A level Philosophy

1. Philosophy toolkit

Baseline exam

For the Philosophy Toolkit unit exam, you should revise the following topics:

What is philosophy?

Argumentation

  • Concepts and propositions; words and assertions
  • Philosophical argumentation
  • Deductive and inductive arguments
  • Fallacies, including the fallacy of composition, the fallacy of equivocation, and the naturalistic fallacy

Definitions

  • The nature of definition
  • Necessary and sufficient conditions

The origins of philosophy:

  • Socrates and his elenchus
  • Plato including his cave allegory
  • Aristotle

The exam will last one hour and thirty minutes and comprise 3 mark questions, 5 marks questions, and 12 marks questions.

Generic subject content: question list

Here’s a full list of questions derived from the ‘Subject content‘ part of the AQA specification. We’ve covered a lot (but not all) of these in the introductory unit.

Generic Subject Conten Questions (Word format)Download
Generic Subject Content Questions (pdf format)Download

Learning resources

01. A level Philosophy IntroductionDownload
02. Concepts, propositions, and assertionsDownload
03. An argument Download
03. ArgumentationDownload
Example arguments exerciseDownload
Example arguments exercise answersDownload
04. Deduction and inductionDownload

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a comprehensive list and explanation of fallacies

05. Argumentation (advanced) and fallaciesDownload
06. Necessary and sufficient conditionsDownload
07. SocratesDownload

DailyMotion Socrates video (we watched in class)

08. PlatoDownload

Plato’s cave allegory: Original text

09. Plato FormsDownload
10. AristotleDownload