← Singapore Knowledge & Inquiry
Singapore · SEABSyllabus
Knowledge & Inquiry syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the Singapore Knowledge & Inquirysyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Ethics, Values and Knowledge
Module overview →- Can we have knowledge in ethics, or are moral judgements something other than candidates for truth and knowledge?Assess whether there can be moral knowledge, contrasting cognitivism and non-cognitivism and weighing intuition, reasoning and disagreement as routes to or against it11 min answer →
- Are there objective moral facts that exist independently of what anyone thinks, or is morality our invention?Contrast moral realism with anti-realist positions including error theory, emotivism and constructivism, and assess the arguments from queerness and moral experience11 min answer →
- Is moral truth relative to cultures or individuals, and does the diversity of moral codes support relativism?Distinguish descriptive, normative and metaethical relativism and assess the argument from cultural diversity and the objections to relativism11 min answer →
- How can we reason about values and resolve moral disagreement if values cannot be derived from facts alone?Explain how moral reasoning proceeds through principles, consequences and cases, and assess methods such as reflective equilibrium and thought experiments for resolving moral disagreement11 min answer →
- Is there a sharp line between facts and values, and can an ought ever be derived from an is?Explain the fact-value distinction and Hume's is-ought gap, and assess the naturalistic fallacy and challenges to a sharp separation11 min answer →
Knowledge in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Module overview →- How does history establish causes and construct narratives, and can historical knowledge be objective given the role of selection and interpretation?Examine how history identifies causes and constructs narratives, and assess whether selection, perspective and the absence of laws undermine historical objectivity10 min answer →
- Do the human sciences explain behaviour by causal laws like the natural sciences, or do they aim at a different kind of understanding?Contrast naturalist explanation with interpretive understanding in the human sciences and assess whether the study of human action requires a distinctive method11 min answer →
- How can interpreting a text or action be knowledge if every interpretation depends on prior assumptions and the part depends on the whole?Explain the hermeneutic circle and the problem of interpretation, and assess how interpretive disciplines can constrain readings and avoid vicious circularity10 min answer →
- Can the humanities and social sciences be objective, or are their findings inescapably coloured by the standpoint of the inquirer?Assess the prospects for objectivity in the humanities and social sciences, distinguishing senses of objectivity and weighing standpoint and value-freedom11 min answer →
- Where do the values of the inquirer legitimately enter social research, and where must they be kept out?Analyse where values enter social inquiry, distinguishing epistemic from non-epistemic values and assessing the threat of bias to social-scientific knowledge10 min answer →
Knowledge in the Sciences
Module overview →- Does science progress by steady accumulation, or by revolutions in which whole frameworks are overthrown?Explain Kuhn's account of paradigms, normal and revolutionary science, and incommensurability, and assess what it implies for scientific objectivity and progress11 min answer →
- If scientific observation is shaped by theory and science works through idealised models, can it still deliver objective knowledge?Explain the theory-ladenness of observation and the role of models and idealisation in science, and assess their implications for objectivity10 min answer →
- What separates science from pseudoscience, and is falsifiability the right criterion?Explain Popper's falsificationism as a solution to the demarcation problem and assess its strengths and weaknesses, including the Duhem-Quine challenge11 min answer →
- Do successful scientific theories describe a real world of unobservable things, or are they just useful instruments for prediction?Contrast scientific realism with instrumentalism and anti-realism, and assess the no-miracles argument and the pessimistic meta-induction10 min answer →
- Can we ever be justified in inferring from observed cases to unobserved ones, and what does Hume's problem mean for science?Explain Hume's problem of induction and the new riddle of induction, and assess the main responses including pragmatic, probabilistic and Popperian replies11 min answer →
- Is there a single method that makes inquiry scientific, and how do observation, hypothesis and experiment fit together?Characterise the scientific method, contrasting inductivist and hypothetico-deductive accounts, and assess whether a single method defines science11 min answer →
Reasoning and Argument
