Philosophy and Ethics AS A2

Exam Board OCR

Course Content

There are two modules in this AS course; Philosophy of Religion and Religious Ethics.

Philosophy

This module is divided into four sections:

Ancient Greek influences
Jewish/Christian influences
Traditional arguments for the existence of God
Challenges to religious belief

Ethics

This module contains two sections:

Ethical theories (Natural Law, Kantian Ethics, Utilitarianism, Roman Catholic Ethics)
Applied Ethics – how these theories are applied to abortion, the right to a child, euthanasia, genetic engineering, war and peace.

Since the publication of Richard Dawkins’ book, ‘The God Delusion’ the ancient arguments concerning the existence of God have rarely been so keenly debated. This course allows students the opportunity to explore the issues in depth and make a contribution – students will also consider the writings of some of the greatest figures in intellectual history, Plato, Aristotle, Darwin, Hume, Russell, Mill, Aquinas and Kant.

In Ethics students will consider the most important moral issues of our time including an exploration of what we might mean by terms such as ‘good’ or ‘evil’.

A2

In A2 philosophy of religion, students explore the topics of religious language and religious experience. They will also study life and death and the nature of God looking at contrasting perspectives through the eyes of different world religions.

Students studying A2 religious ethics will study topics such as meta-ethics ( what do we mean by good and evil ), free will and determinism, virtue ethics and sexual ethics.

Assessment

This course is assessed by two exams lasting one and a half hours each.

Possible Careers

This course encourages students to think more deeply about some of the most important human questions that there are as such it informs all aspects of our life. The skills students develop in examining issues from a variety of perspectives are ideally suited to a career in law, the emphasis in applied ethics will be very well matched for a career in medicine and health and social care.