Philosophy and Ethics

Philosophy and Ethics

You will have a curiosity in exploring the most profound and important questions that humans have asked over thousands of years.

The course

Our course is split between three main topics which we will study throughout Y12 and 13 –

1.       Philosophy: We start by investigating the fathers of western philosophy and study how the ancient Greeks, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, understood reality. This will include Plato’s Cave and Plato’s theory of the forms. The central question of this first topic is ‘how do we know what is real?’. Other topics include the mind-body problem where we ask ‘what makes you you?’, where we examine whether our identity is ‘soul’, ‘mind’ or ‘body’. We also look at the existence of God, the problem of evil and an investigation into miracles and whether they really exist.

2.       Ethics: The key questions we study in ethics include ‘Where do we get our morals from?’, ‘How do we know what is right and wrong?’ and ‘is morality from God or a human construct?’ We learn about the most influential religious and non-religious ethical theories and apply those theories, such as Utilitarianism, Situation Ethics and Natural law, to real world issues such as euthanasia and business ethics.

3.   Developments and debates within Christianity: Not all Christians believe the same things. In this topic we will cover how Christianity has changed and evolved over 2000 years and the internal debates that still go on to this day. We will examine questions such as ‘are we all born with original sin?’, ‘what happens when we die?’, ‘was Jesus a real person?’, how does religion exist in a scientific world?’ and more.

Exams

There will be three exams at the end of year 13, one for each of our three main topics. This means that each main topic makes up 33% of the course. In order to work up to these final exams we will do plenty of practice exam questions and develop crucial skills so that when the time comes, all students will be confident in how they answer exam questions.

Skills

Philosophy and Ethics is crucial in developing critical thinking skills. We want to help students to learn how to think and not what to think. Philosophy encourages you to challenge the most basic and accepted personal beliefs and views of modern society. Philosophy and Ethics is about determining the truth for yourself and not believing something just because someone tells you. This course provides pupils with the tools needed for logical independent thinking and skills for oracy, debate and argument.

Careers

The skills and knowledge gained in Philosophy and Ethics are highly valued and useful in many contexts. This is because through our Philosophy lessons, pupils also learn history, politics, science, psychology and sociology. We study the history of human thought. Therefore, our course can be very helpful in a future career in journalism, politics, law, teaching, psychology, business, and many other areas.