Philosophy
There are two main reasons why we study philosophy. The first is simple curiosity. Broadly construed, philosophy began by attempting to answer three deceptively simple questions:
- What is there?
- How can we know?
- How should we live our lives?
The second main reason people study philosophy is that many of the skills and abilities that are learned in philosophy are transferable, not just to other academic disciplines, but to other endeavours as well. This is partly because philosophy touches on so many other disciplines, and partly because its methods are widely applicable to other areas of intellectual accomplishment. Philosophy helps students develop sound methods of research and analysis.
Principles
We learn philosophy by:
- developing a range of intellectual skills.
- developing communication skills, critical reasoning skills, and general problem-solving skills
- teaching the basic principles of logic and argumentation.
- Developing students’ capacity to argue with clear intent and by sustaining the logic of their arguments.
- reading extensively and developing extended writing skills.
- taking part in debates and by discussing ideas.
Key Stage 5 content
In Year 12 students study epistemology (theories of knowledge) and ethics. The epistemology course focuses on what we know and how we come to know it. The ethics course studies the three main ethical systems in western philosophy, applied ethics and meta-ethics.
In Year 13 students study the metaphysic of God and the metaphysics of mind. The course on the metaphysics of God focuses on the coherence of the concept of God, arguments for the existence of God and religious language. The course on the metaphysics of mind studies what ‘mind’ is and how it relates to the body.
Exam Specifications
AQA | 7172 | A Level Philosophy
