AQA A2 Philosophy 2 PHLS2 - 05 Jun 2017 [Exam Discussion]

Anyone know what to include for a 5 mark question about Mackie's argument from queerness?

I'd mention that his argument is a cognitivist argument, that moral facts are false, and then give an overview of the argument itself i.e. where is the wrongness in murder?, our usual ways of gaining knowledge about the world such as perception do not contribute to our gaining knowledge of morality. Hope this helps! It's a tricky argument tbh, hoping it doesn't come up 😁

A 25 marker on ethical language is very unlikely, as there isn't enough substantial content to actually write a 25-mark essay in 50 minutes. Even a 12 marker on ethical language is slightly unlikely, especially as ethical language came up on the 12 marker last year. If anything, there will most likely be a 3 or 5 marker on ethical language, if at all. So do not panic so much. As for applied ethics, my teacher said it is possible to come up this year as there wasn't one last year - and she had a feeling it would be on the treatment of animals, war or simulated killing (because they are relevant topics for current times). I am also currently working on a quizlet revision (arguments and key definitions) set for Philosophy of mind and ethics, I will post a link when I am done.

I can agree that a 25-marker on meta-ethics is less likely than a normative one, but you definitely can't say there isn't enough content for an essay. If anything, you're given heaps of stuff to talk about in an essay on a syllabus - you could take a cognitivist approach and attack Mackie and non-cog, or defend prescriptivism as an improvement on emotivism and moral realism. So, I wouldn't rule out preparing an essay on the topic at all, unless you don't mind getting stumped on the day of the exam.

how would u recommend planning the essay?? as in would you say "is non-cog/cognitivism a successful account of moral language?"

Yes, or something equivalent like 'are there moral facts?'

sorry for being so dumb but my teacher was awful at teaching meta-ethics.

ive written a non-cog essay saying it fails. how could i adapt that to fit this q??

But I prepared a Eliminative Materialism one which I thought could be very sneaky, as it's the only one about the language used. I can send it to whoever asks.

I can agree that a 25-marker on meta-ethics is less likely than a normative one, but you definitely can't say there isn't enough content for an essay. If anything, you're given heaps of stuff to talk about in an essay on a syllabus - you could take a cognitivist approach and attack Mackie and non-cog, or defend prescriptivism as an improvement on emotivism and moral realism. So, I wouldn't rule out preparing an essay on the topic at all, unless you don't mind getting stumped on the day of the exam.

A 25 marker on ethical language is very unlikely, as there isn't enough substantial content to actually write a 25-mark essay in 50 minutes. Even a 12 marker on ethical language is slightly unlikely, especially as ethical language came up on the 12 marker last year. If anything, there will most likely be a 3 or 5 marker on ethical language, if at all. So do not panic so much. As for applied ethics, my teacher said it is possible to come up this year as there wasn't one last year - and she had a feeling it would be on the treatment of animals, war or simulated killing (because they are relevant topics for current times). I am also currently working on a quizlet revision (arguments and key definitions) set for Philosophy of mind and ethics, I will post a link when I am done.

I think the objections in metaethics are the other theories: the objection with ethical naturalism would be Moore's open question argument, the objection to Moore being Mackie etc.

Hey guys, I bought some Kantian ethics model answers. One is a 12 marker and the rest a 25 markers. Would you guys like me to post them on here?

Do you reckon a specific question of non-cognitivism could come up (emotivism/ prescriptivism)? Doubt I'd have enough material to be able to write that

Think it will be either assess cognitivism/non-cognitivism or are there any moral facts, in which case I'd just do a generic cog vs non-cog essay

If it was 'assess non-cognitivism' and you did for and against for intuitionism/ ethical naturalism and then concluded by siding with emotivism, do you reckon this would be too far off the question? As in does it have to be for and againsts for emotivism and prescriptivism?

Sorry for the specific questions haha

The likelihood for ethics is that they'll ask 'is x useful for making moral decisions' for either Utilitarianism or Kant, as they've already done Virtue Ethics. They could also very easily ask 'are there moral facts' for Meta-ethics.

For mind, you could have the standard 'is the mind the brain' and all it's variations. But I prepared a Eliminative Materialism one which I thought could be very sneaky, as it's the only one about the language used. I can send it to whoever asks.

There aren't really that many essays they can ask, so I recommend you prepare at least all of these. If there are any possibilities you think I missed out, tell me.

Well, yes there is enough content to write about but within a 25 mark essay, but this would only cover A01, which is only worth 5 out of the 25 marks. The other 20 marks are for A02, which is to evaluate; however the spec does not allow for that within ethical language. This is why I said there isn't enough substantiated content in ethical language as there really isn't any grounds for picking sides/ issues with cognitivism and non-cognitivism.