Philosophy & Reason 2025 v1.3 General senior syllabus
The external assessment contributes 25% of the subject result; three internal assessments contribute 25% each. It allows 15 minutes planning and 120 minutes working time for one 50-mark analytical essay on an unseen question with unseen stimulus. From 2026 the paper names the two political philosophies you must analyse and evaluate. This hub's multiple-choice items are revision drills, not replicas of the external format.
Past papers on this subject span more than one syllabus. Papers written under an older one still work as practice, but the units and topics they test have changed — the index labels every paper with the syllabus it was set under.
2019 syllabus — five political philosophies in the subject matter (anarchism, communism, libertarianism, socialism, social democracy); students selected from those printed on each paper · 2021–2025
The units and topics, one by one
Each area below lists the concepts named in the syllabus, what the QCAA exam asks of them, and the mistake that most often costs marks.
- Fundamentals of reason
- Unit 3 Topic 1 — Moral philosophy
- Unit 3 Topic 2 — Philosophical schools of thought
- Unit 4 Topic 1 — Rights
- Unit 4 Topic 2 — Political philosophy
Area 1 of 5
Fundamentals of reason
Every unit relies on the reasoning toolkit from Unit 1. Identify premises, conclusions and hidden premises, set arguments out in standard form, and classify them as deductive or inductive. Judge deductive arguments by validity and soundness and inductive arguments by strength. Symbolise propositions with ~, &, ∨ and ⊃, recognise the five valid forms, and name formal and informal fallacies precisely.
What the exam asks
Not a separate topic in Units 3 and 4, but the external marking guide rewards these skills directly through the deconstructing-arguments and evaluating criteria.
Where marks go missing
Calling an argument 'invalid' because a premise is false. Validity concerns structure; truth of premises is a separate test that decides soundness.
Area 2 of 5
Unit 3 Topic 1 — Moral philosophy
Moral philosophy asks how we should live. Explain utilitarianism, Kantian ethics and virtue ethics accurately, then test them against cases and against each other. Strong answers show how each theory's starting point produces its verdict and evaluate the theory's premises, not just its conclusions.
What the exam asks
This topic is internally assessed. Follow the assessment requirements set by your school and the current syllabus; it is not part of the external paper's content scope. It is the focus of IA1 (examination — extended response).
Where marks go missing
Treating 'the greatest good for the greatest number' as the whole of utilitarianism, without explaining how utility is measured or the act/rule distinction.
Area 3 of 5
Unit 3 Topic 2 — Philosophical schools of thought
Your school chooses at least one school of thought, such as existentialism, stoicism, empiricism or feminist philosophy, for in-depth study. Explain its central claims and methods, deconstruct its key arguments, and judge how well its ideas apply to contemporary society, including the strongest criticisms.
What the exam asks
This topic is internally assessed. Follow the assessment requirements set by your school and the current syllabus; it is not part of the external paper's content scope. It is the focus of IA2 (analytical essay).
Where marks go missing
Summarising a thinker's biography or ideas without constructing and evaluating an argument about the school's applicability.
Area 4 of 5
Unit 4 Topic 1 — Rights
Rights theory examines where rights come from and how far they extend. Work with natural and human rights, Hobbes's and Locke's social contracts, Locke's labour theory of property, Mill's harm principle and Rawls's veil of ignorance. Apply them to live questions such as civil disobedience, rights for AI or animals, and competing rights claims.
What the exam asks
This topic is internally assessed. Follow the assessment requirements set by your school and the current syllabus; it is not part of the external paper's content scope. It is the focus of IA3 (analytical essay), and the same ideas often support external-assessment arguments.
Where marks go missing
Confusing positive rights (entitlements to be provided with something) with negative rights (claims not to be interfered with).
Area 5 of 5
Unit 4 Topic 2 — Political philosophy
Political philosophy asks how collective life should be arranged. Study anarchism, libertarianism, social liberalism and socialism through thinkers such as Bakunin, Rothbard, Locke, Nozick, Rawls, Green, Marx and Owen. The external specification requires you to connect each philosophy's assumptions, especially about human nature, to its conception of the ideal society, and to argue your own position on the question using the stimulus.
What the exam asks
This is the external-assessment topic: one 50-mark analytical essay, two named philosophies, unseen stimulus. Marks reward explaining, relating, deconstructing, evaluating, terminology, argument construction and communication.
Where marks go missing
Describing what each philosophy would say instead of using them to build and defend your own answer to the question asked.
5 real QCAA questions indexed on this area →
Common questions
Which content is externally assessed?
Unit 4 Topic 2, Political philosophy. Unit 3 and Unit 4 Topic 1 are internally assessed, although reasoning skills and rights ideas can strengthen an external essay.
How many marks is the external paper?
Every published paper from 2021 to 2025 was one extended-response question worth 50 marks. The 2025 marking guide split the marks across seven criteria tables.
Do I choose the political philosophies?
Not from 2026. QCAA states the 2026 paper will name the two philosophies you must address, drawn from anarchism, libertarianism, social liberalism and socialism. Earlier papers let students choose.
Is communism still examinable?
Communism is no longer listed separately, but QCAA says it can still be studied under the broader category of socialism.
Is there a word limit?
Papers to 2025 asked for 800–1000 words. QCAA says the 2026 conditions do not refer to word length, so plan a complete analytical essay within the 120 minutes.
Does the real paper contain multiple choice?
No. The external paper is a single analytical essay. Multiple-choice activities in this hub are revision drills for terminology and reasoning.
What do high-scoring essays do?
QCAA subject reports praise a clear thesis, direct engagement with the stimulus, precise standard-form deconstructions, evaluation of premises on their own merits and an argued answer rather than a rehearsed summary.