Religious Studies: Philosophy of life after death (Hinduism) synoptic (Edexcel)

Hey. I was wondering if anybody had any ideas for synoptic links for the philosophical study of Hindu attitudes towards life after death.

Ive come up with a couple of things.

Brahman as the First Cause --> Ontological A. (Aquinas's Second way) - Infinite regression?

Moksha - "eternal bliss" --> religious language/meaning - Ver/Fals. principles

Kharma Yoga - Duty Vs Good Works --> Ethical theories (Eg. Utilitarianism)

Reincarnation - Body/mind seperate --> Cartesian Dualism - memories?

Also, in this kind of thing is it best to focus on 2-3 arguments and write about them in depth, or to write less about each one and do more?

Thanks

Reply 1

Kel27

Did u not get taught how to do it?
We got taught nothing about religious language and ontological at all.

The main themes are basically the nature of the soul. so dualism and materialism, does the soul have personality or is it the body etc and also reasons for believing in life after death for philosophers (against based on materialism and dualism)

Heres an intro from an essay I wrote which gives some idea...

Life after Death is a key philosophical issue and has been debated for centuries. As there is no way of really knowing if there is Life after Death the debate is centred around whether or not life after death is possible, in order for it to be possible there must be a soul separate to the body that can survive after death, it is whether this soul exists or not that philosophers look at. Those philosophers who believe the body and soul are separate and therefore can exist after the death and decay of the body are known as dualists, their views are the most similar to Hinduism. This essay will look at the attitudes towards life after death in Hinduism and how philosophical attitudes correspond to this belief. In Hinduism there is a belief that everyone has a soul, the atman, and that this soul is reincarnated to another body after death continually until it reaches the highest state, moksha. It is important to understand that often is it hard to apply western philosophy to an eastern religion and fundamentally the ideas of the east and the west are very different. It will conclude that the key features of philosophical attitudes towards life after death do not support a belief in life after death in Hinduism. But it is also important to note that in Hinduism the reason for believing in Life after death is not philosophy, but faith.

Reply 2

QuanChi

Thanks.

Id assume the syllabus has different chapters and the ones you are taught depends on the college.

And we didnt really get told a lot about the synoptic paper. Basically just take what youve learnt from Philosophy, Ethics and Hinduism in the last two years and apply it to the question. The teacher focused mostly on the western philosophy and hinduism papers. Didnt cover too much about the synoptic other than the general idea.

Reply 3

Kel27

OH right well yer I never did an ethics paper, just philosophy and hinduism (we did cwk for as) so maybe thats why it is different.

But like the question is often discuss philosophical attitudes to life after death

the ontological argument isnt a philosophical argument about life after death raelly is it?! so i dunno.

Reply 4

QuanChi

You can relate the ontological argument to it.

For many Moksha is union with Brahman. Brahman created everything, therefore he is considered the First Cause, and part of the Ontological argument is about the First Cause.

I dont plan to write about it anymore though. Wrote up everything today/yesterday and after trying to write it in 90 minutes I realised I needed to cut quite a bit out (It took me just over two hours).

I think the hardest part of this exam will actually be managing to write what I want to in enough detail in the time limit. An extra 30 minutes would be nice.

Reply 5

Kel27

Yer I guess so, i have pretty concise essays that i did for the mock and stuff and I have just learned those pretty much. Hope it goes ok, really want an A in r.s

Good luck!

Reply 6

QuanChi

Ive just written out my planned one 3 times in the past 2 days from memory and written out the plan several times too. Fairly confident now, so long as I dont wake up tomorrow having forgotten it all.

And thanks. Good luck to you too. :smile:

Religious Studies: Philosophy of life after death (Hinduism) synoptic (Edexcel)

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