Module overview →- What makes a deductive argument valid, and how does validity differ from the truth of the premises and from soundness?Explain deductive validity and soundness, distinguish them from the truth of the premises, and apply the concepts to assess given arguments10 min answer →
- Given an argument, how do we judge it fairly and systematically, and how do we assess the sources its premises rest on?Apply a systematic method for evaluating an argument and assessing the reliability, relevance and bias of the sources its premises depend on11 min answer →
- What are the recurring patterns of bad reasoning, and how do we name and diagnose them in real arguments?Identify and explain common formal and informal fallacies and diagnose them in given arguments without committing the fallacy-fallacy11 min answer →
- How do we lay bare the structure of an argument, separating what is being claimed from the reasons offered for it?Identify the conclusion, premises and unstated assumptions of an argument and represent its structure, distinguishing argument from non-argument10 min answer →
- How do we evaluate arguments whose conclusions are only made probable, rather than guaranteed, by their premises?Distinguish inductive from deductive reasoning and assess inductive strength across generalisation, analogy and inference to the best explanation10 min answer →
- What is the difference between a necessary and a sufficient condition, and why does confusing them wreck so many arguments?Distinguish necessary from sufficient conditions, relate them to conditional statements, and use them to analyse definitions and detect conditional fallacies9 min answer →
The Independent Study and Inquiry
Module overview →- How do you choose and justify a method that actually answers your research question rather than one that is merely convenient?Explain how to choose and justify a methodology for the Independent Study, matching method to question across conceptual, empirical and mixed approaches and addressing rigour and ethics10 min answer →
- How do you build a sustained argument for a thesis and defend it against the strongest objections rather than the easiest ones?Explain how to construct a sustained argument for a thesis in the Independent Study and defend it by anticipating and answering the strongest objections10 min answer →
- How do you judge which sources and evidence to trust in an inquiry, and how do you guard against your own confirmation bias?Explain how to evaluate sources and evidence in the Independent Study, applying criteria of reliability and relevance and guarding against bias and cherry-picking10 min answer →
- What turns a vague interest into a research question that is focused, answerable and genuinely worth investigating?Explain how to frame a research question for the Independent Study, distinguishing good from poor questions and refining scope, contestability and answerability10 min answer →
- How do you turn a completed inquiry into a clear, well-structured dissertation that demonstrates and references its reasoning?Explain how to structure and write the Independent Study dissertation, from introduction and methodology to argument, evaluation and conclusion, with sound referencing and academic integrity10 min answer →
The Nature of Knowledge
Module overview →- Does the language we use shape what we are able to know, or merely express knowledge we have independently?Evaluate the role of language in the construction of knowledge, considering linguistic relativity, the public nature of meaning, and the risks of vagueness and conceptual framing10 min answer →
- Can perception give us knowledge of an external world, and how do illusion and the theory-ladenness of observation threaten that claim?Assess perception as a source of knowledge, contrasting direct realism, indirect realism and idealism, and evaluating the arguments from illusion and theory-ladenness11 min answer →
- Can reason alone give us knowledge of the world, or does all substantive knowledge ultimately rest on experience?Distinguish a priori from a posteriori knowledge and analytic from synthetic truths, and evaluate the rationalist and empiricist accounts of the sources of knowledge11 min answer →
- Can we gain knowledge simply by being told something, and if so what justifies trusting the word of others?Assess testimony as a source of knowledge, contrasting reductionist and anti-reductionist accounts and considering memory as a further source10 min answer →
- If knowledge is justified true belief, why do Gettier cases seem to be justified true beliefs that are not knowledge?Explain the Gettier problem as a challenge to the sufficiency of the tripartite analysis and assess the main attempts to repair the definition of knowledge11 min answer →
- What does it take to know something, and why are truth, belief and justification each thought to be necessary?Explain the three conditions commonly held to be necessary for propositional knowledge - truth, belief and justification - and assess whether each is genuinely required11 min answer →