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Paper 1

Paper 2

Paper 3

1.1 Identity

1.2 The self and the other

1.3 Consciousness

1.4 Personhood

1.5 Human nature

1.6 Freedom

2.1 The nature of art

2.2 The artist and the artistic process

2.3 Aesthetic experience and judgement

3.1 Nature of knowledge

3.2 Problems of knowledge

3.3 Application of knowledge

4.1 Normative ethics

4.2 Meta-ethics

4.3 Applied ethics

5.1 Nature and existence of God

5.2 Religious language

5.3 Religious experience and behaviour

6.1 Nature and methodologies of science

6.2 Science and the self

6.3 Science and society

7.1 The state

7.2 Justice

7.3 Liberty and rights

8.1 Social structures and institutions

8.2 Equality and discrimination

8.3 Gender

9.1 Philosophy and technology

9.2 Philosophy and the environment

9.3 The nature, function, and meaning of methodology of philosophy

10.1 Language, Truth and Logic – Alfred Jules Ayer

10.2 The Analects – Confucius

10.3 Meditations on First Philosophy – René Descartes

10.4 Black Skin, White Masks – Frantz Fanon

10.5 On the Genealogy of Morality – Friedrich Nietzsche

10.6 Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach – Martha C. Nussbaum

10.7 The Revolt of the Masses – José Ortega y Gasset

10.8 The Republic, Books IV–IX – Plato

10.9 The Ethics of Authenticity – Charles Taylor

10.10 Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu

10.11 The Second Sex – Simone de Beauvoir

10.12 On Liberty – John Stuart Mill

IB Philosophy 10.5.5 Critique of Morality and Call for a Revaluation of Values Key Definitions

Definition

ascetic ideal

Nietzsche's term for the systematic valuation of self-denial, suffering, and the renunciation of earthly life, expressed in religious, philosophical, and moral traditions that treat the body and its drives as obstacles to higher truth or goodness. He argues in the Third Essay of the Genealogy that the ascetic ideal paradoxically represents the will to power in disguise: the ascetic still imposes meaning on suffering and exercises control over existence, but does so by denying life rather than affirming it.

Definition

revaluation of values

Nietzsche's revaluation of values (German: Umwerthung aller Werthe) is the project of critically reassessing every inherited moral assumption rather than accepting them on faith. It does not propose a new fixed moral code but calls for a new relationship to value creation, one that becomes urgent once genealogical analysis has exposed that dominant moral systems grew from ressentiment and the ascetic ideal rather than from genuine life-affirmation.

Definition

Self-overcoming

In Nietzsche's philosophy, self-overcoming (German: Selbstüberwindung) is the highest expression of the will to power, understood not as domination over others but as disciplined mastery over oneself. It involves continually surpassing previous limits and redirecting drives into artistic creation, intellectual achievement, and personal excellence rather than inward as guilt.

IB Philosophy 10.5.5 Critique of Morality and Call for a Revaluation of Values Key Definitions

Definition

ascetic ideal

Nietzsche's term for the systematic valuation of self-denial, suffering, and the renunciation of earthly life, expressed in religious, philosophical, and moral traditions that treat the body and its drives as obstacles to higher truth or goodness. He argues in the Third Essay of the Genealogy that the ascetic ideal paradoxically represents the will to power in disguise: the ascetic still imposes meaning on suffering and exercises control over existence, but does so by denying life rather than affirming it.

Definition

revaluation of values

Nietzsche's revaluation of values (German: Umwerthung aller Werthe) is the project of critically reassessing every inherited moral assumption rather than accepting them on faith. It does not propose a new fixed moral code but calls for a new relationship to value creation, one that becomes urgent once genealogical analysis has exposed that dominant moral systems grew from ressentiment and the ascetic ideal rather than from genuine life-affirmation.

Definition

Self-overcoming

In Nietzsche's philosophy, self-overcoming (German: Selbstüberwindung) is the highest expression of the will to power, understood not as domination over others but as disciplined mastery over oneself. It involves continually surpassing previous limits and redirecting drives into artistic creation, intellectual achievement, and personal excellence rather than inward as guilt.