AQA An Introduction to Philosophy for AS level

Summary:

A student-friendly introduction to AS Philosophy, structured around the AQA AS Philosophy specification.

From the author team behind the successful Philosophy in Focus series, this book covers 7 popular AS themes in sufficient depth to achieve a top grade. It combines academic rigour with engaging activities. The authors have used their wealth of experience in teaching philosophy to devise a set of helpful features that deepen understanding and exercise the philosophical mind including:

- Activities: practical tasks to help users understand the key philosophical ideas
- 'Experimenting with ideas': activities that explore the concepts and helps students identify their own philosophical viewpoints
- 'Criticism': highlights and evaluates some of the weaknesses in the arguments advanced by philosophers
- 'More difficult': guides students carefully through particularly daunting arguments
- Quotations are included from the key texts by the key philosophers
- 'Key point summaries': help students to consolidate knowledge

Table of Contents:
Introduction
1 Why should I be moral?
Introduction
Morality as a social construct
Morality as constitutive of self-interest
Morality as overcoming self-interest
Conclusion: the three subsidiary questions
2 The idea of God
Introduction
The attributes of God
A brief diversion into philosophical proofs
The ontological argument
Origins: the idea of God is innate
Origins: the idea of God is a human construction
3 Persons
Introduction
What are the characteristics of personhood?
What is a person?
Personal identity
4 Reason and experience
Mind as a blank slate or tabula rasa
Innate knowledge
Conceptual schemes
5 The debate over free will and determinism
Introduction
What is determinism?
What is free will?
What are the implications of determinism?
Conclusion
6 God and the world
Introduction
The Design Argument
The problem of evil
The religious point of view
Conclusion
7 Knowledge of the external world
Introduction
Realism
Idealism
Phenomenalism
Conclusion
Glossary
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index

About the Author(s):