VCE Philosophy (Year 11)

VCE Philosophy (Year 11) on VCE Vault: 8 lessons written for Year 11 (VCE, Victorian Certificate of Education), each with worked examples, practice questions and Aari, an AI tutor. The first 4 lessons are free; the whole subject is a one-off A$12.99.

Lessons

Philosophical Method

• What Is Philosophy? Arguments, Validity, Soundness and Fallacies (free) — Identify premises and conclusions, test arguments for validity and soundness, and recognise common fallacies.
• Applied Ethics, Aesthetics and Writing a Philosophical Essay — Apply ethical theories to contemporary issues, consider questions in aesthetics, and write a structured philosophical essay.

Unit 1 — Existence and Knowledge

• Metaphysics — The Mind–Body Problem (free) — Explain and evaluate dualism, physicalism and functionalism as answers to the mind–body problem.
• Free Will and Determinism (free) — Explain and evaluate hard determinism, libertarianism and compatibilism, and their implications for moral responsibility.
• Epistemology — Rationalism, Empiricism and Sources of Knowledge (free) — Compare rationalist and empiricist accounts of knowledge and distinguish a priori from a posteriori knowledge.
• Scepticism and the Definition of Knowledge — Descartes and Gettier — Explain Descartes’ method of doubt and the cogito, and evaluate the justified true belief account of knowledge using Gettier cases.

Unit 2 — Questions of Value

• Ethical Theories I — Consequentialism and Kantian Ethics — Explain and apply utilitarianism and Kant’s deontology, and evaluate them using objections.
• Ethical Theories II — Virtue Ethics and Moral Relativism — Explain Aristotle’s virtue ethics and moral relativism, and evaluate whether morality is objective.