<p>Could this not be an awesome class?</p>
<p>yeah i wish they would start it. Im not sure why they havent if they have classes like human geography and art history.</p>
<p>Well, don't hate on art history, it is actually very interesting if taught by the right person. I agree though, Human Geography is quite pointless.</p>
<p>AP Philosophy sounds fascinating, but how would they grade the examination?</p>
<p>Im not hating the class, Im in it right now and i love the material... Ive also taken Human Geography which I found interesting.</p>
<p>I'm taking Philosophy this year, and I've been wondering why they don't have an AP.</p>
<p>They would great it the same way they grade all AP tests!</p>
<p>Well, philosophy is so discussion-oriented and qualitative it would be hard to design an examination that accurately reflects one's grasp of philosophy using the standard AP test methods of multiple-choice and short answer (even AP Lit and AP Lang have multiple choice, so don't even pretend like that is not a huge part of AP tests). Would they have you write an essay? How would one develop a standard of grading for something like that? It's quite a lot tougher to develop consensus on determining philosophical merit than it is to develop consensus for determining the quality of essays a la SAT I.</p>
<p>Think about it like AP History. They're not that different. You can have multiple choice questions about philosophers and different philosophies and everything and then have the essay section, maybe one extended essay and a couple shorter ones. Actually, framing it like AP US would be pretty easy, minus the dbq. ;)</p>
<p>It just needs to test, say:
-knowledge of philosophers and their philosophies (political, economic, etc.)
-argument flaws
-relevent history
-impact of the philosophers/philosophies</p>
<p>I don't really see why it would be that difficult.</p>
<p>Oh, that makes sense. The reason I brought up my concerns was because I'm only familiar with the math and science formats of AP examinations. Thanks, though! That was very enlightening.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It just needs to test, say:
-knowledge of philosophers and their philosophies (political, economic, etc.)
-argument flaws
-relevent history
-impact of the philosophers/philosophies
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The problem is in reducing 'argument flaws' and 'impacts' to single lines that can be circled; it misleadingly simplifies the intricacies and nature of the argument. Many flaws take entire texts to be explicated, and I can imagine many philosophers taking offense to having their arguments reduced for the purpose of multiple choice.</p>
<p>That there is no AP philosophy is indicative of another facet of philosophy: we simply do not have exams at the higher level. Except for the introductory courses here at Georgetown, no exams are given at sophomore or above levels.</p>
<p>
[quote]
-knowledge of philosophers and their philosophies (political, economic, etc.)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That is more 'history of philosophy' than philosophy.</p>
<p>To be sure, any test that reduces philosophy to multiple choice answers is inevitably just going to be a test on the history of philosophy, not philosophy itself. Any decent philosopher understands that philosophy should not be something for which one is examined, and, if it is, that the examination should take place in a different environment. For instance, exams are adminstered in all the logic classes, but except for the introductory course, they are all take-home and due after the weekend.</p>
<p>Edit: I think the introductory courses here administer exams because many students are required to take it to fulfill a 'core requirement'; it is simply too cumbrous to grade 70 to 100 essays in a matter of days, and it is too taxing on students who do not know how to write a proper philosophy essay (Yes, we philosophers have our own writing style too!).</p>
<p>Yeah, the math/science and history/english are similar in that they have multiple choice and then longer answers (usually one extended and a couple shorter ones). </p>
<p>Obviously a high school AP class is going to be at the level of an introductory college course. Most introductory courses cover history and "the basics." That is what an AP course would do, I would guess. </p>
<p>I (thank god) am not the College Board, and I do not know their reasonings for setting up tests the way that they do. If they were to do an AP Philosophy test, they wouldn't have entire philosophies summed up in a sentence; that isn't necessary. I think that if they can make AP tests with multiple choice for History (which is complex, as well) and English, they can make one for Philosophy. And, of course, the essays usually make up about half of the testing time.</p>
<p>I think it's certainly do-able.</p>