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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 10.9.4 Freedom, Individualism, and Moral Sources Key Definitions

Definition

Individualism

in Taylor's analysis, the modern cultural condition in which each person is understood as a unique, self-determining agent with the right to develop their own way of life; Taylor regards individualism as a genuine moral achievement that has simultaneously produced dangerous distortions when severed from horizons of meaning and dialogical engagement.

Definition

Moral sources

In Sources of the Self (1989), Charles Taylor uses moral sources to describe the deeper frameworks, ideals, and commitments that empower individuals to live morally and give them the strength to pursue the good, whether through theistic faith, Enlightenment reason, or Romantic expressivism.

Definition

Soft despotism

Soft despotism, a concept articulated by Tocqueville and echoed in Taylor's work, describes a form of government that, while not overtly tyrannical, infantilises citizens by managing every detail of their lives. Lao Tzu's critique of interventionist governance anticipates this concern by arguing that excessive government control produces dependence rather than flourishing.

IB Philosophy 10.9.4 Freedom, Individualism, and Moral Sources Key Definitions

Definition

Individualism

in Taylor's analysis, the modern cultural condition in which each person is understood as a unique, self-determining agent with the right to develop their own way of life; Taylor regards individualism as a genuine moral achievement that has simultaneously produced dangerous distortions when severed from horizons of meaning and dialogical engagement.

Definition

Moral sources

In Sources of the Self (1989), Charles Taylor uses moral sources to describe the deeper frameworks, ideals, and commitments that empower individuals to live morally and give them the strength to pursue the good, whether through theistic faith, Enlightenment reason, or Romantic expressivism.

Definition

Soft despotism

Soft despotism, a concept articulated by Tocqueville and echoed in Taylor's work, describes a form of government that, while not overtly tyrannical, infantilises citizens by managing every detail of their lives. Lao Tzu's critique of interventionist governance anticipates this concern by arguing that excessive government control produces dependence rather than flourishing.