VCE Materials
Members' Resources for VCE Philosophy
Below are a range of resources and presentations. Most of the resources have been donated by members of the Committee, teachers of philosophy, professional philosophers and supporters of VAPS. Many of the presentations come from Forums, seminars or workshops delivered at VAPS events. The Committee thanks all contributors for their work and for their willingness to share their work with VAPS and its members.
The resources below can be downloaded and adapted for use within the bounds of the Disclaimer for Resource Use which can be found at the bottom of the page.
Unit 4 Forum Sept 10th, 2017
VAPS Trial Examination and Mock Examiner's Report
VCE UNITS 3 and 4
Administration
- Sample course planner
- Sample course planner for Unit 3 - Term 1 2014
- Sample course planner for Unit 3 - Term 2 2014
Unit 3: Area of Study One
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Olivia Carter on the Science of Consciousness from the Unit 3 Forum lecture, 2016.
- Descartes' Second Meditation from Fiona Patterson's presentation at New Texts workshop, 7 December 2007.
- Science, Knowledge and Dogma
- The nature of mind and body - Rene Descartes, Meditation 2
- PowerPoint on David Armstrong text
- Plato's Allegory of the Chariot - A document explaining Plato's allegory of the soul from the Phaedrus
- Common arguments against physicalism which can be used as evaluations in assessments
- Armstrong text comrehension and context questions
- VCE Philosphy companion materials sheet for breadth reading
- Descartes text comprehension and context questions
- Evaulations for the different parts of Descartes' Meditations with working space for reflections
- Note-taking sheet for Decartes' Meditations
- Plato's Phaedo text comprehension and context questions
- Wittgenstein's Beetle in the Box
- Compare and Contrast activity for Outcome 1
- The mind-body problem: Descartes vs. Armstrong presented by Laura Schroeter at the Philosophers' Forum, August, 2009.
- Descartes and Armstrong presented by Colin Marshall on 11 September, 2011.
- Descartes and Armstrong presented by Laura Schroeter on 9 September, 2012.
- David Armstrong powerpoint and David Armstrong notes presented by Ross Phillips, 2003.
- The mind-body problem presented by Barry Taylor at the Philosophers' Forum, August, 2004.
- Descartes and Armstrong Revision
- Nietzsche Revision
- The Good Life Comparisons and Contemporary Debates Revision
Unit 3: Area of Study Two
- Evaulating Locke and Hume by James Watt (presentation)
- Evaluating Locke and Hume by James Watt (companion notes)
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Ruth Boeker on Locke and Hume on Personal Identity from the Unit 3 Forum lecture, 2016.Monima Chadha on Buddhism and Personal Identity from the Unit 3 Forum lecture, 2016.
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Michael Barton on the Phaedo - U3 Forum presentation, May 17th, 2015
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Ruth Boeker on Locke and Hume on Personal Identity - U3 Forum presentation, May 17th, 2015
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Jared Horvath on The Material Basis of Consciousness - U3 Forum presentation, May 17th, 2015
- Galen Strawson notes on Hume on personal identity
- Summary of Hume extract by T. Hill
- Summary of Hume Extract (revised 2015) by T Hill
- Evaluations of Hume by T. Hill
- Buddhism and the Doctrine of Anatta by Lorna Brooks (presentation in pdf format)
- Demonstration answer for chariot analogy and comparison activity
- Commentary on Santideva
- Evaluations for Buddhism by T. Hill
- Mind and Consciousness by J. Jorvath, May, 2014
- Locke and Hume by J. Watt, May, 2014
- The Questions of King Milinda (text and annotations) by Monk Jag, May, 2014
- The Self Delusion by Monk Jag, May, 2014
- Brahmajala Sutta (text and annotations) by Monk Jag, May, 2014
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Brennan K. David on Ancient Conceptions - U4 Forum presentation, 2016
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Mark Hewson on Nietzsche - U4 Forum presentation, 2016
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Daniel Nellor on Singer - U4 Forum presentation, 2016
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Brennan McDavid on Ancient conceptions of the Good Life (a comparison of Plato and Aristotle) - U4 Forum presentation, September 13th, 2015
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Arthur O’Neill On Nietzsche - U4 Forum presentation, September 13th, 2015.
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Additionally, Arthur O'Neill has developed the following VCE Unit 4 Notes and Activities on the Nietzsche set text
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Keith Hankins on Singer ‘Famine, Affluence and Morality’ - U4 Forum presentation, September 13th, 2015
- Plato's Gorgias
- Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book I, chapters 1 to 5 and 7 to 9 and Book II.
