EUROPEAN BACCALAUREAT 2015

PHILOSOPHY

DATE: 10 June 2015

LENGTH OF THE EXAMINATION:

3 HOURS (180 minutes)

PERMITTED EQUIPMENT:

none

SPECIAL REMARKS:
One subject (out of three) to be attempted.
Evaluation:
A global grade out of 10 will be marked
The criteria for evaluation are:
- the comprehension: how fully and amply the analysis is performed
- the degree of knowledge
- how nuanced the argument is
- the originality and depth of the individual reflection
- the clarity and precision of the language used

1/4

EUROPEAN BACCALAUREATE 2015

PHILOSOPHY
SUBJECT 1 Text accompanied by questions
Your answer should be a coherent essay which takes the proposed questions into account. Outline
your personal point of view referring to authors you have studied. Show your capacity for reflection
and individual analysis.

FIELD OF ANALYSIS 3 Society and the state, law and politics

10

But what is good law? By a good law, I mean not a just law: for no law can be unjust. The law is
made by the sovereign power, and all that is done by such power, is warranted, and owned by every
one of the people; and that which every man will have so, no man can say is unjust. It is the laws of
a common-wealth, as in the laws of gaming; whatsoever the gamesters all agree on, is injustice to
none of them. A good law is that, which is needful, for the good of the people, and withal
perspicuous. For the use of laws, (which are but rules authorised) is not to bind the people from all
voluntary actions; but to direct and keep them in such a motion, as not to hurt themselves by their
own impetuous desires, rashness, or indiscretion, as hedges are set, not to stop travellers, but to
keep them in the way. And therefore a law that is not needful, having not the true end of a law, is
not good.
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651.

Questions:
1. What is a good law? Present the elements that characterise the law according to Hobbes.
2. With which of these elements do you agree and disagree with? Justify your point of view in
both cases.
3. In your opinion what is the role of laws?

2/4

EUROPEAN BACCALAUREATE 2015

PHILOSOPHY
SUBJECT 2 - Quotation accompanied by questions
Your answer should be a coherent essay which takes account of the proposed questions. Outline
your personal point of view referring to authors you have studied. Show your capacity for reflection
and individual analysis.

FIELD OF ANALYSIS 1 Perception, knowledge, truth

In science it is observation rather than perception which plays the decisive part. But observation is
a process, in which we play an intensively active part. An observation is a perception but one which
is planned and prepared. We do not have an observation (as we may have a sense experience)
but we make an observation.
5

10

An observation is always preceded by a particular interest, a question, or a problem - in short, by

something theoretical - since we can express every question in the form of a hypothesis or
conjecture to which we add: Is this so? Yes or no? Thus we can assert that every observation is
preceded by a problem, a hypothesis (or whatever we may call it); at any rate by something that
interests us, by something theoretical or speculative. This is why observations are always selective,
and why they presuppose something like a principle of selection.
Karl Raimund Popper, Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, 1972.

Questions:
1. Explain the relationship between hypothesis and observation.
2. Does scientific method based on observation allow us to achieve objective knowledge?
3. Is scientific knowledge our only access to reality?

3/4

EUROPEAN BACCALAUREATE 2015

PHILOSOPHY
SUBJECT 3 Major question together with sub-questions

Your answer should be a coherent essay which takes account of the proposed sub-questions. Outline
your personal point of view referring to authors you have studied. Show your capacity for reflection
and individual analysis.
FIELD OF ANALYSIS 2 Human beings, others, values

Is it emotion or reason that is the source of morality?

Sub-questions:
1. Do you think that emotion and reason are necessarily in conflict with the moral life? Which
philosophers inspire your response?
2. What do you think are the different factors which contribute to the development of the moral
conscience?
3. To what extent do our moral principles influence our life choices?

4/4