PHILOSOPHY

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Philosophy

Philosophers are interested in questions such as: how should we live? Can we really know the nature of reality? Does God exist? Are you a physical thing or do you have a soul? If you enjoy debating such questions, then you will enjoy philosophy. Students at Westminster Tutors have ample opportunity to delve deeply into all the philosophical arguments and ideas they encounter, to develop their knowledge and their own independent thoughts. There can often be lively discussions between students and teachers, and lessons can turn out to be quite unpredictable!

Course outline

1. Epistemology

1.1 What is knowledge

  • The tripartite view

1.2 Perception as a source of knowledge

  • Direct realism
  • Indirect realism
  • Berkeley’s Idealism

1.3 Reason as a source of knowledge

  • Innatism
  • The intuition and deduction thesis

1.4 The limits of knowledge

2. Moral Philosophy

2.1 Normative ethical theories

  • Utilitarianism
  • Kantian deontological ethics
  • Aristotelian virtue ethics

2.2 Applied Ethics

2.3 Meta-ethics

  • Moral realsim
  • Moral anti-realism

3. Metaphysics of God

3.1 The concept and nature of ‘God’

3.2 Arguments relating to the existence of God

  • Ontological arguments
  • Teological/design arguments
  • Cosmological arguments
  • The Problem of Evil

3.3 Religious language

    4. Metaphysics of mind

    4.1 What do we mean by ‘mind’?

    4.2 Dualist theories

    • Substance dualism
    • Property dualism
    • Issue

    4.3 Physicalist theories

    • Physicalism
    • Mind-brain type identity theory
    • Eliminative materialism

    4.4 Functionalism

    Assesment

    AS Level

    Paper 1: Epistemology and moral philosophy

    • Assessment of sections 1 and 2
    • 80 marks
    • 3 hours written paper
    • 100% of total AS level

    A Level

    Paper 1: Epistemology and moral philosophy

    • Assessment of sections 1 and 2
    • 100 marks
    • 3 hours written paper
    • 50% of total A level

    Paper 2: The metaphysics of God and the metaphysics of the mind

    • Assessment of sections 3 and 4
    • 100 marks
    • 3 hours written paper
    • 50% of total A level

    Reading List

    Suggested Reading

    Two lively introductions to philosophical problems are:

    • The Philosophy Gym by Stephen Law
    • The Pig that Wants to be Eaten by Julian Baggini

    Many novelists are insightful on philosophical issues. The following is a list of some novelists who are famous for their philosophical sophistication:

    • Voltaire
    • Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    • Jean-Paul Satre
    • Albert Camus
    • Iris Murdoch
    • Franz Kafka
    • Aldous Huxley
    • Oscar Wilde
    • George Eliot
    • Umberto Eco
    • Milan Kundera

    Podcasts are another good introduction to philosophy:

    Specification

    Teachers will choose the examination board for students joining in Year 12 based on their expertise and specialist knowledge. For Year 13 and retake students, teachers will continue students’ studies with AQA, Edexcel/Pearson, OCR or WJEC/Eduqas. Please note that we do not offer CIE but can more than map to one of the boards listed.

    Teachers

    Benedict Tucker
    BA (Cambridge)

    William Bynoe
    BA (King’s), PhD (King’s), PGCE (Instit. Education, London)

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