Unit 3: Minds, bodies and persons

Hume's bundle theory and the Buddhist no-self doctrine. Reconstructs the argument from introspection, explains the five aggregates and Nagasena's chariot, and evaluates the view against objections about the unity and ownership of experience.

Idealism. Explains Berkeley's claim that to be is to be perceived, reconstructs the argument from the relativity of perception and the master argument, and evaluates idealism against objections about continuity and common sense.

Derek Parfit's theory of personal identity. Explains psychological continuity and connectedness, works through the fission and teletransporter cases, sets out the reductionist conclusion that identity is not what matters, and evaluates it.

Personal identity over time. Sets out the body, soul and memory criteria, reconstructs Locke's consciousness theory of personhood, presents Reid's brave officer and the circularity objection, and reaches a judgement.

Property dualism and epiphenomenalism. Explains how property dualism keeps one substance but two kinds of property, sets out the case from the explanatory gap, and evaluates the epiphenomenalist threat to mental causation.

Qualia. Reconstructs Jackson's Mary the colour scientist argument and Nagel's what is it like to be a bat, explains the explanatory gap, and evaluates the physicalist replies including the ability and acquaintance responses.

Bodily and brain criteria of personal identity. Distinguishes numerical from qualitative identity, sets out the bodily and brain-based accounts, and evaluates them against transplant, teletransportation and fission cases.

Searle's Chinese Room. Reconstructs the argument that syntax is not sufficient for semantics, explains its target in strong AI and functionalism, and evaluates the systems and robot replies.

Problem of other minds. Explains the epistemic and conceptual problems, reconstructs the argument from analogy, and evaluates it against the weak-induction objection and inference-to-the-best-explanation and criteriological replies.

Substance dualism and the mind-body problem. Sets out Descartes' conceivability and divisibility arguments, explains the interaction problem raised by Princess Elisabeth, and evaluates dualism against physicalist alternatives.

Physicalist theories of mind. Explains type and token identity theory, behaviourism and functionalism, sets out the multiple realisability, qualia and Chinese Room objections, and evaluates whether the physical can capture consciousness.

Logical behaviourism. Explains Ryle's attack on the ghost in the machine and the category mistake, sets out the analysis of mind as behavioural dispositions, and evaluates it against the perfect-actor and circularity objections.

A skills page for VCE Philosophy Unit 3. Gives a structure for comparing two set texts, developing a perspective and defending it with applied examples, plus a model essay plan on contemporary living.

Unit 3 Area of Study 1 general question four. Compares de Beauvoir on freedom and the ambiguity of existence, Nietzsche on herd morality and self-creation, and Mill on individuality, with objections and practice questions.

Unit 3 Area of Study 2 general question one. Reconstructs Singer's argument in Famine, Affluence and Morality, sets out Weil's claim that obligations come before rights, and adds Cicero on duty, with objections and practice questions.

A map of VCE Philosophy Unit 3, The good life, for the current study design. Lists the prescribed set texts for 2026 and 2027, shows which text speaks to which of the eight general questions, and defines the core concepts you need.

Unit 3 Area of Study 1 general question three. Sets out Aristotle on why the happy person needs friends, Cicero on friendship and virtue, and Allen on political friendship, with objections and practice questions.

Unit 3 Area of Study 1 general question one. Compares Callicles and Socrates in Plato's Gorgias, Aristotle on moderation, and Nietzsche on discipline, with objections, a worked comparison and practice questions.

Unit 3 Area of Study 2 general question two. Explains Allen on justice and equitable self-interest, Weil on rights and obligations, and Mill's harm principle, with objections, a worked comparison and practice questions.

Unit 3 Area of Study 1 general question two. Explains Aristotle on happiness as the highest good and the function argument, contrasts happiness as feeling with flourishing, and uses Cicero and Wolf for comparison and objection.

Unit 3 Area of Study 2 general question four. Examines whether my good and others' good conflict or coincide, using Aristotle, Allen, Singer, Weil and Wolf, and shows how to revisit your Area of Study 1 position in light of others.

Unit 3 Area of Study 2 general question three. Uses Wolf's Moral Saints, Plato's Socrates and Callicles, Aristotle and Nietzsche to ask whether a good life must be a morally good one, with objections and practice questions.

A skills page for VCE Philosophy Unit 3. Shows how to reconstruct an argument from a set text, test premises and assumptions, and write a targeted criticism, using a worked reconstruction of Singer.