AS level philosophy

OP

Original post by BekahMay

Omg I know 3 hours is so long, I thought the exam could have been alot harder, the essay questions seemed good and there was nothing that I had no idea what to write for

What did you think??

I know what you mean! I was expecting to get a question on innate ideas/knowledge and religious language, so I was kind of shocked tbh. I think i knew answers to all of the questions and I can't think of what else I could've added, so that's good right? Haha. I spent way too long on epistemology though so religion was kind of rushed. What about you?

Reply 6

OP

Original post by OzymandiasII

Did this too, struggled only with Berkeley, and only put three of the five arguments against innate ideas by Locke, though I did put his arguments concerning the trademark argument down (would this get marks).

I think the Berkeley question was strange because it's something we got taught at the beginning of the course, so it's lucky i went over it earlier this week! For the innatism question I put about simple/complex ideas, the mind being transparent, innate ideas aren't universal, and how we can augment etc ideas to make new ones. I think that's all I put for that, I felt i was a bit pushed for time because I spent too long on the justified true belief question.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by 9910224

Out of curiosity, what were the questions?

(I did A-level philosophy 2 years ago and I miss it...)

Well we get more than two questions (if that's how you did it?) but the main essay questions at the end of the test were "do cosmological arguments prove the existence of God?" and "is knowledge true justified belief?"

Reply 8

OP

Original post by grapes12

3 hours?
We had an hour and a half.
I found it okay, wrote about Aristotles 4 causes and Kants Moral Argument. We will see the results in August!

We must have different exam boards. There's two sides to the course but they were pushed together which is why it was three hours. Did you have two questions or something like that? We get 5 questions for each side of the course, and an essay question at the end

Reply 9

9910224

15

Original post by autumn.martha

Well we get more than two questions (if that's how you did it?) but the main essay questions at the end of the test were "do cosmological arguments prove the existence of God?" and "is knowledge true justified belief?"

Maaaaaan, you do two essays at the end? How many marks each? :eek:

If I remember correctly, we used to do 2 topics of our choice, each with 2 questions (one short description/outline question (15 marks) and an extended essay (30 marks)).

Damn, I guess they've stepped up the curriculum... We didn't do knowledge as JTB until A2. Never did philosophy of religion, though.

Reply 10

This exam was amazing! I hate philosophy yet managed to fill all the pages ! Feeling so confident - found it really easy. I was expecting questions like - synthetic a priori knowledge or specific objections to the proofs. Thank God it's over!

Reply 11

The question was regarding Locke's objections, although Hume and Locke both being empiricists, they asked specifically about Locke thus his arguments against innatism concern lack of universal assent, criticism of Trademark, reliance on the non-natural,etc.
Hume proposed the ideology of simple and complex ideas :wink:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 12

grapes12

8

Original post by autumn.martha

We must have different exam boards. There's two sides to the course but they were pushed together which is why it was three hours. Did you have two questions or something like that? We get 5 questions for each side of the course, and an essay question at the end

I do OCR, they are both an hour and a half long and one is philosophy of religion and the next is ethics.
We have 4 essay questions to pick from (part a and b, so all together 8 but you cant mix and match) and we chose two to do.

Reply 13

OP

Original post by patricio_miguel

The question was regarding Locke's objections, although Hume and Locke both being empiricists, they asked specifically about Locke thus his arguments against innatism concern lack of universal assent, criticism of Trademark, reliance on the non-natural,etc.
Hume proposed the ideology of simple and complex ideas :wink:

I know it was Locke's objections, but he uses Hume’s theory of simple/complex ideas to argue against the Trademark Argument, I'm sure? I asked my philosophy teacher about it before the exam anyway, so I don't think I would have gotten it wrong, if that's what you mean.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 14

OP

Original post by patricio_miguel

This exam was amazing! I hate philosophy yet managed to fill all the pages ! Feeling so confident - found it really easy. I was expecting questions like - synthetic a priori knowledge or specific objections to the proofs. Thank God it's over!

I know! I was real surprised that they didn't really ask about that part of the course. I was really expecting a question on innate knowledge or something. So glad it's over now, it's the course I've done the most work on and I'm so tired now haha

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 15

OP

Original post by 9910224

Maaaaaan, you do two essays at the end? How many marks each? :eek:

If I remember correctly, we used to do 2 topics of our choice, each with 2 questions (one short description/outline question (15 marks) and an extended essay (30 marks)).

Damn, I guess they've stepped up the curriculum... We didn't do knowledge as JTB until A2. Never did philosophy of religion, though.

The essay questions are 15 marks long, but you generally have to include quite a lot of stuff. I don't really like JTB because it just isn't really as interesting as everything else we do. Philosophy of religion is quite interesting though, we look at arguments for the existence of God and the problem of evil, things like that, which is really good!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 16

Original post by autumn.martha

I know it was Locke's objections, but he uses Hume’s theory of simple/complex ideas to argue against the Trademark Argument, I'm sure? I asked my philosophy teacher about it before the exam anyway, so I don't think I would have gotten it wrong, if that's what you mean.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I'm sure that his objection to the Trademark Argument is simply that there are differences within the cultures in how God is perceived(not unified, etc) which clearly shows that those ideas must have came from experience.

Reply 17

OP

Original post by patricio_miguel

I'm sure that his objection to the Trademark Argument is simply that there are differences within the cultures in how God is perceived(not unified, etc) which clearly shows that those ideas must have came from experience.

Ah well, whatever it is, I'd rather not dwell on it because there's nothing I can do now!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 18

9910224

15

Original post by autumn.martha

The essay questions are 15 marks long, but you generally have to include quite a lot of stuff. I don't really like JTB because it just isn't really as interesting as everything else we do. Philosophy of religion is quite interesting though, we look at arguments for the existence of God and the problem of evil, things like that, which is really good!

Yeah, JTB is the monkey puzzle of epistemology. Didn't really like it that much myself; got too much of a headache trying to figure out a definitive alternative... Then again, I don't think it'll be in the curriculum if someone had found a definite answer...

Reply 19