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AQA A-level Philosophy Paper 1 (7582/1) - 16th May 2024 [Exam Chat]

Reply 20

grade9s

6

Original post

by Joe312

Issues facing dualism is a purple title though.

Yes, so a question on dualism issues can come up, but they will not make it specific to a certain type

Reply 21

Joe312

17

Original post

by grade9s

Yes, so a question on dualism issues can come up, but they will not make it specific to a certain type

Can you find a source for that? I can't see anything on the AQA website which says they will definitely restrict questions to the purple titles.

Reply 22

grade9s

6

Original post

by Joe312

Can you find a source for that? I can't see anything on the AQA website which says they will definitely restrict questions to the purple titles.

My teach emailed them specifically regarding that, to which they responded all essays are based on themes with purple titles. Of course I have no evidence I can show you of that, but one look at all past essay titles should prove it.

Reply 23

Joe312

17

Original post

by grade9s

Yes, so a question on dualism issues can come up, but they will not make it specific to a certain type

Isn't that contradicted by the fact that they have asked a 25 mark question on behaviourism before - but technically that doesn't have a purple title - it's just under the generic purple title 'physicalism'?

Reply 24

Joe312

17

Original post

by grade9s

My teach emailed them specifically regarding that, to which they responded all essays are based on themes with purple titles. Of course I have no evidence I can show you of that, but one look at all past essay titles should prove it.

Couldn't an epiphenomenalism essay question be 'based' on a theme with a purple title?

Reply 25

grade9s

6

Original post

by Joe312

Isn't that contradicted by the fact that they have asked a 25 mark question on behaviourism before - but technically that doesn't have a purple title - it's just under the generic purple title 'physicalism'?

No, because physical behaviourism IS physicalism. In other words, there is no content for physicalism but physical behaviourism, so it is still a purple title. It’s just a way of classifying it. For example, there is no official title called “Scepticism”, but “the limits of knowledge”, however “the limits of knowledge” doesn’t contain any content but scepticism content. It’s just a classification issue.
What WOULD be asking about something that’s not a purple title would be a question, for example, on tabula rasa.

Reply 26

grade9s

6

Original post

by Joe312

Couldn't an epiphenomenalism essay question be 'based' on a theme with a purple title?

Example?

Reply 27

Joe312

17

Original post

by grade9s

No, because physical behaviourism IS physicalism. In other words, there is no content for physicalism but physical behaviourism, so it is still a purple title. It’s just a way of classifying it. For example, there is no official title called “Scepticism”, but “the limits of knowledge”, however “the limits of knowledge” doesn’t contain any content but scepticism content. It’s just a classification issue.
What WOULD be asking about something that’s not a purple title would be a question, for example, on tabula rasa.

Physicalism is broader than behaviourism though. Physicalism also includes Mind brain type identity theory and eliminative materialism.

It's weird how they haven't given behaviourism its own title.

Anyway - if the questions could be 'based' on the purple headings - and 'issues facing dualism' is a purple heading - then it seems to me that they could ask questions like:
"is non-interactionist dualism the most convincing form? [25]
"Does epiphenomenalism succeed in defending dualism from issues it faces? [25]

Reply 28

grade9s

6

Original post

by Joe312

Physicalism is broader than behaviourism though. Physicalism also includes Mind brain type identity theory and eliminative materialism.
It's weird how they haven't given behaviourism its own title.
Anyway - if the questions could be 'based' on the purple headings - and 'issues facing dualism' is a purple heading - then it seems to me that they could ask questions like:
"is non-interactionist dualism the most convincing form? [25]
"Does epiphenomenalism succeed in defending dualism from issues it faces? [25]

Oh shoot I completely forgot about eliminative materialism and mind brain 😂😅
Now that you mention it, it honestly just looks like a styling error, especially when you see that "Physical Behaviourism" is written on its own, without bullet points, but having its own specific content.