- Plato's Gorgias overview
- Gorgias review: Five key questions
- Aristotle study questions
- Plato's Gorgias: study questions
- Aristotle quiz
- Aristotle and Homer Simpson
- Aristotle and potential
- Aristotle and Jane Goodall - Reason for Hope
- Aristotle and Aesop - The Ant and the Grasshopper
- Nietzsche and mercy
- Teaching Nietzsche presented Dr. Robert Miller (RMIT), VAPS Conference June, 2011
- Nietzsche Overview And The Genealogy Of Morals presented by Dr Robert Miller (RMIT), May, 2011
- Friedrich Nietzsche On the Natural History of Morals: Notes from Robert Miller at New Texts Workshop, 7 December 2007.
- Gorgias presented by Dr. Amber Carpenter (University of York), May, 2011.
- On The Natural History Of Morality: a brief account of Nietzschian morality as described in Beyond Good and Evil presented by Dylan Thorn at the Philosophers' Forum, June, 2008.
- Callicles and Socrates presented by Prof. Dirk Baltzly at the Philosophers' Forum, June, 2008.
- Callicles and Socrates on the value of rhetoric presented by Prof. Dirk Baltzly at the Philosophers' Forum, May, 2009.
- Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: the big picture presented by Prof. Dirk Baltzly at the Philosophers' Forum, May, 2010.
- Gorgias: lecture notes and response to questions from a presentation by Edward Jeremiah at the Philosophers' Forum, May, 2010.
- Beyond Good and Evil presentation (lecture notes and response to questions) by Dr. Robert Miller, RMIT at the Philosophers' Forum, May 2010.
- Get on the ships! Beyond Good and Evil presented by Dylan Thorn at the Philosophers' Forum, May, 2009.
- The Joyful Wisdom presented by Dr. Robert Miller at the VAPS Forum The Good Life, 16 June, 2007.
- Penny Davies: On Aristotle presented at Philosophers' Forum, May, 2004.
- Aristotle's Theory of a Good Life: Penelope Davies, VAPS Philosophers' Forum, May, 2005.
- Notes on Aristotle presented by Penelope Davies at VAPS Philosophers' Forum May, 2006.
- Nietzsche: PowerPoint presentation and lecture notes presented by Jo Faulkner at VAPS Philosophers' Forum, May, 2006.
- Gorgias Revision
- Aristotle Revision
- Friedrich Nietzsche notes
SAC Archive
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Unit 3 SAC 1 - Short answer test on Plato and Descartes
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Unit 3 SAC 2 - Short answer test on Armstrong and contemporary debates
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Unit 3 SAC 3 - Short answer test on Locke and Hume
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Unit 3 SAC 4 - Short answer test on Buddhism and contemporary debates
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Unit 4 SAC 1 - Short answer test on Plato and Aristotle
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Unit 4 SAC 1 - Short answer test on Aristotle (modified assessment)
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Unit 4 SAC 2 - Short answer test on Nietzsche and Singer
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Unit 4 SAC 3 - Essay on technology and the good life
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Unit 4 SAC 4 - Essay on consumerism and the good life
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Unit 3 SAC 1 - Short answer test on Plato, Descartes and Armstrong
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Unit 3 SAC 2 - Essay on Area of Study One
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Unit 3 SAC 3 - Short answer test on Locke and Hume
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Unit 4 SAC 1 - Examination on Area of Study One
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Unit 4 SAC 2 - Examination on Area of Study Two
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Unit 3 SAC 1 - Short answer test on Area of Study One
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Unit 3 SAC 1 - Short and long answer test on Area of Study One
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Unit 3 SAC 2 - Essay for Area of Study One
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Unit 3 SAC 3 - Short answer test for Area of Study Two
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Unit 3 SAC 4 - Essay for Area of Study Two
- Unit 4 SAC 1 - Short answer test on Plato
- Unit 4 SAC 2 - Short answer test on Aristotle
- Unit 4 SAC 3 - Short answer test on Nietzsche
- Unit 4 SAC 4 - Essay for Singer
- Unit 4 SAC 5 - Essay for contemporary applications
Trial SAC questions
- Sample Plato's Phaedo question
- Sample Descartes question
- Another sample Descartes question
- Sample Armstrong question
- Sample Locke question
- Sample Locke question answer
- Sample Locke question
- Sample Locke question
- Sample Hume question
- Sample Hume question
- Sample Hume question
- Sample Buddhist question
SAC Assessment sheets
- Outcome 1 Assessment sheets
- Outcome 2 Assessment sheets
- Outcome 2 Assessment sheets (Essay task)
Examinations
This is a link to the VCAA Philosophy page which has previous VCAA Examinations as well as the Examiner's Reports for each Examination by year.
