Philosophy IA

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Philosophy IA

• Options

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Type of Essay

• Philosophical Essay
• OR
• Dialogue
• 1,600-2,000 words
• Based on non-Philosophical text

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Non-Philosophical texts

• novels, plays, poetry, song lyrics
• films/movies, television and radio shows
• cartoons, paintings, photographs or other visual
  images
• newspaper articles/letters
• Internet sites
• advertisements
• pamphlets
• propaganda.

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Restrictions for Non-PHL text

• Students should select a short piece of
  non-philosophical material to analyse. A
  newspaper article can stand alone but where
  novels or plays are used, no more than two pages
  should be selected for analysis, and in the case
  of a television or radio show, film/movie or
  play, no more than two scenes should be used. The
  emphasis should be on the depth and quality of
  the philosophical analysis, and not on the length
  or the intellectual level of the source material
  used.
• When the source material contains 200 words or
  fewer students must include a copy of this
  material. When the source material contains more
  than 200 words students must include a
  description of this material. Sources of 200
  words or fewer may take the form of poems,
  pamphlets, song lyrics and newspaper articles/
  letters. Sources of over 200 words (poems,
  novels, newspaper articles) and film/movie scenes
  or television/ radio shows (not the whole movie
  or show) must be described in no more than 200
  words. All stimulus material must be accurately
  referenced.

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Subjects You Can Use

• 1. Grounds of epistemology
• 2. Theories and problems of ethics
• 3. Philosophy of religion
• 4. Philosophy of art
• 5. Political philosophy
• 6. Non-Western traditions and perspectives
• 7. Contemporary social issues
• 8. People, nations and cultures
• 9. Prescribed Reading List

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Epistemology

• Knowledge, Truth, Certainty
• How do we experience the world around us?
• Rationalism and empiricism
• Opinion, belief, knowledge
• Language and meaning
• Truth, coherence, correspondence and pragmatism
• Grammarian philosophies a classical Indian
  approach
• Challenges to knowledge and confirmation of
  knowledge
• Realism, skepticism and the arguments from
  illusion, mysticism
• Subjectivism, objectivism
• Causal theory, idealism, phenomenalism,
  perspectivism
• Theories of justification
• Knowledge around the world
• Access to knowledge
• Knowledge and technology
• Knowledge and power

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Ethics

• Principles for moral action normative ethics
• Do moral principles exist? Are they universal or
  relative to a particular situation or culture?
• Are some virtues more important than others?
• Self-interest versus the interests of others
  (ethical egoism)
• Doing the right thing and doing the best
  thing (deontological versus teleological
  theories)
• The greatest good of the greatest number
• Duty, dharma
• The nature of moral judgmentmeta-ethics
• The origins and nature of moral values
• Is moral sense natural or cultural? Relative or
  universal? Subjective or objective?
• What is the significance of calling something
  right or wrong?
• Is moral behaviour found only in human beings?
• Foundations for moral judgments belief in a
  higher being, rationality, emotion, natural law,
  gender, environment
• Applied ethics
• Bio-medical ethics
• Environmental ethics
• Distribution of wealthethical responsibilities
  to humanity

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Religion

• Concepts of a higher being
• What does the word God mean? The diversity of
  conceptions of the divine
• Nihilism, atheism, agnosticism, post-theism
• Arguments for and against the existence of God
• Problems of evil and suffering
• Religious language, ritual and symbol
• Religious experience and behaviour
• The nature and value of religious experiences
  from social conformity to personal commitment
• The pragmatic view of faith indoctrination,
  illusion, projection
• Faith and motivation for belief, the post-modern
  view of faith
• The human experience of evil moral evil, natural
  evil
• Sin, alienation and salvation
• Religion around the world
• Religion and politics
• Religion and gender issues
• Religion in a multicultural environment

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Art

• The artist
• Is the notion of the artist a construct of
  Western civilization?
• The artist versus the craftsperson
• Creative licence conformity, censorship,
  sponsorship
• Accountability to oneself, to a cause, to moral,
  political or social ends
• The artist as a reflector of existing values or
  as an agent of change
• The beholder as an artist
• The artistic process
• The nature of creativity
• The artistic process around the world function,
  form and content
• Is art a means to an end or an end in itself?
• The artistic process as imitation,
  transformation, creation
• The artistic process as a means of expression,
  communication, education, propaganda,
  indoctrination
• The impact of various technologies on the
  production and concept of art
• Is art always the product of human activity?
• Art, aesthetic experience and artistic judgment
• Great works of art, artifacts, crafts, pop art,
  reproductions
• Is it valid to classify forms of art? Does the
  diversity of forms of art imply there is no
  universal message?
• Can we make a judgment about a work of art? Must
  art endure to be art?

