Our IB Extended essay writers has prepared a list of 110 IB Philosophy Extended Essay research questions, crafted to align with IB criteria — focused, evaluative, and rooted in philosophical inquiry. These are split into:

• ✅ 25 Simple but Interesting
• ✅ 25 Unique and Not Overused
• ✅ 25 Complex and Challenging
• ✅ 25 Current and Up-to-Date
• ✅ 10 Fun and Unusual

Each question invites critical analysis of philosophical texts, arguments, or thinkers and offers space for reasoned, personal, and sustained argument, which is at the heart of a successful Philosophy EE.

🟩 25 Simple but Interesting Philosophy Extended Essay Topics

(accessible, focused on foundational themes or classical thinkers)

1. To what extent does Plato’s theory of the Forms explain the nature of reality?
2. To what extent is Aristotle’s concept of virtue relevant to modern ethical decision-making?
3. How successful is Descartes’ cogito in establishing certainty?
4. To what extent does Kant’s categorical imperative provide a universal foundation for ethics?
5. Is utilitarianism a defensible moral theory in modern society?
6. How effectively does Socrates’ method of questioning lead to knowledge?
7. Can Hobbes’ social contract theory justify political authority today?
8. To what extent is Hume right in arguing that causation is only a habit of mind?
9. Does Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch undermine moral objectivity?
10. How well does the Trolley Problem illustrate the conflict between deontology and consequentialism?
11. Is free will compatible with determinism?
12. To what extent can moral relativism provide a coherent ethical framework?
13. How does Locke’s theory of personal identity hold up under modern psychological scrutiny?
14. Can beauty be objectively defined, as Plato claimed in Symposium?
15. To what extent does Rousseau’s concept of the “general will” support democratic governance?
16. Is there a meaningful distinction between appearance and reality in Berkeley’s idealism?
17. To what extent does Mill’s harm principle successfully protect individual liberty?
18. Does Thomas Aquinas’ First Cause argument provide a valid proof for the existence of God?
19. Can virtue ethics offer better guidance than rule-based ethical systems?
20. How successfully does Sartre’s existentialism address human freedom?
21. Is the mind-body problem best solved by dualism or physicalism?
22. To what extent does Epicurean philosophy offer a meaningful approach to happiness?
23. How effectively does Stoic philosophy address emotional resilience?
24. Can moral duty exist without religion?
25. To what extent is philosophical skepticism a threat to knowledge?

🟦 25 Unique and Not Overused Philosophy EE Questions

(fresh topics, comparative, lesser-used texts or thinkers)

26. To what extent does Simone de Beauvoir successfully challenge Sartre’s existentialism with a feminist lens?
27. How does Confucian philosophy offer an alternative to Western individualism?
28. Can the Ubuntu philosophy of Southern Africa provide a viable ethical system in global politics?
29. How do the philosophies of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard differ in their approach to personal freedom?
30. To what extent can Stoic ethics be reconciled with Buddhist detachment?
31. How does Iris Murdoch’s concept of “attention” challenge the autonomy of moral reasoning?
32. Can the Bhagavad Gita’s doctrine of action without attachment be understood as a coherent ethical theory?
33. To what extent does Albert Camus’ concept of the absurd invalidate religious belief?
34. How does Peter Singer’s view on animal rights challenge traditional anthropocentrism?
35. To what extent can Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil” explain modern bureaucratic atrocities?
36. Can Schopenhauer’s philosophy of will be reconciled with Buddhist teachings on desire?
37. To what extent is Marx’s critique of ideology still relevant in modern consumer society?
38. How does Michel Foucault redefine the relationship between knowledge and power?
39. Can Heidegger’s concept of Being-toward-death provide a meaningful account of authenticity?
40. How does Levinas’ emphasis on “the Other” redefine ethical responsibility?
41. To what extent does American pragmatism (e.g., William James or John Dewey) succeed in solving the problem of truth?
42. How does Rawls’ theory of justice respond to libertarian critiques from Nozick?
43. To what extent is Karl Popper’s falsifiability criterion a valid demarcation for science?
44. Can Wittgenstein’s later philosophy provide a solution to philosophical confusion?
45. How does the Daoist concept of wu wei contrast with Western theories of agency?
46. Can eco-philosophy challenge traditional Enlightenment conceptions of nature?
47. How does the philosophy of play (e.g., Johan Huizinga) affect our understanding of human culture?
48. To what extent does the work of Martha Nussbaum reframe ancient philosophy for modern justice?
49. How does Alasdair MacIntyre’s virtue ethics differ from Aristotle’s in application to modern life?
50. To what extent is postmodernism a coherent philosophical stance?

