AQA • Philosophy

An AQA A Level philosophy essay plan answering the 25 mark question 'Is there a successful way in which propositional knowledge can be defined?'. Introduction, 4 paragraphs and a conclusion, arguing that virtue epistemology is the best definition of propositional knowledge. Includes out of specification content for top grades.

AQA A-level Philosophy Year 1 Epistemology notes for the topic of 'What is knowledge? / tripartite definition of knowledge'. Teacher assessed and fully marked, A* worthy and includes all you need to know for this specific topic of this course. Memorising this will be enough to understand the full topic.

notes on Metaphysics of mind, including concept of what the mind and it is a physical or non-physical entity. topics on types of dualism and physicalism and evaluation of each.

notes on the concept of God, arguing for and against God's existence through many arguments, the meaningfulness of religious language on religious believers.

notes on key concepts in epistemology (theory of knowledge) including virtue epistemology, infallibism, reliabilism, knowledge from perception, knowledge from reason, indirect and direct realism, limits of knowledge.

notes of concepts in moral philosophy including utilitarianism (act, rule), deontological ethics, metaethics, virtue theory, humanity formula.

AQA A Level Philosophy Revision Checklist

In this essay I will argue that utilitarianism cannot be defended. I will first begin with act utilitarianism, then show how act utilitarianism fails, moving onto rule utilitarianism. I will show that rule utilitarianism collapses into act utilitarianism, and then discuss preference utilitarianism and problems with it.

In this essay I will argue that Kantian deontological ethics cannot be defended. I will first show Kant’s ethical theory, and some reasons why it is a good theory. I will then show arguments against the ethical theory, and why it ultimately fails as a moral theory.

In this essay I will argue that indirect realism is not the correct theory of perception. I will first show that indirect realism doesn’t face the same criticisms direct realism faces, such as the issue of perceptual variation, illusions, and hallucinations. I will then critique that by showing that indirect realism faces scepticism about the nature of the external world, and then show that indirect realism eventually faces the threat of solipsism, which is the view that your own mind is the o...