Philosophy & Ethics

This course is well-respected by colleges and universities, and students could go on to study subjects such as Psychology, Sociology, Politics, History, Geography, Medicine, English, Theology, and many others.

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is for anyone who:

• Is planning a career that involves the ability to evaluate ideas and understand complex issues.

• Enjoys questioning and debating issues of which there are no definitive answers.

• Wishes to have a better understanding of communities and society.

• Has thought about why people make the decisions and judgements that they do, particularly on matters of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

• Has asked difficult questions, such as: What makes me ‘Me’? Why am I here? Is there a God? Is there life after death? What makes this right and that wrong? Why did they do that?

Course Content Overview

1. The Philosophy of Religion

This component:

• Begins with Greek and Judaeo-Christian influences on the philosophy of religion.

• Covers the classic arguments for the existence of God and challenges to religious belief (e.g., the problem of evil).

• Culminates in issues such as the mind/body distinction, revelation, and religious language.

Topics may include:

• OCR: Ancient philosophical influences (Plato, Aristotle) , the nature of the soul, mind and body (Plato, Aristotle, Descartes), Arguments about the existence or non-existence of God (Teleological, Cosmological, Ontological), the nature and impact of religious experience, the challenge of the problem of evil, and ideas about the nature of God (omnipotence, omniscience, etc.).

• AQA: Philosophical arguments for the existence of God, evil and suffering, religious experience, religious language, miracles, and self and life after death.

2. Religious Ethics

This component:

• Begins with an introduction to ethical theory.

• Moves on to consider specific ethical theories and their practical applications.

• Culminates with consideration of free will and determinism, conscience, religious ethics, and practical ethics.

Topics may include:

• OCR: Normative ethical theories, the application of ethical theory to two contemporary issues of importance, ethical language and thought, debates surrounding the significant idea of conscience, sexual ethics, and Virtue Ethics.

• AQA: Ethical theories, issues surrounding human life and death, issues of animal life and death, meta-ethics, free will and moral responsibility, conscience, Bentham, and Kant.

3. Study of Religion / Developments in Religious Thought

OCR - Developments in Religious Thought (Christianity Option) : Topics include religious beliefs, value and teachings, sources of religious wisdom and authority, practices which shape and express religious identity, significant social and historical developments in theology and religious thought, and key themes related to the relationship between religion and society.

AQA - Study of religion: Topics include sources of wisdom and authority, God, life after death, key moral principles, religious identity, religion, gender and sexuality, religion and science, religion and secularization, and religion and religious pluralism. This component also includes dialogues between philosophy of religion and religion and between ethical studies and religion.

Assessment Detail

OCR (Examination Board: OCR)

Assessment: There will be three 40-mark single-part essay questions from a free choice of four.

AQA (Examination Board: AQA A Level Philosophy and Ethics 7062)

Assessment: 2 x 3 hour written exams.

Paper 1: Philosophy of religion and ethics:

• Four compulsory two-part questions

• 100 marks

• 50% of A-level

Paper 2: Study of religion and dialogues:

• Two compulsory two-part questions for Section A

• One question from a choice of two for Section B

• One question from a choice of two for Section C

• 100 marks

• 50% of A-level