KS5 - Philosophy

A Level (AQA)

Philosophy is the gateway to your next steps. Employers and Universities often talk about accepting ‘thinking’ applicants – philosophy shows that you have deep thinking skills and that you are able to engage with issues in great depth.

Philosophy is demanding but very engaging and rewarding – a true ‘eye opener’ to the world outside and beyond.

The A level Philosophy qualification is designed to give you a thorough grounding in the key concepts and methods of philosophy. You will have the opportunity to engage with big questions in a purely secular context.

You will develop important skills that you need for progression to higher education and the workplace. You will learn to be clear and precise in your thinking and writing. You will engage with complex texts, analysing and evaluating the arguments of others and constructing and defending your own arguments.

There is a strong focus on independent learning and perfecting writing skills as well as learning how to argue and learning how to understand the nature and purpose of academic arguments. During the two year course, you will study 4 areas of Philosophy:

YEAR 1

1. Epistemology – What is knowledge? Is perception evidence for knowledge? Is all knowledge reason or empirical? What are the limits of knowledge?

2. Moral Philosophy – Studying various ethical theories, applying those theories to moral issues and discovering how morality goes beyond behaviour and how it influences in language and spirituality.

YEAR 2

3. Metaphysics of God – Is there any proof of God? What is the ‘evidence’? How can we talk about a being that does not exist physically? How can there be suffering if there is a God?

4. Metaphysics of the mind – What is the mind? Is the mind separate from our bodies? Is there such a thing as ‘common sense’?

The course culminates after two years of study in two 3 hour written exams which will cover all of the content studies in the 2 years.