Unit 4: On believing

Aristotle's conception of the good life. Explains eudaimonia, the function argument, virtue as a mean, the role of external goods and practical wisdom, and evaluates the theory against objections from luck and from rival hedonist views.

Desire-satisfaction and objective list theories of wellbeing. Sets out Parfit's three-way taxonomy, explains each theory and its advance on hedonism, and evaluates the defective-desires and elitism objections.

Unit 4 Area of Study 2 context page. Defines misinformation, disinformation, epistemic bubbles and echo chambers, applies Nguyen, Clifford, Peirce and Mill, and gives a worked analysis of a social media campaign case with practice questions.

Unit 4 Area of Study 2 context page. Shows how Mill, Miranda Fricker, Nguyen and Clifford bear on silencing, exclusion and cancelling, what makes a good case study, and a worked analysis with practice questions.

Unit 4 Area of Study 2 context page. Applies Elizabeth and Miranda Fricker, Peirce and Mill to cases about expertise, credibility and public trust, with a method for assessing experts, a worked analysis and practice questions.

Explains Miranda Fricker's concepts of testimonial and hermeneutical injustice, the virtue of testimonial justice and what epistemic communities owe their members, with objections, a worked example and practice questions for VCE Philosophy Unit 4.

Unit 4 Area of Study 2 skills page for VCE Philosophy. Explains the three contexts, how to pick a case study that raises epistemological issues, and a step by step method for analysing it with the Area of Study 1 concepts and set texts.

Hedonist theories of the good life. Explains Bentham's quantitative hedonism, Mill's qualitative distinction between higher and lower pleasures and the competent judges test, and evaluates whether the distinction is consistent with hedonism.

Unit 4 Area of Study 1 general question three. Examines Elizabeth Fricker on testimony and monitoring speakers, Miranda Fricker on credibility and prejudice, and Peirce on authority, with a checklist for trust and practice questions.

Relationship between the good life and morality. Examines Plato's Ring of Gyches challenge, the eudaimonist claim that virtue is part of flourishing, and evaluates whether a successful immoralist could live well.

Explores the link the Unit 4 study design asks for between believing well and living well, drawing on Clifford, Mill, Peirce, Fricker and Nguyen, with objections, a worked response and practice questions.

Unit 4 Area of Study 1 general question two. Reconstructs Clifford's argument that it is wrong to believe on insufficient evidence, adds Mill on open discussion and Elizabeth Fricker on epistemic autonomy, with objections and practice questions.

Unit 4 Area of Study 1 general question one. Uses Peirce's four methods of fixing belief, Elizabeth Fricker on testimony and Mill on testing opinion to assess how experience, testimony and expertise justify belief.

Living the good life in the twenty-first century. Applies theories of the good life to debates over technology and human enhancement, sets out transhumanist and bioconservative arguments using Bostrom and Sandel, and reaches a judgement.

Theories of well-being. Sets out hedonism, desire-satisfaction and objective-list theories, reconstructs Nozick's experience machine argument against hedonism, and evaluates which theory best captures what makes a life go well.

A map of VCE Philosophy Unit 4, On believing, for the current study design. Lists the 2026 and 2027 set texts, defines the core epistemology concepts and shows how they connect to the four general questions and the case studies.

Unit 4 Area of Study 1 general question four. Explains peer disagreement and the options of holding firm, conceding or suspending judgement, and uses Mill, Peirce and Nguyen to assess how to respond to disagreement.

Epicurean and Stoic conceptions of the good life. Explains Epicurus on pleasure as the absence of pain and Stoic virtue and apatheia, and evaluates both against objections about passivity and the demandingness of their ideals.