The OFFICIAL AQA AS Philosophy May 2013 Exams Thread. (Units 1&2)

Hi everyone sitting either one or both of their AS philosophy modules this May.

Please use this thread for exam preparation, revision help & support, as well as any chat that refers to either of the philosophy exams.

I am sitting both Unit 1 (13^th) & Unit 2 (17^th) this May

For Unit 1: I am taking 'Reason and Experience' and 'The Idea of God'
For Unit 2: I am taking 'Tolerance' and 'God and The World'

What are other people doing?
Does anyone have any ideas of what the (usually dreaded) Reason and Experience questions will be?

:biggrin:

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Reply 1

Cottam96

Hi, I'm doing PHIL 2 in May, in which I'm doing Free Will and Determinism and the Value of Art in January the 30 marker for reason and experience was the mind at birth is a tabular rasa discuss, which was the dream question, looking for past question the worse you could get is Is Certainty is confined to Introspection and Tautology?

Reply 2

akastudent

i'm also doing unit 1 - "reason and experience" and "The idea of God"
unit 2- "God and the world" and "the value of art"
I'm so scared tho. I'm trying to revise but i feel like I'm not "learning" anything!
any revision tips?! and is there any chance that conceptual schemes will come up? (i'm praying that it wont) :frown:

Reply 3

the A* guy

Original post by akastudent

In my personal opinion, it is quite likely that a 30 mark question on conceptual schemes will come up, I say this because there has not been a 30 mark question on conceptual schemes since June 2010, however because there have been so many questions about sense experience and innate knowledge, they are just as likely to come up as well.
Hope this helps! :biggrin:

Reply 4

>Username<

I'm doing PHIL2 The value of art and Free will and determinism.

Can somebody please help me out? There are some things I don't understand. If I posted them here, would someone be able to help me out?

Thanks.

Reply 5

Cottam96

Original post by >Username<

if you put it on I will try to help you out as I'm doing the same units :smile:

Reply 6

Nihilistic slur

I'm doing r and e and the idea of god, then free will and determinism and god and the world, literally any information on conceptual schemes would be of great help. Thanks.

Reply 7

Onoderas

Doing both units this Summer.

PHIL1-Reason and Experience and The Idea of God
PHIL2-The Value of Art and God and the World

Hoping that a tabula rasa/sense experience question comes up, but I have a strong feeling conceptual schemes will come up. What would you even write if introspection and the tautological came up as a 30 mark question!?

Reply 8

>Username<

Original post by Cottam96

if you put it on I will try to help you out as I'm doing the same units :smile:

Thank you. :smile:

I really appreciate it. :smile:

In terms of determinism I've confused on 'the state of nature'. I hope that makes sense. Basically its in one of my revision books and my teacher spoke about it as well. I just don't understand it. :s-smilie:

Reply 9

akastudent

Original post by the A* guy

omg,now im freaking out :frown:

could you guys please help me ?! quickly define/introduce conceptual schemes and just give me the philosophers names and their views on conceptual schemes. I would really appreciate it. Thanks :smile:

Reply 10

RunningInHeels

Phil 2 on May 17th on God and the World and Knowledge of the External World.

Is anyone else doing knowledge of the external world as it is quite difficult to understand and therefore write essays on :frown:

.

Also how is everyone revising? Lots of mind maps and essay practice? Do tell!

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Reply 11

RunningInHeels

Original post by Onoderas

There is a really useful essay plan on introspection and tautological on getrevising!

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Reply 12

Onoderas

Original post by RunningInHeels

There is a really useful essay plan on introspection and tautological on getrevising!

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Think I just managed to find it now thank you for the reference! Managed to give some guidance, although still praying for an innate knowledge/tabula rasa question!

Reply 13

the A* guy

Original post by Onoderas

Think I just managed to find it now thank you for the reference! Managed to give some guidance, although still praying for an innate knowledge/tabula rasa question!

Can you put up this link to get revising please.

:smile:

Reply 14

Onoderas

Original post by the A* guy

Can you put up this link to get revising please.

:smile:

Of course! I'm pretty sure this is the plan;
http://getrevising.co.uk/revision-notes/is_certainty_confined_to_tautologies_and

Sorry for the late reply, good luck with your revision :smile:

Reply 15

RunningInHeels

There are some other resources on get revising too, such as key terms sheet, summary of theories etc.

Does anyone have any essay writing tips? In particular for the 30 markers.

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Reply 16

RunningInHeels

For those doing 'God and the World' there is a sneaky difference between arguments for design and arguments from design.

This cropped up in a revision class today, I'm just passing on the information.

Arguments for design are the anthropic cosmological principle and Swinburne's teleological (temporal order etc). Whereas arguments from design are the ones that draw an analogy: Paley, Cleanthes (Hume).

Hope this doesn't trip anybody up!

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Reply 17

Onoderas

Original post by RunningInHeels

Hello! Just wondering (not too sure about a lot as this is self-taught :s-smilie:

) could I use irreducible complexity as an argument FOR design and Swinburne's simplest explanation, Fine tuning etc. And for arguments FROM design use Paley's watch, Hume's attack on the analogies etc. Sorry if this seems really basic stuff!

Reply 18

RunningInHeels

Original post by Onoderas

Hello! Just wondering (not too sure about a lot as this is self-taught :s-smilie:

What is irreducible complexity? Maybe I've been taught them as something else... Hume's attack on the analogies are a criticism of arguments from, so if a question said for example: 'outline and illustrate an argument from design 15 marks,' you would just use Paley and Cleanthes (Hume). However in a 30 marker you would use the criticism.

Why is this self-taught? And what is your second module for Phil 2?

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Reply 19

Onoderas

Original post by RunningInHeels

Irreducible complexity is an argument that says creatures are so complex that they cannot have come from evolution.
It's outlined in this way;

· Behe describes the man parts that work together to move the tail that propels a certain bacterium
· Behe argues that evolution can’t produce such an organisation of parts
· The reason, is that evolution works by making small changes, accidently over time, one at a time
· But, until all the pieces are in place together, the tail wouldn’t work
· It’s all or nothing BUT evolution is bit by bit
· Behe argues that irreducible complexity is direct evidence of design
· If a system won’t work at all until all its parts are in place, this suggests that someone planned and organised the parts

And got it thank you :smile:

, hoping if it comes up they keep the question general as in previous years. But I self-teach as my centre doesn't offer the course but wanted to take it up and hated my other AS choice so swapped it! But I'm doing The Value of Art, how about you!?