Below are links to A level philosophy revision notes organised by module and topic.

The AQA philosophy syllabus (course code 7172) is divided into four modules:

• Epistemology (theory of knowledge)
• Moral philosophy (ethics)
• Metaphysics of God
• Metaphysics of Mind

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Epistemology

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The definition of knowledge

• Justified True Belief
  • The tripartite definition
  • Necessary and sufficient conditions
  • Problem: Gettier cases
    • Gettier case 1
    • Gettier case 2
• Other definitions of knowledge
  • JTB+ no false lemmas
    • Problem: fake barn county
  • Reliabilism
    • Children and animals
    • Problem: fake barn county (again)
  • Virtue epistemology
    • Linda Zagzebski: What is Knowledge?
      • Formula for creating Gettier cases
      • Zagzebski’s definition of knowledge
    • Sosa’s virtue epistemology
    • Problem: children and animals
  • Infallibilism
    • Problem: too strict

Knowledge from perception

• Direct realism
  • Problems for direct realism:
    • The argument from perceptual variation
    • The argument from illusion
    • The argument from hallucination
    • The time lag argument
• Indirect realism
  • Sense data
  • Locke: Primary and secondary qualities
  • Problems for indirect realism:
    • Mind-independent objects cannot be like sense data
    • Scepticism and the veil of perception
      • Indirect realist responses: 
        • Russell’s reply
        • Locke’s first reply
        • Locke’s second reply
• Idealism
  • Bishop Berkeley: Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous
    • Attack on primary/secondary qualities distinction
    • Master argument
    • God as the cause of perceptions
  • Problems for idealism:
    • Problems with the role of God
    • Solipsism
    • Hallucinations and illusions (again)

Knowledge from reason

• Some definitions
  • Analytic / synthetic
  • A priori / a posteriori
• Intuition and deduction
  • Descartes: Meditations
    • Three waves of doubt
    • Cogito ergo sum
    • Clear and distinct ideas
    • Argument for the existence of God
    • Argument for the existence of the external world
  • Empiricist responses:
    • The concept of God is not innate 
    • Hume’s Fork
• Innate knowledge
  • Plato: Meno’s slave
  • Leibniz: Necessary truths
  • Empiricist responses:
    • John Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding
      • Arguments against innate knowledge
        • Innate knowledge would be universal
        • Argument against innate concepts
      • Tabula rasa
      • Simple and complex ideas

The limits of knowledge

• Scepticism
  • Philosophical scepticism and normal incredulity 
  • Descartes’ evil demon
    • Responses:
      • Descartes’ own response
      • Russell’s response
      • Locke’s responses
      • Berkeley’s response
      • Reliabilism

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Moral Philosophy

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Ethical theories

• Utilitarianism
  • Act utilitarianism
    • The felicific calculus
    • Problems for act utilitarianism:
      • Difficult to calculate
      • Tyranny of the majority
      • Moral status of particular relationships
      • Higher and lower pleasures
      • Other values/preferences beyond happiness
  • Rule utilitarianism
  • Preference utilitarianism
• Kant’s deontological ethics
  • The good will
  • Duty
  • The categorical imperative
    • Contradiction in conception
    • Contradiction in will
    • The humanity formula
  • Problems for Kant’s ethics:
    • Not all universal maxims are moral
    • Ignores consequences
    • Other valuable motivations
    • Conflicts between duties
    • Foot: Hypothetical imperatives
• Aristotle’s virtue ethics
  • Eudaimonia
  • Arête, ergon, and virtue
  • The doctrine of the mean
  • The skill analogy
  • Phronesis (practical wisdom)
  • Voluntary and involuntary action
  • Problems for virtue ethics:
    • No clear guidance
    • Circularity
    • Competing virtues
    • The difference between eudaimonia and good

Metaethics

• Realist theories
  • Ethical naturalism
    • Utilitarianism as naturalism
      • Mill’s ‘proof’ of utilitarianism 
    • Virtue ethics as naturalism
    • Problems for naturalism
  • Ethical non-naturalism
    • G.E. Moore: Principia Ethica
      • Naturalistic fallacy
      • The open question argument
      • Intuitionism
    • Problems for non-naturalism
• Anti-realist theories
  • Error theory
    • J.L. Mackie: Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong
      • Arguments for cognitivism
      • Argument from relativity
      • Argument from queerness
    • Problems for error theory
  • Non-cognitivist theories
    •  Emotivism
      • Hume: Treatise of Human Nature
        • Moral judgements motivate action
        • Hume’s fork (again)
        • The is/ought problem
      • A.J. Ayer: verification principle
    • Prescriptivism
      • R.M. Hare: The Language of Morals
    • Problems for non-cognitivism (i.e. problems for both emotivism and prescriptivism):
      • Moral argument and reasoning
      • Mackie’s arguments against non-cognitivism
  • Problems for moral anti-realism (i.e. problems for emotivism, prescriptivism, and error theory):
    • Moral nihilism
    • Moral progress

Applied ethics

• Stealing
• Simulated killing
• Eating animals
• Telling lies

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Metaphysics of God

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The concept of God

• The divine attributes
  • Omnipotence
  • Omniscience
  • Omnibenevolence
  • Eternal/everlasting
• Problems with this concept of God
  • The problem of the stone
  • The Euthyphro dilemma
  • Omniscience vs. free will

Does God exist?