Practice exams:
The following practice examinations are not VCAA exams and do not necessarily reflect VCAA standards. They are offered here for use by other VAPS members as a reference but you are invited to modify them to suit your students' needs.
- Philosophy Practice Exam 1
- Philosophy Practice Exam 2
- Philosophy Practice Exam 3
- Philosophy Practice Exam 4
- Philosophy Practice Exam 5
- Philosophy Practice Exam 6
- Philosophy Practice Exam 7
- Philosophy Practice Exam 8
SAC Archive (pre-2014 Study Design)
- Unit 3, Outcome 2 - essay topics: Nietzsche and Weil (courtesy of Kambrya College)
- Outcome 1
- SAC 3
- Outcome 1: Ancient Greek Conceptions of the Good Life
- Essay
- Short answer
- Extended response
- Various
- SAC 2 Essay
- Unit 4, SAC 3
- Unit 4 SAC 2
- Unit 4, SAC 2
- SAC 3 Murdoch essay
- SAC 3 Dialogue
- SAC 1a Plato short answer and extended response.
- SAC 1b Aristotle short answer and extended response.
- SAC 2 Nietzsche and Murdoch
- SAC 3 Oral presentation: The Good Life
- SAC: Hume, Popper, Kuhn
- SAC 1: Descartes
- SAC 2: Plato, Popper and Kuhn
- Unit 3, Outcome 3: Contemporary society quotes
- Unit 3, SAC 1
- Unit 3, Outcome 3
- Unit 3, SAC 3
- Unit 3, SAC 2
- Unit 3, Outcome 2 - Possible essay topics from non-Greek texts
- SAC Overview
- Answering essay questions in the Philosophy exam
- Answering extended questions in the Philosophy exam
- Short answer exam questions, 2001 to 2005
- SAC overview
VCE UNITS 1 and 2
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Companion resources for Year 11 Philosophy
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Essay planner format
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General advice for writing a philosophy paper
Unit 1
- Unit 1 sample course outline
- Ross Barham, VAPS Conference, June, 2011, Teacher notes on Introduction to Logic and Reasoning & Techniques of Reasoning
- Teacher notes for an Introduction to logic and reasoning
- Teacher notes for Metaphysics: self and identity
- Analysis and Evaluation Task: Pre-Socratic Philosophy
- Analysis and Evaluation Task: Aristotelian Philosophy
- St Augustine on the nature of time summary
- St Augustine extracts
- Epistemology test
- Overview of Locke's Empiricism (Relevant to Unit 3!)
- Plato's Cave text (The Republic)
- The philosophy of Time and free will test
- Writing a time travel story assignment
- William James epistemology quote (for discussions)
- VCAA Support Materials: Hume
- Area of study 2: Knowledge, Science and Belief - Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
- Kuhn, Chapter 13
- Kuhn, 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions', pp 66 - 98.
- Philosophy of Science: Popper and Kuhn
- Popper: basic information
- Some questions on Popper's Science: Conjectures and Refutations
- Hume and Popper PPT version and PDF version presented by Dr Gerhard Wiesenfeldt (University of Melbourne) on 11 September, 2011.
- Kuhn on the nature of science presented by Dr. Dana Goswick on 9 September, 2012.
- Popper & Kuhn presented by Dana Goswick, 9 September, 2010.
- Plato, Popper and Kuhn! presented by Prof. Dirk Baltzly at the Philosophers' Forum, August, 2009.
- Popper and Kuhn Revision
- Epistemology Unit:
- Lesson plans
- Lesson 1 Introduction
- Lesson 2 Major concepts
- Lesson 3 The Cave
- Lesson 4 Descartes
- Lesson 5 Locke
- Lesson 6 Hume
- Lesson 7 Truman Show and a document for while you watch
- Assessment questions
Unit 2
- Unit 2 sample course outline
- Eastern Philosophy crossword and test (Relevant to Unit 3, 2014!)
- Eastern Philosophy crossword answers
- Daniel Nellor, Notes about Simone Weil: 'The Needs of the Soul'
- Emmanuel Skoutas, VAPS Conference June 2011 Simone Weil: ‘The Needs of the Soul’ - An Overview.
