IB PHILOSOPHY CORE THEME CERTIFICATION
EXAMINATION 2026 STUDY SHEET FULL
SOLUTION
◉ Rationality/Reason. Answer: a cause, explanation, or justification
for an action or event
◉ Irrationality. Answer: the quality of being illogical or
unreasonable
◉ Blank Slate Theory (Tabula Rasa). Answer: John Locke's theory of
how human identity is on the basis of nuture and not tied to
anything hereditary or from nature
◉ Objective reasoning. Answer: balancing of several elements,
including logic, data and awareness of many cognitive biases
◉ Subjective reasoning. Answer: the reliance of one's personal
opinions, experiences and tastes
◉ Epistemology. Answer: the theory of knowledge, especially w/
regard to the methods, validity, and scope, an investigation of what
distinguishes justified belief from opinion
,◉ Theory of Forms. Answer: a theory by Plato which states how the
physical, empirical, world isn't the true reality, but it's rather the
ideas that are indestructible which are of the true reality
◉ empirical/empiricism. Answer: based on, concerned w/,
verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure
logic
◉ Universal truth/Self-evident truth. Answer: widely accepted facts
which do not change over period, circumstance, location, etc.
◉ Principle of Sufficient Reason. Answer: everything that has existed
must have had some form of a cause
◉ Teleological. Answer: relating to or involving the explanation of
phenomena in terms of the purpose for which they serve, rather
than of the causes which they arise from
◉ Hedonism. Answer: the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-
indulgence
◉ Experience machine. Answer: a thought experiment created by
Robert Nozick which questions our value and understanding of what
is reality
, ◉ Relativism. Answer: the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and
morality exists in relation to culture, society, or historical context,
and that they are not absolute
◉ Perspectivism. Answer: the theory that knowledge of a subject is
inevitably partial and limited by the individual perspective from
which it is viewed from
◉ Heuristics. Answer: are the mental shortcuts that allow us people
to solve problems and make judgements quickly and efficiently, but
not accurately at times
◉ Cognitive bias. Answer: a systematic thought process cased by the
tendency of the human brain to simplify information processing
through a filter of personal experience and perspective
◉ Plato. Answer: an ancient Greek philosopher, often considered the
most important figure in Western philosophy, was also a student and
recorder of Socrates' work
◉ Rene Descartes. Answer: a French mathematician from the 1500s
who had philosophies on the nature of reality, also famous for the
phrase, "I think, therefore I am."
EXAMINATION 2026 STUDY SHEET FULL
SOLUTION
◉ Rationality/Reason. Answer: a cause, explanation, or justification
for an action or event
◉ Irrationality. Answer: the quality of being illogical or
unreasonable
◉ Blank Slate Theory (Tabula Rasa). Answer: John Locke's theory of
how human identity is on the basis of nuture and not tied to
anything hereditary or from nature
◉ Objective reasoning. Answer: balancing of several elements,
including logic, data and awareness of many cognitive biases
◉ Subjective reasoning. Answer: the reliance of one's personal
opinions, experiences and tastes
◉ Epistemology. Answer: the theory of knowledge, especially w/
regard to the methods, validity, and scope, an investigation of what
distinguishes justified belief from opinion
,◉ Theory of Forms. Answer: a theory by Plato which states how the
physical, empirical, world isn't the true reality, but it's rather the
ideas that are indestructible which are of the true reality
◉ empirical/empiricism. Answer: based on, concerned w/,
verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure
logic
◉ Universal truth/Self-evident truth. Answer: widely accepted facts
which do not change over period, circumstance, location, etc.
◉ Principle of Sufficient Reason. Answer: everything that has existed
must have had some form of a cause
◉ Teleological. Answer: relating to or involving the explanation of
phenomena in terms of the purpose for which they serve, rather
than of the causes which they arise from
◉ Hedonism. Answer: the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-
indulgence
◉ Experience machine. Answer: a thought experiment created by
Robert Nozick which questions our value and understanding of what
is reality
, ◉ Relativism. Answer: the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and
morality exists in relation to culture, society, or historical context,
and that they are not absolute
◉ Perspectivism. Answer: the theory that knowledge of a subject is
inevitably partial and limited by the individual perspective from
which it is viewed from
◉ Heuristics. Answer: are the mental shortcuts that allow us people
to solve problems and make judgements quickly and efficiently, but
not accurately at times
◉ Cognitive bias. Answer: a systematic thought process cased by the
tendency of the human brain to simplify information processing
through a filter of personal experience and perspective
◉ Plato. Answer: an ancient Greek philosopher, often considered the
most important figure in Western philosophy, was also a student and
recorder of Socrates' work
◉ Rene Descartes. Answer: a French mathematician from the 1500s
who had philosophies on the nature of reality, also famous for the
phrase, "I think, therefore I am."
