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The AQA Philosophy AS/A2 Revision Thread

Reply 60

likeasong

Currently dying trying to get my head around Religious Language in time for Thursday - shoot me now! :frown:

Reply 61

Mill

Original post by likeasong

Currently dying trying to get my head around Religious Language in time for Thursday - shoot me now! :frown:

Thursday? Are you doing AS or have I missed something? :confused:

Reply 62

jerseymackem

2

Original post by likeasong

Currently dying trying to get my head around Religious Language in time for Thursday - shoot me now! :frown:

I'm dodging Religious Language, I think I'll go for the Ontological Argument and Life, Death and Beyond (or maybe Problem of Evil if one of those is a bitch). The only thing I can remember about RL is some **** about Tillich and symbolism, but I honestly can't remember anything useful!

BTW, my teacher was saying that the Ontological question will probably have something to do with the relationship between faith and reason as that hasn't come up for ages and all the various alternatives have been used in recent years. Hope it helps somebody :biggrin:

Reply 63

Hannah_94

I'm A2, doing Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology and Metaphysics.
And the book I'm studying is Descartes' Meditations..
I've got about 3 folders worth of useless material and about 30 booklets to learn... PLEASE say someone else is doing these topics [did I mention my teacher specifically chose the hardest ones?!]
Thanks :smile:

Reply 64

SLlewellyn

Original post by Hannah_94

I'm A2, doing Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology and Metaphysics.
And the book I'm studying is Descartes' Meditations..
I've got about 3 folders worth of useless material and about 30 booklets to learn... PLEASE say someone else is doing these topics [did I mention my teacher specifically chose the hardest ones?!]
Thanks :smile:

Am doing the same three topics as you - so may be able to help if anything is proving particularly difficult with you. Trying to formulate an answer to 'The Mind is Private' Assess this claim - at the moment, as a practice essay. I guess it's really dualism v. any of the materialist accounts; though both run into problems of their own (problem of other minds/qualia).

Reply 65

alphil

Original post by Hannah_94

I'm A2, doing Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology and Metaphysics.
And the book I'm studying is Descartes' Meditations..
I've got about 3 folders worth of useless material and about 30 booklets to learn... PLEASE say someone else is doing these topics [did I mention my teacher specifically chose the hardest ones?!]
Thanks :smile:

Hi,
I'm also doing philosophy of mind and metaphysics.
I think it would be productive to share opinions and/or discuss some issues together.

Reply 66

Hannah_94

Original post by alphil

Hi,
I'm also doing philosophy of mind and metaphysics.
I think it would be productive to share opinions and/or discuss some issues together.

I agree! I've just got so much course material I don't know where to start!
I'm doing philosophy of mind right now and I've got;
Dualist theories; Descartes.
Reductive theories; Behaviourism, Funtionalism, Type Identity, Token Identity.
Non-Reductive theories; Eliminative Materialism, Anomalous Monism, Biological Naturalism.
And then also; Artificial Intelligence, Causal Explanations and Solipsism.

See why I'm going crazy... how am I supposed to pick out what to use?!

Reply 67

Hannah_94

Original post by SLlewellyn

Am doing the same three topics as you - so may be able to help if anything is proving particularly difficult with you. Trying to formulate an answer to 'The Mind is Private' Assess this claim - at the moment, as a practice essay. I guess it's really dualism v. any of the materialist accounts; though both run into problems of their own (problem of other minds/qualia).

Yeah, I guess you could use examples of Artificial Intelligence too and the possibility that your mind can be "downloaded"? And which materialist accounts would you use? I guess I'd opt for behaviourism as the main one and then add in some stuff on Wittgenstein's language arguments and Mill's examples of analogous experience? Maybe add in a little Identity Theory and Davidson to impress the examiner too?
I'd be so happy if something on qualia came up, it's so easy to talk about!

Reply 68

alphil

Original post by Hannah_94

I agree! I've just got so much course material I don't know where to start!
I'm doing philosophy of mind right now and I've got;
Dualist theories; Descartes.
Reductive theories; Behaviourism, Funtionalism, Type Identity, Token Identity.
Non-Reductive theories; Eliminative Materialism, Anomalous Monism, Biological Naturalism.
And then also; Artificial Intelligence, Causal Explanations and Solipsism.

