Prescribed Text Study
What this domain tests
Paper 2 examines one prescribed text studied in class. Questions test detailed knowledge of the text's argument, its structure and key passages, and your ability to evaluate it philosophically. You are not asked for a general essay on the author.
What earns marks
- Accurate reconstruction of the argument in the text's own terms.
- Close reference to specific passages, distinctions and stages of the argument.
- Explanation of key terms as the author uses them.
- Evaluation: objections, replies and a defended judgement.
Worked example
If the prescribed text is Descartes' Meditations, a question on the cogito requires more than 'I think, therefore I am'. Explain that in Meditation II the cogito survives hyperbolic doubt because it is performed in the act of doubting; Descartes presents it as an intuition, not a syllogism. Then assess: does it establish a substantial self or only the existence of thinking? Hume's bundle theory and Lichtenberg's 'it thinks' are useful objections. Link each criticism back to the text.
Traps
- Retelling the plot or biography instead of analysing the argument.
- Importing outside philosophers without connecting them to the passage.
- Quoting without explaining.
- Missing the precise focus of the question.
- Treating the author's view as obviously true.