Dash Posted June 14, 2014 Report Share Posted June 14, 2014 I'm having problems with narrowing down my extended essay topic, which I've decided should be linked to 'life after death' For my research, I was told to look at the Ego Trick (book), which talks about the Hindu belief in life after death. I was thinking of having 'to what extent is the argument of life after death true?' I was going to contrast views of different philosophers on life after death, as well as different religions Help would be much appreciated Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted June 14, 2014 Report Share Posted June 14, 2014 Your question is massively vague and non-specific. You could write endless reams, it is not a topic you can deal with in 4,000 words. It's also a narrative topic that you've selected when actually you need an analytical and argumentative topic. I assume you take Philosophy? The EE needs to be like a Philosophy essay where you're taking ideas and pulling them apart, not just a selection of anecdotes or like an English essay where you're going "X thinks this, but Y thinks this which is different and Z thinks this which is different again, and P thinks this...etc". That's not going to score you any marks. Also, do your own research, don't just look at whatever book somebody has told you to look at. I suggest you do a lot more research into this if you really want to stick with it and come up with a very small topic that you can analyse to pieces - and especially that you can use one to refute the other. So it's actually an exercise in philosophy, rather than just listing beliefs from one culture/religion/whatever or another. Google 50 Excellent Extended Essays, read the Philosophy ones and you'll see how closely you're expected to deal with the subject. And if you don't take Philosophy as a normal IB subject at school, I advise you to steer clear of it because people tend to get the wrong end of the stick. As indeed this EE would... but maybe you do take Philosophy In short: start over, read the example essays, read the markscheme then re-think. 3 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted June 14, 2014 Report Share Posted June 14, 2014 If you still want to discuss death, I'd recommend Shelly Kagan's lectures on death. You can find them here. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dash Posted June 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Thank you so much for this post! Without it, I would've just gone on researching all aspects of life after death.. And got it all wrong. You've saved me I've read a couple of sample essays- they seem to have a relatively vague title, but in the introduction there is a clear explanation of what is going to be discussed I'm struggling to come up with a title, but I don't quite understand why I can't argue against the existence of life after death with multiple examples? Would you recommend completely changing the title? Or is it possible to twist it around a little to make it work? My tutor knows nothing about the extended essay, I don't assume you would recommend a private&reliable philosophy EE tutor? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Award Winning Boss Posted June 16, 2014 Report Share Posted June 16, 2014 Thank you so much for this post! Without it, I would've just gone on researching all aspects of life after death.. And got it all wrong. You've saved me I've read a couple of sample essays- they seem to have a relatively vague title, but in the introduction there is a clear explanation of what is going to be discussed I'm struggling to come up with a title, but I don't quite understand why I can't argue against the existence of life after death with multiple examples? Would you recommend completely changing the title? Or is it possible to twist it around a little to make it work? My tutor knows nothing about the extended essay, I don't assume you would recommend a private&reliable philosophy EE tutor? It's vague because 'life after death' is also vague. You could be talking about going to heaven, hell, purgatory, reincarnation, a completely irreligious perspective of living as a ghost, 'living' as other substances when you rot or a variety of other things. You'd need to pick a specific argument. If you go down the religious perspective (which is most likely) I'd recommend staying away from religion for a philosophy EE. It's very easy to stray from the topic because many arguments depend on God and you'll either have to show why it's wrong (which is a book or 5 in itself) or show why it's right. Unless you choose to treat it as an assumption which will severely harm your ability to argue against life after death anyway. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrashmaster Posted June 17, 2014 Report Share Posted June 17, 2014 How on earth do you plan on defining 'true'? I don't see a way for you to conclude anything to an essay with that question. What is your evidence? "These books said that there is, therefore there is?" I think you need to greatly redefine your question (as other people have said for other reasons as well). I'd say that you DO need a new title completely, because there is no way to answer that question. Trust me, people have been trying for millennia. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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