|
RELIGIOUS STUDIES at AS and A2
First and foremost the course will be for those who have an enquiring and critical mind and wish to face the challenge of what a Philosophy and Ethics presents, both as an academic subject and also an area of interest. No former knowledge is required, although those who have taken GCSE will have a good foundation on which to build.
We have opted for the OCR AS course as it is very comprehensive in its areas of study.
The Philosophy of Religion Paper covers the life and work of the Ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle and their influences on the development of the philosophy of religion. This historically is continued with later thinkers within the Judaeo-Christian Tradition which includes Moses, Paul, Anselm, Augustine.
We continue with the traditional arguments for the existence of God as proposed by Aquinas, Descartes, Paley who will be studied together with the challenges to religious belief by Hume, Mill, Kant, Darwin, Russell.
The second part of the course is a study of Religious Ethics and Ethical Theories. This will include a consideration of the meaning of ethical terms such as good, right and duty; cognitivism and non-cognitivism and the moral ideas of Hume and Ayer.
Intuitionism, prescriptivism, moral relativism and cultural relativism are all deal with ways of making judgements and the contribution by Kant will be studied, as will Situation Ethics and Natural Law through Aristotle and Aquinas.
Finally there will be an in-depth study of Applied Ethics on the topics of Abortion, Euthanasia, Genetic Engineering, War and Peace.
Clearly this is not a course for the faint hearted, but for those up to the intellectual challenge, it presents a stimulating and rewarding journey, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of giants in the field of philosophy and encouraging you as students to come to your own conclusions.
Father Bolton
|
|
Lancelot Andrewes, OMT, translator of the King James' Bible
Donald Coggan,
Archbishop of Canterbury
Detail of Plato teaching Aristotle from a much larger painting
by Raphael: 'The School of Athens'
|
