Help with my philosophy exam
Hello all!!
I have a philosophy exam coming up for college and because I’m going on to do a degree in philosophy I need to make sure I am getting this right. Unfortunately, our tutor has admitted that she knows nothing about philosophy (she teaching us 11 different subjects) and she has asked us to use as many books as we wish to generate our answers for the assessment criteria.
I was wondering if you bright sparks would be of more help to me.
So firstly I need to analyse what constitutes a valid philosophical enquiry. We have been advised to use Descartes in this instance and his ‘Discourse on Method’ this is fine but then we have been asked to establish criteria to place a series of such enquiries within the appropriate branch of philosophy. This has kind of lost me.
And the other part that is confusing me is-Analyse ways in which language impacts on philosophy, such as logic, ambiguity, mathematics and paradox
Can anyone help?
It would be greatly appreciated. I am the only person going on from college to do philosophy so don’t really have many to ask about this.
Thank you
I have a philosophy exam coming up for college and because I’m going on to do a degree in philosophy I need to make sure I am getting this right. Unfortunately, our tutor has admitted that she knows nothing about philosophy (she teaching us 11 different subjects) and she has asked us to use as many books as we wish to generate our answers for the assessment criteria.
I was wondering if you bright sparks would be of more help to me.
So firstly I need to analyse what constitutes a valid philosophical enquiry. We have been advised to use Descartes in this instance and his ‘Discourse on Method’ this is fine but then we have been asked to establish criteria to place a series of such enquiries within the appropriate branch of philosophy. This has kind of lost me.
And the other part that is confusing me is-Analyse ways in which language impacts on philosophy, such as logic, ambiguity, mathematics and paradox
Can anyone help?
It would be greatly appreciated. I am the only person going on from college to do philosophy so don’t really have many to ask about this.
Thank you
Comments (9)
A citable resource on philosophy in general is the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, Descartes' Discourse on Method broadly concerns epistemology (as far as I know anyway), or the study of knowledge itself. Questions like 'how can we know anything without being certain of it?' or analysis of and responses to the Münchausen Trilemma are some introductory topics in it.
That's an odd thing for them to ask you for. I don't think there is a clear agreed upon answer. I suppose there are a few approaches. Of the top of my head:
A philosophical question is a question we do not yet know how to answer.
A philosophical question is about the relationships between concepts.
I've never read Descartes, but you could look at Wikipedia or the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. They will probably also have entries on what constitutes a philosophical enquiry. Still very mean to ask you to do the philosophy of philosophy when you haven't yet done much philosophy.
As for this:
Quoting Helen G
..that's awfully abstract. Is that the exact wording they give? It's an odd question - again it's taking a bird's eye view of philosophy. I don't see how anyone who isn't already familiar with a lot of philosophy could really form an impression of how language impacts on philosophy.
I suppose there are plenty of confusions and arguments based on poorly defined terms... is that what they want you to talk about? But that's not confined to philosophy. Maybe sorting such confusions out is the business of philosophy.
I think it would be quite fair to ask them for further detail on what they are asking for. Or you could do the time-honoured philosophical strategy of attacking the vagueness of the question and going through all the things it could possibly mean in as condescending a way as you possibly can.
So, it's been a while. How did your presentation go ? You never did get back to us.
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/4878/nietzche-and-his-influence-on-hitler/p1
There are other ways you can show the requirements of your philosophy exam, no ?
It does seem to be a bit heavy for an access introductory course.