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Philosophy IA


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I have philosophy internal assesment due in March, and I can't seem to think of a stimulus for my essay. My task is to find a non-philosophical stimulus and apply the ideas of other philosophers to comment on the stimulus i have chosen. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks. =D

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  • 3 weeks later...

All I can really say to this is that philsophical 'stimulation' lies in pretty much EVERYTHING!

If you want some really juicy philosophical tidbits, I'd suggest watching some classic films-- stuff like Fight Club, Memento, Cool Hand Luke, that kind of thing. Or you could start with some song lyrics. The more tripped out and insane the better. Pretty much any song has at least one thing in it which the songwriter thought sounded deep-- questioning reality, or what's right, or what's true, or what's an illusion and all that stuff. Or adverts-- they're harder to get things from, though, so I find. Finally, if you're really stuck, any work of literature worth reading has got something in it. The more classic and deep the author is, the better.

Good luck, and trust me, philosophical issues can be broad. Even just a film with AI in it (like I, Robot or something) could spark off an essay. Think broad and you'll come across a multitude of things to prattle on about.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I want to write my extended essay on philosophy too. Im still working on my question though, but at the moment its "How does consumerism affect society?". So, as you said, I am applying philosophy in to a not very philosophical matter. Lets see how it works out.

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With the Philosophy IA its best to choose a painting or something visual. For example, I read a IA about the paiting Ideal City. They took that applied Marxist and Platonian view and how it can not exsiste because it requiers pure human submission and human codition will not allow that. It was very good. You can also look at "goods" in society, such as podiums, desks, computers, ect.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
I'm going to do mine on the movie WallE and how that reflects human nature.

hey does anyone know what you need on a philosophy IA cover sheet?

I think u need ur name, ur IB number and school but i'm not sure... for the other post u should think about which area of philosophy u want to study... if u want to do egoism, u will find that alot of songs especially rap songs have something that deals with both psychological egoism and ethical egoism... u can also do the core theme this year of what is a human being and that is actually really easy, u can use i-robot for that and also u can use I-robot for Utilitarianism, it all depends on which part of philosophical concepts u want to use

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  • 4 weeks later...

I don't think it's so much about the title as about the stimulus you've found :)

The easiest way to formulate an essay title is to find something philosophically interesting (a random quote from a film, book, song...) and then relate it to the thoughts of a philosopher you've encountered. For instance if you can find something like the film Babe and then how the pig in it talks, you could maybe talk about Peter Singer's idea that animals have the same rights as people. The title is then quite easy to formulate from that sort of thing (:

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  • 1 month later...

I want to write something either on the core theme or Philosophy of Art, which we haven't done yet. I have two ideas right now.

The first one is to analyse a recording of The New World Symphony by Dvorak and writing about how just performing what someone else has done can be creatve. Very broad, I know... Can anyone help me to narrow it down?

My 2nd idea is about the novel Brave New World. The Savage says that he doesn't want to live in that society and someone else replies "You are requesting the right to be unhappy?" and the Savage admits that he is. Maybe I could write about whether humans always desire happiness or not?

What do you think?

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Ok, I would go with your second idea. Im not testing out of Philosophy till next year but Im still in the class this year and my prof. said to avoid "what is creativity" (your 1st idea). With the second one you could talk about are humans inherintly good thus making them desire happiness, you could just about talk about every religious philosophy about a happy life is a good life so do we strive for a good life. Theres the assumption that nihilism is "bad" and forms unhappy people. You could talk about human nature desiring happiness and the counter that existentialism says we have no human nature so if you were born without the idea of happiness can you be happy?

PM me if you want more philosophy help. Its my strongest subject.

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PM me if you want more philosophy help. Its my strongest subject.

OMG how did you manage that? I try and put a lot of effort in but I don't know-I seem to be stuck at 18/30 which I've gotten on every single essay this year. Am I setting out my essays wrongly and limiting myself somehow?

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:D How on Earth can philosophy be our best subject? I think it's really hard, especially since it's hard to know how well/badly I'm doing. Right now I'm predicted 5, so it's not a total disaster, but I would like to get a 6.

Thanks a lot, your last suggestion seems really interesting, think I'll go with that! :D

Edited by Tilia
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  • 7 years later...

For anyone who stumbles across this thread just like I did: I originally went with some song lyrics that spoke to me in order to do determinism ('Forest' by Twenty One Pilots, if anyone's curious), but realised it didn't work that well and I really had no desire to write about determinism. My new essay idea combines personhood, consciousness and Kant's idea of not treating beings as a means to an end through the context of Wall-E. Get creative! Do whatever comes to your head! If it seems a little crazy, maybe it's a good idea; my teacher's draw dropped when I explained my idea so it can't be all that bad ;) Take a risk! Good luck :) 

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  • 3 years later...
On 5/13/2016 at 6:09 AM, Do1phinDreamer said:

For anyone who stumbles across this thread just like I did: I originally went with some song lyrics that spoke to me in order to do determinism ('Forest' by Twenty One Pilots, if anyone's curious), but realised it didn't work that well and I really had no desire to write about determinism. My new essay idea combines personhood, consciousness and Kant's idea of not treating beings as a means to an end through the context of Wall-E. Get creative! Do whatever comes to your head! If it seems a little crazy, maybe it's a good idea; my teacher's draw dropped when I explained my idea so it can't be all that bad ;) Take a risk! Good luck :) 

Hey! This seems like such a great paper! Is there a way I could read it? It sounds so fascinating. I just graduated last year and I wrote my IA on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and connected to free will. 

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