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Edexcel A2 Philosophy of Religion & Ethics June 2012

Anyone out there doing Edexcel A2 Philosophy & Ethics (Developments and Implications) in the next few months? Starting the revision/self-teaching process now so would be good to hear from anyone doing the papers so as to share how worried we are etc.

In case anyone who sees this is going to do the exam, does anyone know if certain topics always come up like Design Argument and Sexual Ethics for instance in Foundations in AS? I had a look at some past papers and saw Ethical Language always coming up so decided to give that a revise. I'm also pretty sure there's always a choice available between Ontological Arg. and Religious Experience? Would help if anyone more knowledgeable would be able to clear that up. :smile:

Sorry if the thread's already been made - couldn't see it on my cursory glance.

Cheers!

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Reply 1
I can answer your query in relation to the AS Foundations Edexcel as I teach this unit.

The topics that come up in the Unit 1 Foundation Unit from the Philosophy of Religion are...

Teleological
Cosmological

Problem of Evil
Miracles


The topics that come up in the Unit 1 Foundation Unit from the Ethics side are...

Utilitarianism
Situation Ethics
Religion and Morality


Just War
Sexual Ethics.


In this examination the students will be required to choose 3 questions....2 from philosophy and 1 ethics OR 1 ethics and 2 philosophy. In either case they must pick one from above and below the line. I have told my students to revise Cosmological/Teleological/Problem of Evil/Utilitarianism and Situation Ethics as they will be all opting to answer 2 philosophy questions and 1 Ethics question

I hope this helps you.

Send me a message if you need more information.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by cogitoergo
I can answer your query in relation to the AS Foundations Edexcel as I teach this unit.

The topics that come up in the Unit 1 Foundation Unit from the Philosophy of Religion are...

Teleological
Cosmological

Problem of Evil
Miracles


The topics that come up in the Unit 1 Foundation Unit from the Ethics side are...

Utilitarianism
Situation Ethics
Religion and Morality


Just War
Sexual Ethics.


In this examination the students will be required to choose 3 questions....2 from philosophy and 1 ethics OR 1 ethics and 2 philosophy. In either case they must pick one from above and below the line. I have told my students to revise Cosmological/Teleological/Problem of Evil/Utilitarianism and Situation Ethics as they will be all opting to answer 2 philosophy questions and 1 Ethics question

I hope this helps you.

Send me a message if you need more information.


I'm afraid I'm an A2 student, took Foundations Philosophy & Ethics last year. Thanks nonetheless :smile:
Reply 3
From what I know it basically follows the same pattern as in Unit 1- if there are two topics in the option block, they'll both come up, if there's three, then only two will come up.

So for philosophy in the first block there is religious experience, ontological argument, and atheism and critiques of religious belief. You'd need to pick at least two to revise in depth because if you just did ontological they could just ask about religious experience and critiques of belief.

I don't think there are ones they always ask about, but i'm going to guess for things like objectivity, subjectivism and relativism, they aren't going to ask an entire question on it.

My teacher did say that this year there are more likely to ask questions that combine two different sub-sections.
Reply 4
Cheers. Sub sections as in a question with Atheism and Religious Experience for instance?

Have you been told anything about Implications? Ayer came up longest ago but Donovan last came up two years ago and has been asked less than the other two so my money's on Donovan.
Is this a thread for A2 unit 3 & 4 Edexcel > philosophy & ethics?
Reply 6
Original post by headbands,
Is this a thread for A2 unit 3 & 4 Edexcel > philosophy & ethics?


Yeah. Feel free to post whatever about the two exams on it. I imagine there's lots of people wanting to speculate on Unit 4 texts and w/e..
Original post by 12lightf
Yeah. Feel free to post whatever about the two exams on it. I imagine there's lots of people wanting to speculate on Unit 4 texts and w/e..


