Philosophy
Exam Board: AQA

Philosophy is an ancient Greek word meaning "love of wisdom". If it occurs to you to say "Yes, but what do you mean by wisdom?" you are already asking a philosophical question. One approach to this question might be to say that we define wisdom by the absence of its opposite, foolishness. If everyone wants to avoid foolishness, everyone is something of a philosopher.

Another approach is to look at what philosophers have actually been doing for the last 2500 years or so. Western philosophers are often said to address three central questions:

  1. What exists?
  2. How do I know?
  3. What should I do?

Meanwhile, some Eastern philosophers claim that wisdom can be attained through a combination of three things:

  1. Great doubt of sensory evidence;
  2. Great faith in the power of meditation to achieve enlightenment;
  3. Great perseverance.

If this is right, what are we to meditate ON?

The three central western philosophical questions provide suitable material for meditation.  Eastern philosophy claims that these questions are insoluble using only reason and experience; that additionally we need to use our intuition, and that meditation trains our intuitive powers. While A Level Philosophy focuses on the western tradition, it is questionable whether intuition can be excluded.

(AS) Unit 1 Topic 1:
Persons
In this topic we consider whether animals and/or machines could be persons.  This shows us why what it means to be a person is a more open question than what it means to be human.

(AS) Unit 1 Topic 2:
Reason and Experience
This topic considers the relative contributions made by reason and experience to our ideas and our knowledge.

(AS) Unit 2 Topic 1:
Free will and determinism
Humans seem to have a powerful need to believe both that every event has a causal explanation and that we are free to choose what we do.  This topic asks whether we can hold both these beliefs without contradicting ourselves.

(AS) Unit 2 Topic 2:
The external world
The “Matrix” series of feature films was inspired by this philosophical problem.  Most of us believe that our beliefs are caused by an external world of physical objects which more or less resemble the ideas we have of them.  This topic asks whether we can justify our common-sense understanding of our relationship with the world.

(A2) Unit 3:
Philosophy of mind; epistemology and metaphysics
In this part of the course we tackle head-on two of the central questions: what exists (metaphysics) and how do I know (epistemology)?  It may seem obvious what we mean by “I”, but it isn’t.  Some philosophers claim that “I” refers to a “ghostly soul”, others that it refers to brain processes, others still claim that there turns out to be no such thing.

(A2) Unit 4:
Rene Descartes: “Meditations”
In this unit we look in detail at a classic philosophical text.  Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” is the most famous quote in the history of philosophy.  However, does Descartes succeed in proving that we can be certain of our own existence?  Can Descartes use the certainty of his own existence to show that there are other certainties too?  For example, is maths certain?  Is logic?  Is the existence of the universe?

Relationships with other subjects

This course doesn’t cover every philosophical topic.  Two other philosophical topics are covered in the A Level Religious Studies course: Philosophy of Religion and Religious Ethics.  Also: the subject matter of the A2 Government and Politics course relates closely to that of Political Philosophy. Students who are interested may opt for more than one of these subjects together (and often do so).

Assessment

All four units are assessed by written examination.  The Unit 3 paper lasts 2 hours.  The papers for units 1, 2 and 4 each last for 1 hour 30 minutes.  The examination for Unit 1 is taken in the January of Year 12; that for Unit 2 in the Summer of year 12; those for Units 3 and 4 in the Summer of Year 13.

Any questions?

The subject leader is Martin McMahon (ks.mamc@ksn.org.uk).  Please get in touch!