See why I'm going crazy... how am I supposed to pick out what to use?!

Hard work indeed!
So, as for (substance) dualism (Descartes, also zombies etc), i think it is extremely useful to listen to David Chalmers on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoo
Also, it would definitely help if you listened to Tim Crane on here: http://philosophybites.com/2007/09/tim-crane-on-mi.html
They are both amazingly clear and listening to them would help you understand these topics in a much more active and productive way.

As for Reductive & Non-reductive theories, the book 'Elements of Mind' by Tim Crane provides a lucid, intriguing and critical explanation of the views.
Finally, there couldn't be a better introduction to AI and machines than the book "The Mechanical Mind" (by Crane as well - it also presents various theories mentioned above).

I hope this helps.
Are you practicing on any essay questions?

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 69

Hannah_94

Original post by alphil

Hard work indeed!
So, as for (substance) dualism (Descartes, also zombies etc), i think it is extremely useful to listen to David Chalmers on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoo
Also, it would definitely help if you listened to Tim Crane on here: http://philosophybites.com/2007/09/tim-crane-on-mi.html
They are both amazingly clear and listening to them would help you understand these topics in a much more active and productive way.

As for Reductive & Non-reductive theories, the book 'Elements of Mind' by Tim Crane provides a lucid, intriguing and critical explanation of the views.
Finally, there couldn't be a better introduction to AI and machines than the book "The Mechanical Mind" (by Crane as well - it also presents various theories mentioned above).

I hope this helps.
Are you practicing on any essay questions?

wow I don't have enough time to read whole BOOKS! haha... I've been doing essays gradually throughout the year, do you have any predictions as to what questions may come up? :smile:

Reply 70

Onipede

9

Original post by Hannah_94

I agree! I've just got so much course material I don't know where to start!
I'm doing philosophy of mind right now and I've got;
Dualist theories; Descartes.
Reductive theories; Behaviourism, Funtionalism, Type Identity, Token Identity.
Non-Reductive theories; Eliminative Materialism, Anomalous Monism, Biological Naturalism.
And then also; Artificial Intelligence, Causal Explanations and Solipsism.

See why I'm going crazy... how am I supposed to pick out what to use?!

Oh Yes!
Im doing Philosophy of mind, epistemology and metaphysics and Descartes' Meditations.

For Philosophy of mind, its quite good because all the theories are interlinked in how they overcome problems but run into others...
i think E&M is more difficult- i mean 'is metaphysics speculative nonsense!?' or 'do universals exist' argh.
Also, how are you remmebering Descartes' quotes for unit 4? I wish we had the txt, would be so much easier!
You know that for section B it will pretty much be God, certainty or Mind dualism. At least that limits it a bit. :smile:

Reply 71

alphil

Original post by Hannah_94

wow I don't have enough time to read whole BOOKS! haha... I've been doing essays gradually throughout the year, do you have any predictions as to what questions may come up? :smile:

Mere predictions. However, I firmly believe that it is definitely worth having a go at these:

- What makes a property a mental property?

- "To understand other minds one needs good imagination, not a good theory". Discuss.

- "No matter how much you knew about the brain and the physical world, this would not suffice for knowing what it is like to be conscious. Therefore consciousness must be something different from anything physical". Discuss.

Reply 72

Onipede

9

Original post by alphil

Mere predictions. However, I firmly believe that it is definitely worth having a go at these:

- What makes a property a mental property?

- "To understand other minds one needs good imagination, not a good theory". Discuss.

- "No matter how much you knew about the brain and the physical world, this would not suffice for knowing what it is like to be conscious. Therefore consciousness must be something different from anything physical". Discuss.

OH No!
They are a lot more difficult than any questions I've seen, there's usually a straight, down the line 'assess eliminative materialism' one and then an obscure, wider question like 'assess whether yours is the only mind that exists'

I dont think they would be anywhere near as difficult as the ones you suggest.

Reply 73

alphil

Original post by Onipede

OH No!
They are a lot more difficult than any questions I've seen, there's usually a straight, down the line 'assess eliminative materialism' one and then an obscure, wider question like 'assess whether yours is the only mind that exists'

I dont think they would be anywhere near as difficult as the ones you suggest.

Yes, I agree. Perhaps those are a bit more difficult than what is likely to come up in the exam. However, if you can do the hard ones, you will have no problems at all with all the others.
After all, they're not that hard.

