AQA A-Level Philosophy | Paper 2 | 2026 Predicted Paper
AQA A-Level Philosophy 7172/2
Paper 2: The Metaphysics of God and the Metaphysics of Mind
2026 Predicted Paper
Time allowed: 3 hours
Instructions
Answer all questions.
The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
The maximum mark for this paper is 100.
You should use appropriate philosophical terminology and develop arguments clearly and precisely.
Section A: The Metaphysics of God
Answer all questions in this section.
Question 01
What does Paley mean by something in the natural world being organised for a purpose?
[3 marks]
Question 02
How does the paradox of the stone present an issue for the coherence of divine omnipotence?
[5 marks]
Question 03
Explain how Hare’s concept of a blik is intended to respond to Flew’s challenge to the meaningfulness of religious language.
[5 marks]
Question 04
Explain the role of temporal causation in the Kalām cosmological argument and how the possibility of an infinite series presents an issue for this argument.
[12 marks]
Question 05
Can an ontological argument successfully establish that God exists?
[25 marks]
Section B: The Metaphysics of Mind
Answer all questions in this section.
Question 06
What is meant by the claim that interactionist dualism involves causal interaction between mental and physical states?
[3 marks]
Question 07
Explain why mind-brain type identity theory involves an ontological reduction but not an analytic reduction.
[5 marks]
Question 08
Explain why the Knowledge/Mary argument presents an issue for functionalism’s account of qualia.
[5 marks]
Question 09
Explain Descartes’ conceivability argument for substance dualism and Ryle’s objection that dualism makes a category mistake.
[12 marks]
Question 10
Can eliminative materialism be successfully defended?
[25 marks]
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