It might help to change the title to May 2012 :smile:
Reply 8
Hmmm... Unit 4's in June? :P But yeah, May and June might be better.
Reply 9
How's everyone revising for this, our teacher has given a ridiculous amount. I also really need an a*/a :frown:
Reply 10
Original post by Sadsnail
How's everyone revising for this, our teacher has given a ridiculous amount. I also really need an a*/a :frown:


For Developments, only doing Religious Lang, Religious Experience, Atheism, Ethical Language and some Ethical Theory... For Implications I'm lost haha
Reply 11
Question to anyone who knows: in part two of the Implications question, when it says 'Do you agree with the ideas expressed? Justify your point of view and discuss its implications for religion and human experience' is it referring to our viewpoint or that of the article? I had been writing essays like it was the article's but i'm not sure :s
Reply 12
Original post by 12lightf
Question to anyone who knows: in part two of the Implications question, when it says 'Do you agree with the ideas expressed? Justify your point of view and discuss its implications for religion and human experience' is it referring to our viewpoint or that of the article? I had been writing essays like it was the article's but i'm not sure :s


Well how i've been taught to answer a Part (ii) would be in the first paragraph write about it's implication if the article was 'right'.
For example, if Ayer's article was correct and something is only meaningful if it is analytic or empirically verfiable, then religious believers may turn to atheism, secular society, and the Queen will no longer be both the head of the state and the head of the Church of England.

Then after that i go into different approaches/criticisms, and then i conclude the Part (ii) with my own opinion whether i agree or not.

Ps. My teacher is also an examiner and he says that you get more marks if you always disagree in a Part (ii) because there is a lot more to write about. This may be different to what you've been taught but i hope this helps :smile:
Reply 13
Original post by SCheng
Well how i've been taught to answer a Part (ii) would be in the first paragraph write about it's implication if the article was 'right'.
For example, if Ayer's article was correct and something is only meaningful if it is analytic or empirically verfiable, then religious believers may turn to atheism, secular society, and the Queen will no longer be both the head of the state and the head of the Church of England.

Then after that i go into different approaches/criticisms, and then i conclude the Part (ii) with my own opinion whether i agree or not.

Ps. My teacher is also an examiner and he says that you get more marks if you always disagree in a Part (ii) because there is a lot more to write about. This may be different to what you've been taught but i hope this helps :smile:


Thanks! You might just be my hero for this exam ... I know next to nothing on how to write these essays. Only redeeming feature is that I only need a C in this exam to get an A overall as long as Developments (which seems very similar to Foundations) goes alright :biggrin:

I've been tending to state my opinion first before going into implications of the view, but if it's the implications of the article as opposed to the candidate's views anyway, your method is probably more logical :smile:

One other question - when agree/disagree and discuss implications of the author's view in ii, do you talk about the view in the specific quoted extract or in the article more generally? There are a few examples I can think of where the two might differ.

P.S. Has your teacher said anything about which is likely to come up? From looking at past papers it could be Donovan or Ayer based on the fact that neither has come up more than the other and Westphal came up last time. I did notice that since the exam changed in 2010 Ayer hasn't come up which would be ideal - much prefer Ayer to either of the others!
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 14
Original post by 12lightf
I've been tending to state my opinion first before going into implications of the view, but if it's the implications of the article as opposed to the candidate's views anyway, your method is probably more logical :smile:

One other question - when agree/disagree and discuss implications of the author's view in ii, do you talk about the view in the specific quoted extract or in the article more generally? There are a few examples I can think of where the two might differ.

P.S. Has your teacher said anything about which is likely to come up? From looking at past papers it could be Donovan or Ayer based on the fact that neither has come up more than the other and Westphal came up last time. I did notice that since the exam changed in 2010 Ayer hasn't come up which would be ideal - much prefer Ayer to either of the others!


Yeah i think with how the Part(ii) question is worded it does sound more like you have to write about the implications of the arguement, and then at the end of my essay i write about whether i agree.

We've been taught in both Part (i) and (ii) to write about the article in an overall general sense, which i think differs from what some students are being taught.

My teacher even said that you don't have to read the extract because the question is always 'Examine the argument and/or interpretation of the passage', meaning you can write about the overall article, but he did say that you have to keep referring to the author of the article and their basic message so the essay stays focussed.

Which questions are you planning on writing about in the Developments unit? And no my teacher hasn't really said anything about which one will come up, but he does seem to be focussing on Ayer and Donovan during our revision lessons, i'll ask about it in my next lesson. Out of the two which one would you rather write about, for me it would be Ayer.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 15
Original post by SCheng
Yeah i think with how the Part(ii) question is worded it does sound more like you have to write about the implications of the arguement, and then at the end of my essay i write about whether i agree.