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Political

• Civil society, the state and government
• Distinctions between state, nation, government
  and civil society authority, sovereignty, power
  and corruption
• Social-contract theories of civil society and
  government consent revolution
• Forms of government one-party democracy,
  multi-party democracy, oligarchy, monarchy,
  authoritarian and totalitarian rule, tribalism,
  theocracy
• Ideologies of government liberalism,
  conservatism, Marxism and socialism
• Civil duties
• Anarchism
• Just war theory, the concept of jihad
• Terrorism and the use of violence for political
  ends
• Liberty and rights
• Positive and negative liberty
• Legal and human rights duties and
  responsibilities
• Liberty and equality needs, merit, entitlement
  and social justice
• Degrees of censorship and freedom of information
• Justice
• The distinction between distributive and
  retributive justice the right or will of the
  strong substantive versus procedural justice
  relations to fairness truth the moral and
  positive law
• Notions of punishment
• Gender politics
• National and international law

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Non-Western Traditions

• The individual
• The self/non-self
• Subjectivity/objectivity
• Selflessness
• Identity, self-fulfillment, self-denial
• Self-expression versus self-extinction
• The journey of the self
• Ethics
• The nature of human and non-human beings
• The distinction between living and non-living
  objects the scope of the animate/inanimate
• Relations to other beings/objects
• The meanings of life moral/ethical possibilities
• Society and culture
• Adaptation and coexistence with modern
  societies/cultures
• Relevance in political, economic, social and
  cultural contexts
• The community/the collective
• The role of culture on knowledge, meaning and
  value

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Contemporary Social Issues

• Work, nature and technology
• The value and conditions of work
• The working environment alienation,
  exploitation, rights, equal opportunity
• Labour markets globalization, migrant labour,
  child labour
• Nature and humans dependence, stewardship,
  domination, exploitation
• A holistic approach human activity as part of
  nature
• Technological progress and the impact on the
  environment and human activity
• Is technology a means to an end or an end in
  itself?
• Gender issues
• Sexual politics constructs of femininity and
  masculinity
• Equality and discrimination
• Identity the impact of gender differences on
  human selfunderstanding
• Role identification and role distribution
• Social organization
• Media and information in the modern world
• Media culture
• Domination, oppression and liberation
• Racial and multiracial awareness
• Social justice

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People, Nations and Cultures

• Dimensions of culture
• The emergence of cultures cultural evolution or
  cultural revolution new cultural forms in the
  present day
• Cultural change, interaction and integration
  factors that create such activity
• Multiculturalism, global culture, globalization,
  cosmopolitanism
• The role of tradition and the establishment the
  preservation and/or loss of cultural identity
• The challenge of diversity
• Cultural superiority/inferiority what criteria
  could we use to make such judgments?
• Cultural relativisms or absolutism attitudes to
  other cultures
• Nationalism, patriotism, loyalty/duty/honour,
  immigration, emigration
• Ethnicity, multi-ethnicity
• Issues of internationalism
• The rise of internationalism
• Citizenship local, national, global
• The basis of internationalism humanism, Marxism,
  the Enlightenment, the contribution of religious
  belief, the concept of world peace
• Self-identity and self-expression from an
  international perspective
• Institutions as a vehicle for internationalism
  (for example, the United Nations)
• The political expression and impact of
  internationalism, federalism, localism, globalism

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Prescribed Texts

• N/A - Bhagavad Gita
• Confucius - The Analects
• Lao Tzu - Tao Te Ching
• Plato - The Republic, Books IVIX
• René Descartes Meditations
• John Locke - Second Treatise on Government
• John Stuart Mill - On Liberty
• Friedrich Nietzsche - The Genealogy of Morals
• Bertrand Russell - The Problems of Philosophy
• Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition