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

Thank you. I really appreciate it.

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.

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 , 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!?

Ahhhh no I haven't learnt/ been taught that one! Yes I think that's an argument from design. The philosophy syllabus is so wide, many students study completely different modern philosophers and still get brilliant grades.

I don't know anyone else doing 'Knowledge of the external world.'

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I did Knowledge of the external world and God and the world as my first unit. Done the exam for that in Jan and now have Reason and Experience and Persons as unit 2. R + E is by far the most difficult, not nearly as confident with those two compared to unit 1.

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 , 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!?

I don't know about the state of nature I've never heard of it before my teacher has never said it nor has they put it in our notes, what exactly does it relate to determinism, what methodology, strength/weakness or distinction?

x

im self teaching too! the textbooks can get so frustrating :L

Self-teaching is horrible! So annoying with some textbooks being useless for some topics (Lacewing and the Religious Point of View...). Really would just love to pass this subject after all the hard work that's gone into this self-teaching. But do you get help from a tutor or anyone!?

definitely. its annoying how inconsistent the standards between different texbook series can be - I find lawcing great for the value of art at AS for example, where the nelson thornes is rubbish. But for philosophy of mind at a2 (im doing all 4 exams in june which is going to be hell) nelson thornes is good but lawcing cant explain the topic well at all!

im sure you'll do fine though.. the fact that youve decided to self study already shows youre pretty dedicated!

im in touch with an AQA examiner who i send practice essays too and get feedback which is useful. what about you?

I do the Value of Art too!! I think it's my least favourite topic though (either that or R&E). I mean Art can be a bit hit and miss, I think representivism can be simple if the question is art should represent reality but trickier if its about art meaning truth/illuminating experience. Form is just for me and expressivism is ehh, representing the artists feelings is okay but more about the psychological properties can get a bit tricky. But good luck with all 4 units and same applies to you! You clearly have an interest and will do great if you picked this up

Do you use the Philosophy in Focus textbook too? Not sure if you're doing God and The World unit 2 but it was the only textbook that made sense for the topic and wish I used it sooner as it's great for the units it covers...

How did you get in touch with them!? Just through connections? Because if so that's so lucky, I send my essays off to a Philosophy tutor who covers a range of exam boards for feedback, it's quite good although costly for essays

Thank you so much for the help! Really cleared up a lot for Formalism, especially the great Mona Lisa example . But I get what you mean about being able to bring in stuff like games and everything, I want to but sometimes I get scared the examiner is just gonna be like no . And yeah that's the advantage, they never really pull out a weird one, it seems hard to do so other than another way of wording asses theory X.

Haha I get what you mean, I just stuck with Lacewing to be honest, really difficult to keep cross referencing books when note taking for me . Hopefully he'll see us through! What topics are you doing alltogether? But I went to a talk on tolerance in about October (?) and yeah I can imagine it being hard. The talk was enough to hurt my head, but I've seen a few complain about it online so hopefully the marking and grade boundaries will thus work in your favour!

But that's so lucky! And please do That would be helpful, I could send you any too? I get a laptop in my exams so it may be just about the amount I could write as I tend to be able to go on

Hi guys, I've finished my AS Philosophy, got a B and an A yay! if you want revision notes I uploaded mine here....

knowledge of external world-
http://getrevising.co.uk/resources/knowledge_of_the_external_world_aqa_as_philosophy_complete_revision_notes

value of art-
http://getrevising.co.uk/resources/value_of_art_philosophy_aqa_as_complete_revision_notes

YOU ARE A GOD SEND (theological pun intended).

Thank you thank you thank you

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My teacher said coincidence, ignorance and probability do not prove or disprove libertarianism.

Please could you explain to this me (or anyone).

Thanks.

Here are my notes for PHIL1 (R+E/Why Should I Be Moral?) and PHIL2 (The Value of Art/Free Will and Determinism), I scored 65/100 UMS and 95/100 UMS respectively on these papers, although I'm resitting PHIL1 as I feel I have the potential to do better considering I scored 72/100 UMS on PHIL1 last year when I was in AS (I'm A2 now! ) - I think the marking was harsh due to the questions being so easy compared to previous years, I seriously doubt that otherwise it would be plausible for me to get lower with a year's more experience.

I think pretty much everything you need is included, although the PHIL2 notes are probably better. Let me know if you need me to clarify anything. If you choose to use them as a revision aid I'd advise shortening them as they are quite long/detailed.