We've been taught in both Part (i) and (ii) to write about the article in an overall general sense, which i think differs from what some students are being taught.

My teacher even said that you don't have to read the extract because the question is always 'Examine the argument and/or interpretation of the passage', meaning you can write about the overall article, but he did say that you have to keep referring to the author of the article and their basic message so the essay stays focussed.

Which questions are you planning on writing about in the Developments unit? And no my teacher hasn't really said anything about which one will come up, but he does seem to be focussing on Ayer and Donovan during our revision lessons, i'll ask about it in my next lesson. Out of the two which one would you rather write about, for me it would be Ayer.


Thanks! I would massively, massively prefer Ayer - maybe because Logical Positivism seems to come into so many Developments topics so we're pretty familiar with him. I really would not like to write about Donovan - I don't like Religious Experience and obviously that's quite heavily the focus of the article.

For Developments I'm revising Religious Experience and Atheism (skipping Ontological Arg.), Religious Language, Ethical Language and Ethical Theory (tho less so because its pretty massive and its only an insurance in case I hate any of the other questions).
Reply 16
Btw, do you reckon Ethical Language could become part of a combined question? I really like the topic cause its pretty small and containable but that would go out the window if it was combined. Its never been combined before (our teacher last year gave us a booklet of all Developments papers since 2007) so I hope that will continue..
Reply 17
Original post by 12lightf

For Developments I'm revising Religious Experience and Atheism (skipping Ontological Arg.), Religious Language, Ethical Language and Ethical Theory (tho less so because its pretty massive and its only an insurance in case I hate any of the other questions).


Are you revising Atheism and critiques of religious belief? We've been taught that, because it can link to the Westphal Article, but it doesn't come up in the Developments paper does it? The past papers which i have, Edexcel always put Religious Experience with Ontological.

I'm revising Religious Experience, Ontological, Life after Death, and all of the stuff in Ethical Theory. I would most likely answer questions on the last three topics, as they're the ones I do the best in :smile: For Ethical Theory which topic would you want to come up? For me it would be Deontology.
Reply 18
Original post by 12lightf
Btw, do you reckon Ethical Language could become part of a combined question? I really like the topic cause its pretty small and containable but that would go out the window if it was combined. Its never been combined before (our teacher last year gave us a booklet of all Developments papers since 2007) so I hope that will continue..


We haven't been taught Ethical Language lol So I couldn't help you there :confused:

We've just been taught Religious Ex, Ontological, Life after Death, Religious Lang, Ethical Theory, and Justice, Law and Punishment. There's no way i'm going to revise all of that considering we only have to do three questions :colondollar:

Ps. Do you have any Developments papers you could send me? I've only got June 2010 + 2011, and when i've searched online the older Development papers seem to have a different mark scheme/question format.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 19
Original post by savvy100
Hi guys - can i ask for the may 31st exam are you planning on doing 1 philosophy or 2 philopsophy questions?
I seem to be the only one in my class to be doing 2 ethics questions :/. Last year it was a pretty much certain that i would get an A in philosophy and ethics but this year im starting to get a bit nervous about it...the anthology is really worrying me. Anyone else have the same concerns? i dont feel like my teacher has taught us HOW to answer correctly.
Philosophy and Ethics is pretty much my strongest subject so really hoping on a good grade (also the may 31st exam is on my birthday :/ ) but yeah hope you guys are finding revision easy :smile:


Hi! I'm planning on doing 2 Philosophy questions (Ontological and Life after Death), and 1 Ethics question (Ideally Deontology, but it depends on what comes up for it). To be honest I would just do whatever you feel comfortable writing about. For me, we haven't been taught Religion and Morality (Only comes up now and again so my teacher didn't see much point in teaching us it lol), we didn't learn ethical language, and i don't like Justice, Law and Punishment haha

We've been taught everything else though, and i think i'm going to revise the ones i plan on writing about in detail, plus religious experience. I've done a few past papers and the questions for those have gone well so far :smile:

In terms of the Unit 4, i think there are different ways in approaching the essay question. I've read some sample answers and some schools teach their students to write their answer focussed on the extract, whilst with me we've been taught to write about the article as a whole arguement (I spoke about it in this thread if you're interested, someone else asked about the part (ii)

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