🟥 25 Complex and Challenging Questions for for IB Philosophy EE

(abstract, theory-heavy, requiring deep textual analysis and critical thought)

51. To what extent does Derrida’s concept of “différance” undermine the possibility of stable meaning in philosophy?
52. How does Hegel’s dialectic structure historical progress?
53. Is Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus a self-defeating philosophical work?
54. To what extent does Spinoza’s monism resolve the mind-body dualism?
55. How does Deleuze’s philosophy of becoming challenge classical ontology?
56. Can Kant’s synthetic a priori judgments still be defended in contemporary epistemology?
57. To what extent does the Gettier problem undermine justified true belief as a definition of knowledge?
58. Is Thomas Nagel’s argument in “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” a successful critique of reductionist materialism?
59. Can modal realism (as proposed by David Lewis) provide a coherent metaphysical system?
60. How does Habermas’ theory of communicative action contribute to democratic legitimacy?
61. Is Nietzsche’s genealogical method a valid approach to understanding morality?
62. How does Quine’s rejection of the analytic/synthetic distinction affect the possibility of a priori knowledge?
63. Can phenomenology provide a valid foundation for philosophical inquiry into consciousness?
64. How does Badiou’s use of set theory redefine ontology?
65. To what extent is meta-ethics essential for resolving moral disputes?
66. Does Kripke’s critique of descriptivist theories of naming successfully defend a causal theory of reference?
67. How does Jean-Luc Nancy redefine community through the concept of being-with?
68. To what extent can the problem of induction be resolved through Bayesian probability theory?
69. Can aesthetics be grounded in objectivity without falling into cultural essentialism?
70. How does the distinction between act- and rule-utilitarianism impact moral evaluations of lying?
71. To what extent does analytic philosophy fail to account for lived human experience?
72. How does Ricoeur’s concept of narrative identity address problems in personal identity theory?
73. Can phenomenology offer an adequate critique of artificial intelligence as “conscious”?
74. How does metaphysical nihilism challenge assumptions about existence itself?
75. To what extent is time a conceptual construct rather than a metaphysical reality?

🟨 25 IB Philosophy EE Current and Up-to-Date Questions

(philosophy applied to modern technologies, ethics, social issues, etc.)

76. Can AI ever develop moral agency comparable to humans?
77. To what extent does the use of social media compromise human autonomy?
78. Is it morally acceptable to use neural enhancement for cognitive performance?
79. To what extent can digital immortality challenge traditional concepts of personal identity?
80. Does surveillance capitalism undermine Kantian notions of respect for persons?
81. Can environmental ethics justify radical ecological activism?
82. How should human rights be grounded: in reason, emotion, or shared human experience?
83. Can modern transhumanist thought be reconciled with existentialist ethics?
84. To what extent do climate change obligations outweigh national sovereignty?
85. Can open-source collaboration be seen as a form of ethical communalism?
86. How does the philosophy of posthumanism challenge the boundaries of the human subject?
87. To what extent is cancel culture a legitimate expression of collective moral judgment?
88. Can utilitarianism justify universal basic income as a global policy?
89. Is digital addiction a failure of individual will or societal structure?
90. Can personal data be considered a form of property from a Lockean perspective?
91. How does TikTok’s algorithmic curation affect human freedom and self-perception?
92. Can facial recognition technologies be morally justified in public spaces?
93. To what extent does contemporary nihilism explain youth disengagement from politics?
94. Is consent a sufficient condition for ethical pornography?
95. How does the “right to disconnect” relate to philosophical views of work and dignity?
96. Should the state prioritize individual liberty over public health in pandemics?
97. Can philosophical anarchism provide a viable alternative to modern governance?
98. To what extent does veganism align with deontological ethics?
99. How does modern existential therapy apply the ideas of Sartre and Frankl?
100. Is digital personhood a legitimate extension of moral status?

🟪 10 Fun and Unusual Questions for Your Philosophy Extended Essay

(playful, bold, and philosophically rich)

101. Can video games be considered a legitimate form of philosophical engagement?
102. Is it morally acceptable to love a robot?
103. Can philosophical zombies disprove physicalist theories of consciousness?
104. Is time travel paradox a real philosophical problem or science fiction storytelling?
105. To what extent does The Matrix accurately depict a Cartesian skeptical scenario?
106. Can memes transmit philosophical knowledge?
107. Should humans colonize other planets from a moral standpoint?
108. Is the concept of “the self” just a social media construct in modern times?
109. Can laughter be considered a philosophical response to absurdity?
110. Are animals capable of existential dread?