La Rioja PAU History of Philosophy study plan

Build a one-page concept map of Plato's theory of Forms that links the allegory of the cave, the divided line, and the idea of the Good, and write a 150-word summary of how they connect.

Explain in writing why Plato treats sensory knowledge as inferior to dialectic, using at least three distinct arguments drawn from the Republic and the Phaedo.

Define and distinguish at least ten Platonic terms (eidē, doxa, epistēmē, anamnesis, psychē, agathon, mimēsis, methexis, dialektikē, timocracy) with one exam-ready sentence each.

Solve two past-style essay prompts on Plato under timed conditions (45 minutes each) and mark your own answers against a written checklist of expected points.

Compare Aristotle's four causes with Plato's Forms in a structured table, naming what each explains and where each runs into difficulty.

Reconstruct Aristotle's hylomorphism and the distinction between potentiality and actuality, then apply it to his account of change in the Physics.

Contrast Platonic and Aristotelian ethics by writing 300 words on how eudaimonia, virtue, and the mean function differently from the Form of the Good.

Answer three short-answer questions on Aristotle (substance, telos, the unmoved mover) in 10 minutes each, without notes.

Summarise Augustine's account of interiority, time, and the will, and identify two ways it anticipates Descartes' turn to the subject.

Explain Aquinas's five ways and the distinction between essence and existence, then state one standard objection to each argument you can name.

Map the Renaissance shift toward the human subject by outlining what changes from scholastic to humanist method, with two named authors as evidence.

Write a 400-word note tracing one continuous thread (God, the self, or method) from Augustine through Aquinas to Descartes.

Reconstruct Descartes' method of doubt, the cogito, and the proof of God's existence, and explain the role of clear and distinct ideas in the argument.

Distinguish substance dualism from the interaction problem and write out the objection in premise–conclusion form.

Compare how Descartes and Hume each treat the sources of knowledge, listing at least four points of divergence.

Complete a timed commentary (60 minutes) on a short supplied Descartes passage on doubt, identifying thesis, argument, and one weakness.

Explain Hume's fork (relations of ideas vs. matters of fact) and apply it to one metaphysical claim to show how the critique works.

Reconstruct Hume's analysis of causation and the problem of induction, then state one serious reply and assess it.

Summarise Hume's bundle theory of the self and contrast it with Descartes' cogito in 250 words.

Explain Kant's Copernican turn, the synthetic a priori, and the categories in your own words without consulting notes, then check against a source.

Reconstruct Marx's concepts of alienation, historical materialism, ideology, and class struggle, and show how they interlock in one argument.

Write 300 words on how Marx's critique of Hegelian idealism transforms the idea of philosophy's task.

Explain Nietzsche's genealogy of morals, the will to power, and the death of God, and identify two misreadings you will avoid in an exam.

Stage a written debate: draft the strongest objection Marx would raise to Nietzsche and Nietzsche's likely reply, 250 words each.

Summarise Ortega y Gasset's concept of the circumstance, perspectivism, and the mass-society diagnosis, and link them to his Spanish intellectual context.

Explain Wittgenstein's early picture theory and the later language-game approach, and state precisely what changed and why.

Describe the linguistic turn and its consequences for how philosophy is done, naming two problems it reframes.

Write a 350-word answer comparing Ortega's perspectivism with Wittgenstein's later view of meaning as use.

Practise commentary technique on three unseen short passages, producing thesis, argument structure, and evaluation in 45 minutes each.

Drill precision by rewriting ten vague sentences from your own notes into exact philosophical claims with defined terms.

Sit one full mock exam under real timing and mark it against the official-style criteria you have assembled.

Review your lowest-scoring domain from the mock and write a targeted one-page correction sheet of errors and fixes.