1- You should write about the difference between the mental and the physical, differences that may be sought in intentionality (the 'directness' of mental phenomena) and perhaps consciousness. No physical phenomena (including properties) have such features: the colour of my hair is not directed at anything, nor it has something 'that feels like' to be it.

2- The knowledge of other minds should be treated here (Mill's section on the book etc.). Also, the privateness of the mental should be emphasized.
This is probably the essay I would struggle at most.

3- This is the knowledge argument (Mary the super scientist). The thought experiment should be evaluated, including the alleged qualia and how they are correlated with knowledge.

:-)

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 74

omgclara

Seeing as it's getting so close to the exam, I'm having a panic!

I'm doing:
Unit 3 - Political Philosophy and Epistemology and Metaphysics
Unit 4 - Plato's 'The Republic'

I was wondering if anyone has any sample, high grade essays for ANY of these subjects because I'm starting to worry that my essays aren't doing what the examiners want! My teachers don't seem to tell us what the AOs are and how we should be actually writing our essays so some sample essays would be useful :smile:

Reply 75

SLlewellyn

Any Epistemology & Metaphysics'ers, what do you think the likelihood of them asking about a specific response to scepticism is? My teacher, who is famously great as predicting the questions, feels they may ask about a particular response and has provided us with endless sheets on Hume's mitigated scepticism.

Having just gone through them all and condensed them, I have to say there's very little AO3/discussion to write about and I feel that if this very specific question were to come up, I'd end up trawling through Hume's mitigation and end up with an AO2/AO3-less answer.

Am I getting paranoid for no reason? Surely responses to scepticism as a whole is a much more interesting/wide topic for them to ask about.

Reply 76

alphil

Original post by SLlewellyn

Any Epistemology & Metaphysics'ers, what do you think the likelihood of them asking about a specific response to scepticism is? My teacher, who is famously great as predicting the questions, feels they may ask about a particular response and has provided us with endless sheets on Hume's mitigated scepticism.

Having just gone through them all and condensed them, I have to say there's very little AO3/discussion to write about and I feel that if this very specific question were to come up, I'd end up trawling through Hume's mitigation and end up with an AO2/AO3-less answer.

Am I getting paranoid for no reason? Surely responses to scepticism as a whole is a much more interesting/wide topic for them to ask about.

Something about Cartesian skepticism might come up - this might be helpful:
http://philosophyfaculty.ucsd.edu/faculty/rarneson/Courses/1RESPONSES%20TO%20SKEPTICISM.pdf

However, don't feel too stressed about it. Rather, think of how you would reply to/how you would criticise some arguments, and then evaluate your own responses. This is one of the best ways to train your philosophical scrutiny and skills for the exam.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 77

crazycots

3

Original post by Hannah_94

I'm A2, doing Philosophy of Mind and Epistemology and Metaphysics.
And the book I'm studying is Descartes' Meditations..
I've got about 3 folders worth of useless material and about 30 booklets to learn... PLEASE say someone else is doing these topics [did I mention my teacher specifically chose the hardest ones?!]
Thanks :smile:

I'm doing these exact subjects for examination next year. I don't know when your exams are but I would love to have a copy of your notes as even if they are useless to you. I find the more that I physically read the better I understand the topic.

So I am begging you.....

Please can I have a copy of your material?

Reply 78

Gibbers

If someone could quickly outline what the Functionalist theory of mind is, I'd be grateful. It's the one part of Philosophy of Mind I'm rubbish at seeing how I missed a couple lessons and when I was in lessons I didn't bother to write notes. I know the objections like Chinese Mind, Inverted Qualia, Jackson's Knowledge argument etc, but I'm struggling to actually understand the theory itself and the internet isn't helping me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

Reply 79

conorordan

2

I've just finished my Philosophy of Religion notes so I'll attach them here, would love it if people could share theirs too so I could see if I'm missing out on anything I/my teacher might not have covered.

What resources are people using to revise? Aside from class notes and teacher handouts I've been using the AQA textbook (a piece of ****e btw), Lacewing, and 'Philosophy of Religion' by Gerald Jones.

Philosophy of Religion Notes.docx37.4KB

The AQA Philosophy AS/A2 Revision Thread

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