- VCAA Support Materials: Weil
- VCAA Powerpoint presentation: Weil Part 1
- VCAA Powerpoint presentation: Weil Part 2
- VCAA Powerpoint presentation: Weill Part 3
- A school-assessed task on Ethics
- Introduction to the free will vs. determinism debate
- Iris Murdoch: The Sovereignty of Good
- Ethical points of view
- Outline of Christian teaching - Outcome 3
- Christianity - Earthing the Bible
- Jean Paul Sartre: Being and Nothingness - questions
- Martin Luther King Biography
- Jean Paul Sartre text notes
- Epicurus quiz
- Iris Murdoch - background information
- Plato's Dialogues - The Republic
- Notes on Egoism
- Applied ethics
- Meta-ethics
- Ethics
- Analysis and Evaluation Task: Gettier Problems
- Analysis and Evaluation Task: The Matrix
- The Media and Ethics assignment
- Ethics discussion questions (General topics)
- Ethics: Discussion Cards
- Euthanasia discussion questions (Applied ethics)
- God, Faith and Religion discussion questions
- Kantian Ethics test
- Utilitarianism test
- An overview of Rand's Egoism
- Schools of Ethics overview notes
- The Republic presented by George Vassilopolous at the Philosophers' Forum, September, 2008.
- Simone Weil: Morality, politics, the needs of the soul presented by Simon Nellor (University of Melbourne), May, 2012.
- Simone Weil presented by Associate Professor Christopher Cordner (University of Melbourne), May, 2011
- Simone Weil presented by Emmanuel Skoutas, VAPS Conference, 2011
- Epicurus presented by Emmanuel Skoutas at the VAPS Philosophers' Forum 16 June, 2007.
- Kuhn and Popper, presentation by Neil Thomason, Philosophers' Forum, September 2006
- Plato vs Kuhn and Popper, presentation by Fiona Leigh, Philosophers' Forum, September 2006
- On Iris Murdoch: Chris Cordner presented at VAPS Philosophers' Forum, May, 2005.
- On Kantian Man in Sartre and Iris Murdoch presented by Chris Cordner at VAPS Philosophers' Forum, May, 2006 and also a similar presentation by Chris Cordner in 2007.
- Aesthetics in the curriculum: A presentation at 'Teaching Aesthetics Today', 30 November 2007.
- Quotes on the value of Aesthetics
- Susanne Langer on Aesthetics PowerPoint by E. Skoutas, Aesthetics in Philosophy Seminar, May, 2014
- Langer on Aesthetics companion notes by E. Skoutas, Aesthetics in Philosophy Seminar, May, 2014
- VCE Philosophy and Aesthetics by M. Bini, May, Aesthetics in Philosophy Seminar, May, 2014
- Community of Inquiry and the NGV by J. Poulton, Aesthetics in Philosophy Seminar, May, 2014
General Topics for VCE Philosophy and Additional Resources
- Essay writing in philosophy: a starter's guide presented by Monica Bini at the Philosophers' Forum, May, 2009.
- Chief Examiner's report on the 2012 Examination delivered at VCE Network meeting, August, 2013.
- Multimedia Resources for VCE Philosophy provided by Sunshine Tutorial Services
- Discussion strategies in the Philosophy classroom
- Area of Study 3: Suggestions for teaching, learning and assessment.
- Rubric for assessing essays in Philosophy
- Rubric for assessing a student's website in Philosophy
- Winged Sandals: A Greek Mythology website produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with The University of Melbourne's Centre for Classics and Archaeology.
- Slow reading - some advice on reading texts.
- Rubric for assessing essays in Philosophy
- Further useful resources: newspaper articles, books, podcasts, song lyrics, cartoons and images
VAPS Philosophy Resources Honour Board
Dirk Baltzly
Monica Bini
Jennifer Bleazby
Amber Carpenter
Chris Cordner
Penny Davies
Jo Faulkner
Clinton Golding
Adam Hands
Marguerite Heppell
Edward Jeremiah
Kylie Kerr
Roman Mankowski
Clare McKay
Robert Miller
Ross Phillips
Michael Polack
Janette Poulton
Lyn Renwood
Lenny Robinson-McCarthy
Darrell Reid
Michelle Rocca
Laura Schroeter
Anna Symes
Emmanuel Skoutas
Barry Taylor
Dylan Thorn
George Vassilopolous
Disclaimer for Resource Use
1. Disclaimer
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VAPS accepts no responsibility for the use of downloaded resources by members or the accuracy of the information of the resources.
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