Philosophy flashcards

98 VCE Philosophy cards across 2 modules (19 definitions, 76 key facts, 3 fill-the-gap, 0 formulas). Each session gives you 20 cards, due cards first. Swipe right for easy, left for hard, down for again. Keyboard: Space to flip, 1 to 4 to rate.

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Definition
Analysing and criticising arguments on the good life: VCE Philosophy
Define Does the conclusion follow?
Is the support strong enough? Does the argument shift from one meaning of a word to another?
Definition
Believing well and living well: VCE Philosophy
Define Ethical
Believing well is a moral matter. Clifford says we owe it to others to guard our belief, and Miranda Fricker shows that being unjust in how we judge credibility wrongs others as knowers. So living well morally includes believing well.
Definition
Comparing viewpoints and defending a position on the good life: VCE Philosophy
Define Differences
Where exactly do they part? Prefer a precise point such as 'Callicles equates the good with satisfied desire, Socrates does not'.
Definition
Choosing and analysing a case study: VCE Philosophy
Define Describe the case briefly and neutrally
Who said what, to whom, with what effect?
Definition
Freedom and authenticity in the good life: VCE Philosophy
Define Not necessary?
Someone raised in a tradition and content within it may flourish without ever choosing it. Defenders reply that continuing to endorse it on reflection is itself a form of authenticity.
Definition
Responsibilities for belief: VCE Philosophy
Define Clifford's own reply to 'too strict'
Clifford does not ban relying on other people. Later in the same essay he asks when it is lawful to believe on the testimony of others. His answer is that testimony is a proper ground for belief when we have good reason to trust the speaker's honesty, the speaker's opportunity to know, and the speaker's judgment. He also allows belief that goes beyond our own experience, on the assumption that nature is uniform (his examples include reports of the past, such as the historian Thucydides, and the spectroscope's evidence about distant stars), and he says that careful inquiry need not paralyse our daily life. So 'too strict' is partly answered inside the text. Do not describe Clifford as accepting only first-hand evidence: VCAA's 2025 examiners marked down answers that treated him as a purely personal-evidence evidentialist and missed his treatment of testimony.
Definition
Unit 3 set texts and key concepts: VCE Philosophy
Define Happiness
Aristotle on the highest good, Wolf on what else matters.
Definition
When to trust what others say: VCE Philosophy
Define Competence
Is the speaker in a position to know P? Do they have the expertise, access or evidence?
Definition
The individual's good and the good of others: VCE Philosophy
Define Harmony
Harmony is attractive but may be too convenient: there seem to be real cases where doing right costs the individual, such as whistleblowing at great personal cost. A harmonising theorist must either say such people still live well, or admit conflict.
Fill the gap
Nozick's experience machine and well-being: VCE Philosophy
___ holds that well-being consists in pleasant experience and the absence of unpleasant experience.
Hedonism holds that well-being consists in pleasant experience and the absence of unpleasant experience.