can be shared by many things, but one exact chair or apple is a single particular.
Fill the blankLevel 2
27. ____ is the view that only particular things are real and that universals are just names.
- Nominalismcorrect
- Geometry
- Astronomy
- Biology
Nominalism denies real universals and treats them as mere names.
Match the pairsLevel 2
28. Match each term to its meaning.
Answer: Particular = a single individual thing; Universal = a feature many things share; Plato's Forms = perfect patterns things imitate; Nominalism = the view that only particular things exist
These terms describe individual things, shared features, and the main views about them.
Odd one outLevel 2
29. Which one is a particular rather than a universal?
- this exact chair in the roomcorrect
- redness
- roundness
- triangularity
One exact chair is a single particular, while redness, roundness, and triangularity are shared universals.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
30. Sort each example into Particular or Universal.
Answer: this single red apple = Particular; redness = Universal; that one dog = Particular; being a dog = Universal; roundness = Universal; this exact coin = Particular
A particular is one specific thing, while a universal is a property that many things can share.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 10 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Choose all that apply
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Put in order
Sort into groups
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Reality

121 questions across 23 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Reality

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

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