Reply 29

grade9s

6

Original post

by Joe312

Physicalism is broader than behaviourism though. Physicalism also includes Mind brain type identity theory and eliminative materialism.
It's weird how they haven't given behaviourism its own title.
Anyway - if the questions could be 'based' on the purple headings - and 'issues facing dualism' is a purple heading - then it seems to me that they could ask questions like:
"is non-interactionist dualism the most convincing form? [25]
"Does epiphenomenalism succeed in defending dualism from issues it faces? [25]

Honestly, now that you've pointed out physical behaviourism, if the title "issues facing interactionist dualism" is a styling error and is meant to be a purple title, then yes. Otherwise, no, because the essay questions do not fixate around a certain area of a purple title, but the purple title itself.

Reply 30

Joe312

17

Original post

by grade9s

Honestly, now that you've pointed out physical behaviourism, if the title "issues facing interactionist dualism" is a styling error and is meant to be a purple title, then yes. Otherwise, no, because the essay questions do not fixate around a certain area of a purple title, but the purple title itself.

I vaguely remember that they asked a question about Utilitarianism - but they styled it around one of the bullet points - asking whether when making moral decisions we should maximise utility - something like that.

So that's focusing the question around an area. Though utility is very similar to utilitarianism.

Nonetheless - i'd be interested in the exact wording they said to your teacher. If it is that the question is 'based' on the purple title - then I do think the epiphenomenalism questions I suggested could be asked - because they are 'based' on the 'issues facing dualism' (in terms of what those issues involve).

I'd email AQA myself but they usually take 2 weeks to respond - too late for the A levels this year lol.

Reply 31

Saad06

10

Original post

by Joe312

There are so many ways you could structure it.
Maybe:
Behaviourism
One issue from spec
evaluate
Eliminative materialism
One issue from spec
evaluate
One dualist argument (indivisibility/conceivability/zombies/mary)
an issue from spec
evaluate

Do you think that if they asked a general question about physicalism I could just write out my property dualism essay I.e. property dualism is true therefore all form of physicalism cannot be true?

Reply 32

Joe312

17

Original post

by Saad06

Do you think that if they asked a general question about physicalism I could just write out my property dualism essay I.e. property dualism is true therefore all form of physicalism cannot be true?

That would limit your marks. Why not just do at least one paragraph on behaviourism? You need to know about behaviourism anyway for 5 & 12 mark questions so you may as well present behaviourism.

You could even be asked a 12 mark question like "Explain behaviourism and how dualist arguments might undermine it" [12]

So, at least starting the essay like that would be better.

But even better would be doing a full paragraph on behaviourism - maybe evaluated with one of the issues like super-spartans or the asymmetry objection.

Then you could explain how dualist arguments would counter it and evaluate dualist arguments after that.

Reply 33

Cckccc

3

For a 25 marker on indirect realism is it enough to just do 2 objections/points cos their are only 2 weaknesses in the revision textbook. If i was arguing against

Reply 34

Joe312

17

Original post

by Cckccc

For a 25 marker on indirect realism is it enough to just do 2 objections/points cos their are only 2 weaknesses in the revision textbook. If i was arguing against

Nope. You could make sure to separately evaluate Locke & Russell's responses to make it longer.

Or - start the essay with a paragraph on perceptual variation - an issue for direct realism but also a strength of indirect realism. Then evaluate whether direct could actually solve it.

Or - start the essay with Locke's primary/secondary quality distinction - do Berkeley's attack on the distinction and evaluate whether it succeeds.

Reply 35

Cckccc

3

Original post

by Joe312

Nope. You could make sure to separately evaluate Locke & Russell's responses to make it longer.
Or - start the essay with a paragraph on perceptual variation - an issue for direct realism but also a strength of indirect realism. Then evaluate whether direct could actually solve it.
Or - start the essay with Locke's primary/secondary quality distinction - do Berkeley's attack on the distinction and evaluate whether it succeeds.

Okay 🙂

So this structure would be:

Intro

Strength (Locke primary and secondary distinction)
Why this fails

Weakness (scepticism about the existence of mind independent objects)
Response
Reply

Weakness 2 (can’t compare ideas and mind independent objects)
Response
Reply

Conclusion

Reply 36

Joe312

17

Original post

by Cckccc

Okay 🙂
So this structure would be:
Intro
Strength (Locke primary and secondary distinction)
Why this fails
Weakness (scepticism about the existence of mind independent objects)
Response
Reply
Weakness 2 (can’t compare ideas and mind independent objects)
Response
Reply
Conclusion

Yep that would work great