AQA Philosophy - achieving the best marks.

Our school does pretty well in A-Levels apart from Philosophy [2as,1b,1c,1d,2es] which was pretty bad :P.

Philosophy I've been trying really hard in but it just seems to be going completley over my head. My teacher is basically making me do it, and forced me into taking it, as she is convinced I am philosophical or something. I don't know.

But the problem is, I'm really not. :s-smilie:

. I like to think about things, but I can't express it. How can I step up? I have a practice exam question for homework, but I'm never even sure how to start an introduction!

Is it normal for all these terms to be completley weird to you? Does it suddenly click? What will I have to do to get the best A-level result I want? - like, how do i structure my answers, etc.

Reply 1

Oddjob39A

Best tip I was ever given for studying philosophy was to play 'Plato's advocate' i.e. use the dialectical technique Socrates uses in the dialogues to dismantle an argument.

Before you write/think/say anything, question it from the perspective of Scorates. What would he say? How would he counter that? What would his argument be against it?

A more modern version you could try is 'Wittgenstein's advocate' i.e. the 'language games' philosophical technique he uses in the Philosophical Investigations.

For structuring your answers....

1)Avoid generalisations

2) Keep your points concise and relevant

3) develop a clear logical structure

4) Avoid tangents and keep to the point

5) Write philosphically, not historgraphically i.e. nobody cares WHERE Kant or Descartes was born, all we want to know is WHAt they thought

6)Be fluid and don't commit to any one, set perspective

7) Nothing in philosophy is empirical 'fact' - show an awareness of this

8) Be opinionated

9) Develop clear premises, a natural deductive technique and a coherent conclusion

10) Be original

11) Show the ability to break down an argument into its logical constituents i.e. Descartes' 'cogito' presupsition - how does he 'know' the mind is better known than the body, when he has only ever been mind-body and never just 'mind' ? A nice easy example here - Descartes may be justified in the a priori assumption, perhaps, that he can know his own mind but he is not justified in making the a posteriori assumption that he can be more than mind-body. Point logical fallacies like this out - it shows the ability to distill the logical form of texts such as the Meditations.

Reply 2

misswilliams

SiaSiaSia

Philosophy I've been trying really hard in but it just seems to be going completley over my head. My teacher is basically making me do it, and forced me into taking it, as she is convinced I am philosophical or something. I don't know.

I was going to give a lesson on structure then I read that. Philosophy is quite a tough subject for some, just allowing yourself to see things from many eyes and minds. Forced you in taking philosophy? Well...

If you REALLY don't want to learn it I suggest you back out now, because you can't force yourself to like it no matter how much your tutor is convinced it is for you.

If you do want to continue with it then take Oddjob's advice above, sounds about right to me. What I found hard was structure and the way I presented essays and answers. Especially when English Lit was my last lesson :p:

Work on the things above and you should do great, good luck with whatever happens!

Reply 3

SiaSiaSia

misswilliams

Work on the things above and you should do great, good luck with whatever happens!

Lol, well basically what happened is that this RE teacher [she is obsessed with philosophy and we just did morals and ethics in year 9 re. she's doing a phd in philosophy now] thought I was philosophical and I used to have meetings with her on my own and we'd have debates/discussions, which I really enjoyed.
Anyway in year 10-11 i had a different RE teacher and kinda forgot about it, and was like "yeah.. i'll do it, looks fun"
Then at the end of year 11, every time she passed me on the corridor she was like "You're doing philosophy aren't you?" and I was like. "uhm, yeah I spose." she even asked to see me on parents evening to talk about me doing philosophy, but then was ill. She then even asked to call my parents I think..

Anyway, so I was quite excited about Philosophy but then I just found it for the first week SOOO difficult, and I said to my mum to drop it, but even my mum said to me "you can't give up on something just because it's difficult". I talked to the teacher the following week and she said "please give it another week"

so i did, but now we're quite far into the term and dropping it seems a bit stupid now as the rest of my timetable i love :smile:

.
I'm beggining to find Philosophy very interesting - but I HATE contributing in it. I sit next to a girl who always contradicts my view (which is good), but my other philosophy teacher, every time he asks a question and I answer it she's always right and i'm always wrong (and i thought there WAS no right and wrong in Philosophy.)

and i just REALLY don't know what to do to progress, so that's why I posted. I HATE it when I find something difficult. :P

Thankyou for the comments, by the way, Misswilliams and Oddjob39a, most appreciated :smile:

Reply 4

misswilliams

SiaSiaSia

Thankyou for the comments, by the way, Misswilliams and Oddjob39a, most appreciated :smile:

Well the teacher was a bit pushy in my opinion but nevermind lets just forget that now...
I agree with your mum/teacher though, especially as you now seem to enjoy it. Not everything in life you enjoy is easy, I've only just learned that :rolleyes:

, sometimes it's not fun.
As for the teacher saying you are wrong, well there are obviously some things you can be wrong about e.g. facts, and they do occur in philosophy! haha. But if it is an opinion or a view then you are entitled to it, and of course you are not wrong.
I would suggest speaking to the teacher in question and ask them about it, understand why he is doing that. Or do what most philosophy students do, ignore them and carry on with their own thoughts anyway. Most of them seem to get the A's :wink:

Reply 5

SiaSiaSia

misswilliams

Hahaha let's hope!
well i'll post to say what grade i got on the homework... if i get a C i'll be like. oh **** :s-smilie:

:P
not that a C is bad, but i just should have taken somehting else.. or something. you get me?! x

Reply 6

SiaSiaSia

Hhahaha!
Well, to answer myself, it DID click :biggrin:

.
I suddenly understand it now and I'm really enjoying it!

Reply 7

SiaSiaSia

And these are ze comments on my work, as promised :P.

For the one about "To what extent could you argue that this parrot is a person?" He said: 'An excellent analysis. Do you think that species membership is a suitable criteria for defining personhood?'

For "Identify and briefly explain two characteristics that distinguish persons from non-persons" I got 9/15 - which is a C i think? not sure? and it says "A good effort. where do people in a coma or alzheimers fit in?"

For the timed essay in class to "Explain what is meant by 'Tabula Rasa' and outline a way in which it is used in epistomology" I got 12/15 [and it says AO3 3 next to it. what does that mean?] which i think is a B? and it says "Excellent! (Given the circumstances) [i was ill when I did it] If you want to do this again and finish then I'll mark it again - but I'm quite happy with this as an appetiser to the year!"

So I feel a bit better.
but i'm still stuck on the essay we got this week :P