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The Philosopher's Magazine

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Past INSET conferences

Winter 2004-5

How to Teach A2 Philosophy

Thinking Skills in A2 Philosophy; Analysing A2 Philosophy Texts; Mind Games; The Synoptic Essay

How to Teach AS Philosophy

Thinking Skills in AS Philosophy; Teaching Practical Ethics; Providing Assessment and Feedback; Making Abstract Ideas Interesting; Analysing AS Philosophy Texts

AS Texts

On reading and teaching philosophical texts; Plato v. Marx & Engels: Ideas v. Ideology; Descartes: misunderstandings

Political Philosophy

Mill on freedom; The source of political obligation; Analysing political ideologies; Rights and utility

Philosophy of Mind

Descartes on the mental; Mental causation; Personal identity; Functionalism and behaviourism

Theory of knowledge

Plato on the acquisition of understanding; On primary and secondary qualities; Phenomenalism; On justification

Unit 6: Synoptic paper

Questions a (Plato and Aristotle on the acquisition of ethical understanding, b (Descartes and Hume on knowledge of the external world), g (Ayer and philosophy of religion) and l (Sartre and moral responsibility) from the 2005 Syllabus

Summer 2004

A2 philosophy texts

Reading philosophy: approaches and problems; British empiricism: Hume and Ayer compared; Aristotle: happiness, reason and virtue; Mill: happiness, freedom and the individual

Philosophy of Religion

Religious faith and language: a form of life?; Descartes' two arguments for the existence of God; Aristotle, the soul, and life after death; miracles

Ethics

The background to metaethics: Hume on reason and emotion; emotivism; utilitarianism: acts, rules and pleasures; on teaching practical ethics as philosophy

Theory of Knowledge

Knowledge and justified true belief; phenomenalism; scepticism; dealing with awkward questions

Spring 2004

Ethics

Virtue ethics; Kant and Hare on universalization; relativism: for and against

Theory of Knowledge

Rationalism and empiricism; indirect realism; scepticism: for and against

Philosophy of Religion

Problem of evil; faith and reason; teleological argument: for and against; Aristotle on God

Past student conferences

Spring 2005: Revision conferences

AQA A2 philosophy (two parallel streams)

Descartes on the mind; Mill on freedom; Descartes and Hume on knowledge of the external world; Ayer and Russell on knowledge of the physical world; Functionalism; Mental causation; Political ideologies; Theories of punishment

Philosophy of Religion and Ethics

Arguments for the existence of God; Questions on philosophy of religion; Metaethics; Question on ethics

AQA AS philosophy (two parallel streams)

Moral realism; Animal ethics; The problem of evil; The cosmological argument; Direct and indirect realism; Justified true belief; Plato's Republic; Descartes' Meditations

Autumn 2004: Introductions

AQA philosophy (two parallel streams)

Russell and the theory of knowledge; Hume and the philosophy of science; Descartes on the mind; Plato on democracy; Ayer on philosophy of religion; Aristotle on ethics; Theory of Knowledge; Unit 6 Synoptic paper

Philosophy of Religion and Ethics

Teleological argument; Virtue ethics; Practical ethics: Kant and utilitarianism; Miracles

Spring 2004

Revision conferences

Applying ethical theory to practical questions; the problem of evil; free will; the tripartite definition of knowledge; life after death; exam revision skills

Mansfield

Descartes on the mind; Tennant and Swinburne on the teleological argument; two types of relativism; knowledge and experience

Autumn 2003: Introductions

Plato's theory of Forms; James and Freud on religious experience; utilitarianism and Kant; mind after matter: can you survive the death of your brain?