Written examinations: the Philosophy paper
Among the five written examinations of the European Baccalaureate - Language I, Language II, Mathematics and two option papers - Philosophy may be chosen as one of the options. The paper tests one demanding competence: the ability to construct a philosophical dissertation on an unseen question, under examination conditions, using the concepts and authors studied in S6 and S7. It is not a test of memorised chronology.
The paper
The paper offers a choice of questions, typically two or three, drawn from the syllabus domains: knowledge and truth, the human being, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics or philosophy of religion. You select one and write a sustained essay. Where a short text is set, the task becomes a commentary: identify the author's thesis, reconstruct the argument step by step, then evaluate it.
Building the dissertation
A dissertation is an argued answer, not a survey. The introduction defines the key terms and formulates the problem - the tension that makes the question genuinely difficult - then states the line of argument. The development proceeds dialectically: a first position with its argument and philosophical reference; an objection that exposes its limits; a refined position that answers the objection. Two or three such movements suffice. The conclusion answers the question explicitly and states the cost of the answer.
References earn marks only when they do work. Naming Sartre or Kant is worthless unless you explain the argument and show why it supports or undermines the claim at issue.
Worked example
Question: 'Is freedom compatible with determinism?' A weak essay narrates the history of the free-will debate. A strong essay defines determinism (every event is fixed by prior causes) and freedom (the capacity to have acted otherwise, or to act without constraint), then sets out the incompatibilist intuition: if my choice is caused, it is not truly mine. It examines Hume's compatibilist move - freedom as the absence of external constraint - and presses the objection that this redefines freedom rather than saving it. It concludes with a defended position, for example that compatibilism preserves moral responsibility only if we accept a thinner concept of freedom. Every paragraph returns to the question.
Traps that cost marks
- The catalogue essay: listing philosophers instead of arguing.
- Ignoring the exact wording; 'can' and 'must' demand different answers.
- Asserting a view without reasons or examples.
- No serious objection, so no real demonstration.
- A long introduction that never reaches the problem.
- Quotation without explanation.
Marking rewards pertinence, structure, conceptual precision, argumentation, critical evaluation and expression.