Page 22 - Bridging Courses - Sixth Form

PHILOSOPHY
Week 1 - considering the nature of philosophy as a subject, its value and purpose, as well as introducing the aims and skills of the IB philosophy course. One of the important aspects of the course is doing philosophy and therefore becoming a philosopher oneself. We will explore the nature of philosophy by introducing questions about what we can know, evaluating the position of scepticism with regards to knowledge of the external world. We will also learn about note-taking techniques and practise these in preparation for the research work that will be undertaken later in the course.
Week 2 - to round off our work on scepticism, we will consider Descartes’ famous cogito: I think, therefore I
am, before looking at the work of contemporary philosophers Michael Sandel and Peter Singer in relation
to practical ethical issues such as the distribution of wealth and bioethics.
Week 3 - individuals in the group will begin to explore the work of Sandel and Singer in greater depth to help them decide on subject matter for a presentation; there is a plethora of lectures, podcasts, articles and books by Sandel and Singer which are highly accessible. Each student will make notes on a particular philosophical area or argument made by one of these philosophers and share this in class during this week. We will also consider Singer and Sandel’s beliefs about the nature, meaning, function and method of philosophy.
Week 4 - there will be a short
break from research to consider the controversial contemporary evidence for reincarnation, including objections and counter-arguments, before returning back to preparation for final presentations; these will take place in Week 5 to round off the course.
Preparation for Sixth Form Bridging Course | Full Course Programme | Summer Term 2020
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Skills
» Note-taking techniques
» Reading techniques: how
to read philosophical texts, including critical thinking skills
» Independent research; framing questions for presentations and essays
» How to acknowledge the ideas or work of philosophers
» Presentation skills
» Skills of reflection on the nature of philosophy (required for paper 3)