• Ontological arguments
  • Anselm’s ontological argument
  • Descartes’ ontological argument
  • Problems for ontological arguments:
    • Gaunilo’s island
    • Hume: ‘God does not exist’ is not a contradiction
    • Kant: existence is not a predicate
  • Malcolm’s ontological argument
• Teleological arguments
  • Hume’s teleological argument
  • William Paley: Natural Theology
    • Problems for (spatial) teleological arguments:
      • Hume: problems with the analogy
      • Hume: Spatial disorder
      • Hume: causation requires multiple instances
      • Hume: infinite time, finite matter
      • Darwin: evolution by natural selection
  • Swinburne: The Argument from Design
    • Problems for (temporal) teleological arguments:
      • Multiple universes
      • Hume/Kant: is the designer God?
• Cosmological arguments
  • The Kalam argument
  • Aquinas: Five Ways
    • Argument from motion
    • Argument from causation
    • Argument from contingency
  • Descartes’ cosmological argument
  • Leibniz: sufficient reason
  • Problems for cosmological arguments:
    • Is a first cause necessary?
    • Hume’s fork applied to ‘everything has a cause’
    • Russell: fallacy of composition
    • Is the first cause God?
• The problem of evil
  • The logical problem of evil
    • J.L. Mackie: Evil and Omnipotence
      • Inconsistent triad
        • Reply 1: good couldn’t exist without evil
        • Reply 2: the world is better with some evil than none at all
        • Reply 3: we need evil for free will
    • Problems for the logical problem of evil:
      • Alvin Plantinga: Free will defence
  • The evidential problem of evil
    • Problems for the evidential problem of evil:
      • Free will (again)
      • John Hick: soul making

Religious language

• Cognitivism and non-cognitivism
• Religious language is meaningless
  • AJ Ayer: verification principle (again)
    • Problem: self-defeating
  • Falsifiability
    • Anthony Flew: invisible gardener
• Religious language is meaningful
  • Hick: eschatological verification
  • Basil Mitchell: ambiguous resistance fighter
  • R.M. Hare: bliks

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Metaphysics of Mind

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Dualism

• Substance dualism
  • Descartes’ conceivability argument
    • Responses:
      • Mind without body is inconceivable
      • What is conceivable may not be possible
      • Masked man fallacy
  • Descartes’ divisibility argument
    • Responses:
      • The mind is divisible
      • Not everything physical is divisible
  • Problems for substance dualism:
    • The problem of other minds
    • Interaction issues (conceptual and empirical)
• Property dualism
  • Some definitions
    • Qualia
    • Supervenience
    • Epiphenomenalism and interactionism 
  • David Chalmers: The zombie argument
    • Responses:
      • Zombies are not conceivable
      • Zombies are not possible
  • Frank Jackson: The Knowledge Argument
    • Responses:
      • Ability hypothesis
      • Acquaintance hypothesis
      • New knowledge, old fact
      • Mary would already know
  • Problems for property dualism:
    • Introspective self-knowledge
    • The phenomenology of our mental life 
    • Evolution

Physicalism

• Behaviourism
  • Some definitions
    • Hard and soft behaviourism
    • Behavioural dispositions
  • Gilbert Ryle: The Concept of Mind
    • Arguments against dualism
    • Category mistakes
  • Problems for behaviourism:
    • Asymmetry between self and other knowledge
    • Super Spartans
    • Zombies (again)
    • Multiple realisability 
    • Circularity
• Type identity theory
  • J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes
    • Ontological reduction
    • Ockham’s razor
  • Problems for type identity theory:
    • The location problem
    • Zombies (again)
    • Multiple realisability
• Functionalism
  • Hilary Putnam: The Nature of Mental States
    • Arguments against type identity
    • Arguments against behaviourism
  • Problems for functionalism:
    • Inverted spectrum
    • China brain
    • The knowledge argument (again)
• Eliminative materialism
  • Paul Churchland: Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes 
    • Folk psychology
    • Folk psychology as a scientific theory
    • Folk psychology vs. neuroscience
  • Problems for eliminative materialism:
    • Direct certainty of folk psychology
    • Folk psychology has good predictive power
    • Self refuting