Group for those who do OCR A2 Philosophy & Ethics [Post Exam Discussion]

My exam technique? Rant.
Gets 92% with some examiners and 64% with others haha
Yours looks gooood though

i haven't had time to read this entire thread so i'm not sure whether this has already been discussed but i'm really struggling with the synoptic element of this exam. we were only told about this a few weeks ago and now i'm really worried...

i've just planned "some ethical theories are of more help than others when making decisions about sexual issues." discuss.

what on earth would be the synoptic element? i've discussed ultil, kant, nl and virtue ethics...maybe i'm looking at it the wrong way...is the synoptic element in this essay to do with the sexual issues or the 4 theories i've written about? looking at that it looks really stupid to say the synoptic element is to do with the sexual issues being discussed but...

ARGH i'm so confused.

i'm just going round in circles now and i'm starting to freak out slightly...

any help what so ever would be greatly appreciated!

The synoptic element is basically just the ethical theories (applied ethics). For this question the part on sexual ethics is A2 (because we only covered it this year). Applying the ethical theories such as Utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, Natural laws etc is applied ethics and counts as synoptic because we have not covered these theories as part of the A2 course (they were AS).
You will only get applied ethics questions for Business and environmental ethics and sexual ethics (For example the question you have done a plan for) You won't get an applied ethics topic for any of the other parts of the A2 syllabus (so for example you won't get a question like: Natural law is a better approach to morality than conscience)

I'd learn it, only because it's probably one of the easiest topics The last two questions have been about God being eternal and omniscient, so it may be wise to just look over God's omnipotence and benevolence?

They are quite straight forward, so I'd recommend looking over them.

wait...i was told that synoptic meant you had to reference philosophy in your ethics essay and ethics in your philosophy essay...is this not correct?

My teacher has always referred to the synoptic element as making reference to topics covered in AS. It's the same for my other subjects too. For example, Otto was influenced by Kant's ideas of knowing truth/knowledge via senses. I think I'm correct in saying this would be synoptic, as we studied Kant at AS. I've also linked a few bits with the Moral argument, as well as evil and suffering (even though the A2 syllabus touches on it).

Can someone explain to me the Christian belief in resurrection? I understand that when you die, your body is raised from the dead, but I don't understand how this relates to heaven and hell

Are you resurrected on judgement day?

I thought I was okay with this but this had made me realise I'm not, like... at all.
Going to look this up now. -.-

I know that there's the particular judgement on the moment of death, and I think you're supposed to be resurrected at the end of time when Jesus rises again...
not really sure about after that.

Summarised from textbook
According to traditional Christian belief, the resurrection of the body occurs at the end of time when Jesus returns... the dead in Christ will rise first followed by those still alive at the time of his coming...
Many Christians would argue that although the body dies, the soul is immediately united with God...
Catholic Christians believe that most souls go to purgatory where they experience punishment or purification in order to prepare for the Beatific vision. These souls are then ready to be united with a resurrection body.... only after the state of purgatory can we be said to be a person again.
We see God in heaven ‘face to face’ (according to apostle Paul).

I know same here! I think 'oh resurrection, I know that' but then I looked over it and though I just got so confused LOL.

Yup I think that's it. When Jesus returns to earth, those who are buried will be risen from the dead, and will be judged. If they lived good lives, they will enter Heaven, if they lived bad lives, they will enter Hell.

Oh and since Jesus' resurrection was physical, so will ours.

Do you think that's it?

wait...i was told that synoptic meant you had to reference philosophy in your ethics essay and ethics in your philosophy essay...is this not correct?

Yeah, but our resurrected body will be slightly different like Jesus' (I always remember that bit instead of the actual useful bits )
Where are we supposed to be resurrected to? Like, are heaven and hell supposed to be physical so we are there in body as well as soul (otherwise the resurrection is sort of null)

I also remember something about how the particular judgement and the end of time resurrection can be considered to be at the same point if you look at it from a Boethian eternal/timeless God POV - not really sure how relevant that is...

So confused! have probably made it worse now

Is anyone else finding the experience and religion section really hard? I don't understand how you would put the information into an essay...for example I have learned what William James says are the characteristics of religious experience, but how would that be relevant to an essay?

Is religious experience a likely topic to come up? And if so does anyone have any predictions as to which 'section' of the topic will be most likely to appear? (Visions/voices, is it genuine, corporate, revelation...?)

Yup in the book I also saw something about the Particular Judgement. All it is is the idea that we shape our relationship with God through our behaviour and actions. If we do wrong, then we are becoming distant from God and vice versa. We are judged upon our actions, making it personal to the individual. Therefore, at death, we will be judged on how good or bad we've lived our lives.

I don't know about Boethius though...do you mean that because Boethius' God sees everything simultaneously, God will instantly know whether you are going to Heaven or Hell? It will be at the end of time, but he will know about it before the end of time if you know what I mean. He just would not have caused us to behave in a way which would lead us to either Heaven or Hell?

So like he knows person X is going to Heaven, but he did not cause them to go there....therefore a timeless God almost removes the possibility of predestination that we associate with his omniscience?

I'm going to leave the Boethius thing since I can't remember exactly what my teacher mentioned it in relation to, but you could say that since he knows and doesn't do anything to stop it he shouldn't judge us. But this creates even more problems, which is why I'm just going to leave it out

Back on the resurrection thing, so we have a physical body in heaven or hell as well as the soul? We are 'us' again but maybe look slightly different - body & soul as one after the soul is judged. Is that it or have I misunderstood? :/

Yeah I think so. Tbh I'm so confused with this topic though aha

Yeah I thought I was okay on this topic, now my plan is to pretty much avoid it like the plague... Or at least the Christian parts :/

Sorry to re-quote you, but yeah I'm pretty sure you're confusing cognitive and non cognitive theories... Ayers emotivism is non cognitivist, so surely his view on religious language is the same.

If I'm wrong, sorry Feel free to correct me, but boy am I now confused haha