OCR Ethics Exam (G581) - How was it?

I've just finished the OCR Ethics exam and was wondering how everyone found it

I was also wondering if anyone answered question two, and if they did, from what perspective? I answered it from a meta-ethics perspective and got worried when my friends said that they thought it was a conscience essay, but according to my ethics teacher an approach that focused on conscience or meta-ethics would be equally fine.

Thanks and good luck with any exams that you have left!

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Mike O'Connell

What did you guys put for the intuition question? Was it about metaethics or conscience?

Reply 2

ArrogantScholar

Hi,

I feel like it went fairly well:
I did the question on Natural Law and Environment and the one on knowing intuitively what good is.

For the former I was a bit worried about it. I focused on Aquinas' views regarding animals being less than humans hence they're not applied in Natural Law, links to scripture, links to the secular theories and link that to natural law.
For the latter I wrote on Meta-Ethics but others wrote on conscience. Whay did you guys/girls write? The idea of knowing what is unquestioningly good links to meta but moral judgements link to conscience!

Good luck everyone :-)

Reply 3

Mike O'Connell

In my judgement as an ethics teacher I think Q2 could be interpreted as either conscience or metaethics. Depends on how they view it at OCR I guess!

Reply 4

Mike O'Connell

I must say I'm quite angry at OCR for this examination.

The question about 'intuition' was incredibly ambiguous, leaving students completely unsure as to what topic to discuss and whether they gave legitimate answers or not.

Why it would want to make it difficult for students to interpret the question I don't know.

The test is about having a knowledge and understanding of theories and being able to evaluate them for their credibility and strength. Give students a chance to do this without having to guess what the interpretation of the examiner is as to what to write in the answer.

Reply 5

Zeldork

I suppose 'conscience' is just a name given to our understanding, knowledge and sense of the rightness and wrongness of actions, which is what meta-ethics discusses, so it's sort of two sides of the same coin, really.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 6

Zeldork

Just realised ethics is G582 - oops :colondollar:

Reply 7

ArrogantScholar

Original post by Mike O'Connell

Thank you for saying this! You wouldn't believe the amount of stress in my class for that ambiguity - I'll quote you on that to the class!

Reply 8

Mike O'Connell

Original post by ArrogantScholar

Thank you for saying this! You wouldn't believe the amount of stress in my class for that ambiguity - I'll quote you on that to the class!

Some of my students had a similar ambiguous feeling for the Philosophy of Religion examination, where they discussed resurrection and reincarnation in the question on 'philosophical views'. It may be that they will see 'philosophical views' as only meaning the views of philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, but it might not.

I'm just a little fed up by it. I see no benefit to be had by adding an extra layer of difficulty to the examination in trying to interpret the meaning of questions.

Reply 9

Jones050996

This has relieved me slightly as I've done a meta ethics and someone in my class did conscience, leaving me panicking :/ can I ask if anyone remembers the exact questioning of this question so I can show my teacher it

Reply 10

Zeldork

Original post by Jones050996

Yeah i'm pretty sure it was 'critically assess the claim that our moral judgements are based on an unquestionable intuitive knowledge of what is good' :smile: