Year 6 Philosophy : 2 hour
Free Will and Determinism |
To what extent am I free to control my behaviour?
We often take it for granted that we have free will. We assume that we freely make choices and that we control our behaviour most of the time. In this part of the course we will be examining the ideas of philosophers and psychologists who have challenged this assumption. We will also explore the ideas of those who believe that freedom isn't necessarily a good thing and that humans are in some way "condemned" to be free. The first theory we will examine is that of causal determinism, expressed most clearly in the ideas of Pierre Simon Laplace (1749-1827) and more recently in the claims of some neuroscientists. If, as science tells us, we are made of matter and matter behaves according to strict causal laws, then it seems impossible to see how we could have free will. Can this view be challenged? We will also examine the environmental determinism of the behaviourist school of psychology by looking at the work of John B. Watson (1878-1958) and that of Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990). We will look at how classical conditioning and operant conditioning play a role in shaping our behaviour. The determinism suggested by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) presents a very significant challenge to the idea that we are in control of our actions. Freud argues that our unconscious mind is what really makes us act the way we do. We will examine the key ideas of Freud and discuss whether they should be taken seriously today. We will also examine the research performed by the social psychologists Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) and Philip Zimbardo (1933- ) on the power of authority figures and of roles. See the video documentary of Zimbardo's prison simulation below: On the other side of the debate are philosophers who have emphasised the experience of freedom in our lives. We will examine the ideas of Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) who believed that freedom is part of the human condition. The responsibility that accompanies this freedom is unbearable for most of us and we spend much of our time fleeing from it in what he described as "bad faith". We will conclude by looking at the theory of compatibilism which attempts to combine free will and determinism. |
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Who am I? Am I the same person that I was 5 years ago? What parts of me have stayed the same? What parts of me have changed? Is there a "me" that persists through time? Might this "me" might survive my bodily death? In this unit we will be exploring these questions and realising that the answers are far from straightforward! Using Julian Baggini's excellent book The Pig That Wants to be Eaten: And 99 Other Thought Experiments we will begin by looking at the problem of the Ship of Theseus and we will see how the fact of change in the world challenges the idea of a fixed or permanent sense of self and identity. And although the teleportation device is (currently) found only in the realm of science fiction, we will see that discussing its use is a good way to explore our intuitions about who we really are. We will discuss the concept pf psychological continuity by looking at how John Locke (1632-1704) viewed identity. We will also critically examine the notion of the self as described by David Hume (1711-1776). The Buddhist view of the self will also be examined and critically analysed. This topic will be concluded with a brief summary of the key ideas connected to the self and personal identity. See Julian Baggini's view on this issue below: |
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Can I be certain that I'm not dreaming right now? Or perhaps I am a brain in a jar with all my thoughts, feelings and sensory experiences being programmed by an evil genius? Can I trust what my senses tell me about the world? What about the knowledge that reason provides? I know, for example, that 2+3=5. How can I be sure that this really is the case? In Epistemology we will be exploring the ways in which we are said to obtain knowledge. We will begin by looking at the ideas of the great rationalist thinker, Descartes (1596-1650), and we will ask how successful he was. We will then look at what Plato (424/423 BC – 348/347 BC) had to say about knowledge. We will examine his idea of the realm of the forms and look at his famous story of the cave. We will also look at how Plato's ideas may be criticised. The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) made a lasting contribution to the study of knowledge with his radical empiricism. We will learn about Hume's ideas and see what consequences his theory has for many of our everyday assumptions. We will also look at the ideas of John Locke (1632-1704) and George Berkeley (1685-1753). |
Moral Philosophy
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The central question asked in Moral Philosophy (or Ethics) is "What is the right way to behave?"
Moral philosophers have created various theories in their attempt to answer this question. The two main theories that we have looked at in class are Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. 6ENA have been asked to answer the questions on the worksheet given out in class, whereas 6ENB have been asked to write an essay in response to the question, "Is Utilitarianism a satisfactory moral theory?" Students in 6ENB have also been given a plan that they can use to base their essay on. |
The Philosophy of Religion
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Does God exist? This is a question that has been hotly debated throughout the centuries. We will be examining the classic arguments that have been used by philosophers in their attempt to prove that God does indeed exist.
The arguments, or "proofs", that we will look at are the Teleological Argument, the Cosmological (or First Cause) Argument and the strangely convincing (at first sight at least) Ontological Argument. We will also look at the problems associated with these proofs and some of the arguments that have been offered in support of atheism, the belief that God does not exist. The problem of evil will also be discussed in class. Why is it that a supposedly good and powerful God allows terrible things to happen to people on Earth? |