01
Choose one
1 point
A new phone looks nearly identical to an old phone, but it is a separate device. Which description best captures their relationship?
Free Practice Quiz Question List
3 Identity and Persistence Online Quiz Questions
Use this free practice quiz with 20 questions to review 3 Identity and Persistence, test your knowledge, and prepare for your next test or exam.
20 questions
02
True or false
1 point
True or false: A person who undergoes a major change in personality necessarily becomes a numerically different person.
- A
True
- B
False
03
Choose one
1 point
An endurantist explains how a tree can be the same tree after growing taller by claiming that:
- A
It is the whole tree that exists at each time, even though its properties change.
- B
The tree is a time-extended object made up of different temporal parts.
- C
The tree remains the same only if none of its properties change.
- D
The tree persists because the same immaterial soul continues to exist.
04
Choose one
1 point
Which account of persistence treats a tree's earlier and later stages as temporal parts of a larger, time-extended object?
- A
The tree is wholly present at each time it exists.
- B
The tree persists only if it retains every cell it once had.
- C
The tree has different temporal parts at different times, which belong to a larger time-extended object.
- D
The tree is identical to any other tree with the same shape.
05
Choose all
1 point
Select all the statements that accurately describe proposed approaches to personal identity over time.
- A
Bodily or animal continuity emphasizes the continuing life of the same organism.
- B
Psychological continuity emphasizes appropriately connected mental life, such as memories and intentions.
- C
Soul-based accounts propose that the same immaterial soul continues to exist.
- D
All three approaches require that a person retain every cell they have ever had.
06
Written response
1 point
In perdurantism, what are the earlier and later stages of an object called?
07
Fill in the blank
1 point
If all the planks of a wooden boat are gradually replaced, the puzzle asks whether the repaired boat is still the boat.
08
Choose all
1 point
A person's memories and personality are copied into two new bodies. Select all conclusions supported by the branching problem.
- A
The two successors cannot both be numerically identical to the one original person.
- B
If both successors were numerically identical to the original, they would have to be numerically identical to each other.
- C
Psychological continuity may matter to survival without being sufficient for strict numerical identity.
- D
The thought experiment proves that psychological continuity has no relevance to survival.
09
True or false
1 point
True or false: On a psychological-continuity account, ordinary forgetting need not break personal identity because overlapping mental connections can link stages of a life.
- A
True
- B
False
10
Written response
1 point
What is the philosophical question about what makes a person now the same person as someone in the past or future called?
11
Fill in the blank
1 point
Persistence can depend partly on which features count as to the kind of object being considered.
12
Choose one
1 point
A car's tires are replaced while the rest of the car remains in use. Which judgment best fits the example of ordinary persistence?
- A
Replacing the tires usually leaves the car intact.
- B
Replacing the tires necessarily creates a numerically different car.
- C
A car persists only if it retains all of its original parts.
- D
The car's persistence depends on whether its tires have the same appearance.
13
Choose one
1 point
Which claim best captures how the statue-and-clay example illustrates a puzzle about persistence?
- A
A statue must always be identical to every piece of clay from which it is made.
- B
A statue cannot be made of clay if the clay changes shape.
- C
A statue might be identified with a particular shape of clay, or treated as distinct from the clay that constitutes it.
- D
A statue and its clay are qualitatively similar, so they must be numerically identical.
14
Open ended
1 point
Suppose a person's memories and personality are copied into two distinct new bodies. Explain why both successors cannot be numerically identical to the original person, and what this suggests about psychological continuity as a criterion for personal identity.
15
Choose one
1 point
A phone acquires scratches and a new battery. Which conclusion best follows from the material about numerical identity?
- A
It is numerically a different device because its properties changed.
- B
It can remain numerically the same device despite those changes.
- C
It remains the same device only if none of its parts ever change.
- D
It is qualitatively similar to itself but numerically distinct.
16
True or false
1 point
True or false: On a psychological continuity account, ordinary forgetting necessarily breaks a person's identity over time.
- A
True
- B
False
17
Choose one
1 point
Which theory of persistence says that an object is wholly present at each time at which it exists?
- A
Endurantism: the whole object is present at each time at which it exists.
- B
Perdurantism: the object has different temporal parts at different times.
- C
Psychological continuity: mental connections link stages of a person's life.
- D
Soul-based accounts: the same immaterial soul continues to exist.
18
Choose one
1 point
According to bodily or animal continuity, what primarily makes a person persist through time?
- A
The continuing life of the same human organism.
- B
The retention of every cell present at birth.
- C
The continuation of an immaterial soul.
- D
An uninterrupted memory of every past experience.
19
Written response
1 point
What is the name of the account that treats appropriately connected memories, intentions, beliefs, and character as relevant to a person's persistence?
20
Written response
1 point
What is the name of the problem raised when one person's memories and personality are copied into two successors, both of whom cannot be numerically identical to the original?