RME

MEMBERS OF DEPARTMENT:

Mrs A Sellar

COURSE INFORMATION

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PHILOSOPHY HIGHER AND INTERMEDIATE 2

Rationale

Philosophy courses provide an introduction to philosophical enquiry, through the study of classic texts, philosophical theories and contemporary viewpoints. Students will be encouraged to engage with various ideas and issues which develop their thinking and reasoning skills and contribute to aspects of their personal, social and intellectual development.

Students will have opportunities to:

• Become familiar with perennial, basic philosophical problems and traditional responses
• Analyse and evaluate contemporary debates and arguments
• Formulate personal responses and adopt reasoned positions in argument
• Develop formal reasoning skills
• Think about thinking itself
• Develop certain transferable skills attractive to employers

Recommended Entry

Students would normally be expected to have completed:

• Standard Grade English at Credit level or Higher English
• A Short Course in RME with evident potential at this level

Core Skill

The attainment of a Higher Still course in Philosophy will lead to the automatic award of: Critical Thinking at Intermediate 2 or Higher.

Progression

A Higher Still course in Philosophy would be:

• A useful ‘taster’ for Philosophy courses at College and University level
• Attractive to prospective employers because of the Core Skill of Critical Thinking, which is recognised as a valuable workplace skill
• Pertinent to a career in eg computing science, business management, the law, the media, the police, the armed services, politics.

Course Details

Courses are offered at two levels: Higher and Intermediate 2. Both levels comprise three mandatory units. The content of two of the units are similar for Higher and Intermediate 2, although aimed at different levels. The third unit is specific to each course.

Classic Texts in Philosophy ( Higher or Intermediate 2)

This unit introduces students to classic texts from some of the great philosophers. The unit will develop students’ understanding of historical developments in philosophy and will involve analysis and evaluation of passages from some major philosophical texts, and the explanation of themes associated with them.

Extracts will be studied from the following texts:

Plato The Republic
Descartes Meditations
Hume An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

Problems in Philosophy (Higher or Intermediate 2)

This unit introduces the student to the central problems and issues in contemporary philosophical debate. Students will be required to analyse and critically evaluate proposed solutions in a reasoned and structured manner. There will be a range of problems from the following areas of philosophy: Epistemology, Metaphysics and Social Philosophy.

Logic 1 (Higher only)

This unit seeks to develop knowledge and understanding of the general principles of logic and to develop skills in analysing arguments encountered in everyday life. Students will be required to become familiar with logical form, validity, soundness, and common fallacies.

Moral Philosophy (Intermediate 2 only)

This unit involves the exploration of two major theories in ethics: consequentialism (Utilitarianism) and non-consequentialism (Kantian Ethics). Students will be required to examine the key idea from each theory and evaluate them in relation to a moral issue.

Assessment

To gain the award of the course, students must pass all the unit assessments (assessed internally) as well as the external examination which will sample the course material.