AQA A-Level Philosophy | Paper 1 | 2026 Predicted Paper
AQA A-Level Philosophy 7172/1
2026 Predicted Paper
Paper 1: Epistemology and Moral Philosophy
Time allowed: 3 hours
Maximum mark: 100
Answer all questions.
Section A: Epistemology
Answer all questions in this section.
Question 01
What does Descartes mean by ‘deduction’?
[3 marks]
Question 02
Explain why, according to Leibniz, experience cannot account for our knowledge of necessary truths.
[5 marks]
Question 03
Explain the difference between philosophical scepticism and normal incredulity.
[5 marks]
Question 04
Outline reliabilism as an analysis of propositional knowledge and explain how it can respond to the problem raised by one of Gettier’s original counter-examples.
[12 marks]
Question 05
To what extent can Berkeley’s idealism be defended?
[25 marks]
Total for Section A: 50 marks
Section B: Moral Philosophy
Answer all questions in this section.
Question 06
What does it mean to say that moral properties or facts are mind-independent?
[3 marks]
Question 07
Explain how contradiction in conception and contradiction in will are used in Kant’s first formulation of the categorical imperative.
[5 marks]
Question 08
Explain how hedonistic utilitarianism might be applied to the issue of eating animals.
[5 marks]
Question 09
Outline Ayer’s emotivism and explain why moral reasoning may present an issue for this theory.
[12 marks]
Question 10
Does Aristotelian virtue ethics give an adequate account of what makes a person morally good?
[25 marks]
Total for Section B: 50 marks
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