Help with Philosophy!

[daot]

Hi everyone,

IB survival's been a great help to me so far. To all the IB philosophy students out there, I'd really like some help. I have a really difficult time understanding what exactly my philosophy teacher wants from me in an essay, cos he never gives me good grades, and I don't really find his feedback constructive. Could anyone please show me some sample essays or guides on how to structure Philosophy essays? I find the time limit very difficult as well.

[Tilia]

The time limit is the most terrible thing with philosophy, you have really little time. Remember that.

The way to approach a pholosophy essay is to clarify, support, evaluate, conclude, find implications.

Clarify:

You'll have a question (or you make up a question), then you must define your terms. IF the question is about justice, democracy, God, etc, you must define this term. It does not have to be perfect (after all, whole essays are dedicated to the meaning of these words), but give it a try.

Support:

Find two contrasting views on the question and write up their arguments. Be detailed and make sure to refer to specific philosophers if you can, it'll give you points under the B criterion.

Evaluate:

This is what makes the difference between a 5 and a 7, at least according to my philosophy teacher. You have to evaluate the arguments you gave earlier. What is the strengths of this argument? The weaknesses? Does it apply to all situations? Are the premises true? Is the reasoning valid? Is it consistent with itself? Is it concrete and well defined or very vague or ambiguous? Are there any limitations to it? Ask youself all these questions in order to fully evaluate the different views.

Conclude;

Basically write something like "This view seems better because of this and this."

Find implications:

This can be hard, but gives your essay a nive ending. Try to think about the importance of the question you've just examined. If, for instance, you're writing about the rights of animals, you could say that "this question has implications for all who eat meat, hence it is important to most of the people".

Then, remember the TIME! For P1, you have 2 or 3 essays to write and don't spend more than 50 minutes on each, you don't have time for more. My advice is 20 minutes planning and outline writing and then 30 minutes writing. Even if you aren't done after 50 minutes, turn to the next essay. Don't linger over one essay more than 50 minutes!