IB Philosophy HL case studies
IB Philosophy HL · Put your knowledge to work in context.
IB Philosophy Higher Level is the two-year Diploma Programme course in philosophy, assessed by the IB Organisation and graded on the 1–7 scale. It suits students who enjoy argument more than memorisation: you are asked to reconstruct positions, expose assumptions and defend your own view in continuous prose. The course pairs a compulsory core theme, Being human, with one or more optional themes chosen by your school - typically from aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, philosophy and contemporary society, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of science - and a prescribed text studied in depth. Higher Level candidates also sit a separate paper requiring close philosophical analysis of an unseen passage, and complete an internal assessment analysing a non-philosophical stimulus such as an advertisement, film or news item. The IB Philosophy HL case studies are 5 cases and about 3,682 words.
1Mr. Okafor and the Limits of the Memory Criterion
Priya, a 17-year-old IB Philosophy HL student, volunteers at a care home and is drafting a 1,400-word essay on personal identity for a timed assessment. She wants to use a resident, Mr.
712 words, about 4 min2The Youth Film Festival Jury
The Greenfield Youth Film Festival jury has three members and 48 hours to award a single £2,000 prize. Twelve finalists have been screened.
759 words, about 4 min3The 87% AI-Detection Flag
Northgate School's academic integrity panel has 20 minutes to decide whether to refer a 16-year-old student, Sam, for misconduct. Sam's 1,200-word history essay on the Paris Commune was flagged by an AI-detection tool with an 87% probability of machine generation.
702 words, about 4 min4Two ICU Beds, Three Patients
The intensive care unit at a city hospital has two free beds and three patients who need ventilation within the next two hours. Patient A is 34, a primary school teacher, with a 70% predicted survival and no major comorbidities.
749 words, about 4 min5The Failed Ego-Depletion Replication
A psychology lab has completed a replication of a well-known ego-depletion study. The original study reported a medium-to-large effect (d = 0.60) with 80 participants.
760 words, about 4 min