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PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS

Exam Board:AQA

Entry Requirements:

  • 5+ in a Humanities subject
  • 5+ in English Language or English Literature

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:

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:

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

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 secularisation, and religion and religious pluralism.

This component also includes dialogues between philosophy of religion and religion and between ethical studies and religion.

Assessment Detail

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