Philosophy

What levels are on offer?

You can take Philosophy at Higher Level or at Standard Level.

How do I decide which to choose?

Higher Level Philosophy is aimed at students who really enjoy Philosophy and those who possibly want to study it at University.
Standard level Philosophy is aimed at students who are interested in Philosophy and want to try it out.

What will I need?

For Philosophy you will need at least a C grade in History, English or RE GCSE as all these subjects are relevant to Philosophy.

You will also need a copy of the book Meditations by Rene Descartes as this is the prescribed text that we will study.

What will I study?

The Standard level course will include:

What is a human being?
Philosophy of Religion – Concepts of a higher being, Religious Experience and behaviour and Religion around the World
Meditations by Rene Descartes

The Higher level course will include:

What is a human being?
Philosophy of Religion – Concepts of a higher being, Religious Experience and behaviour and Religion around the World
Theories and problems of Ethics – Principles for moral action – normative ethics, The nature of moral judgment – meta-ethics and Applied ethics
Meditations by Rene Descartes
Unseen text – exploring philosophical activity.

How will I be assessed?

In each case there are two aspects to the assessment.

For the Internal Assessment you will write a philosophical analysis of non-philosophical material. This should contain 1,600 – 2,000 words. This will be internally assessed by the teacher and externally moderated by the IBO. The analysis is worth 20% of the total marks for HL and 30% of the total marks for SL.

There is an end of course exam taken in May of the second year consisting of two papers for Standard Level and 3 papers for Higher.