Welcome
to
Higher Philosophy
Welcome to an intense but highly rewarding Higher course.
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Before we begin there are several expectations that need to be outlined.
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I will expect a lot from you, but you will receive a lot back. This course is fast paced and will require a lot of your critical thinking skills.
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You must be organised with your notes, I can only help so much. You must also remember to take the appropriate unit notes with you to every class as I will refer back to previous lessons and you will need those notes.
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I expect you to be on time and ready to learn.
The first unit we will complete is called Arguments in Action.
Commandments of a Philosopher
To start off with it would be great to learn a little bit about yourselves and to go over your target grades, what philosophy means to you and why you actually want to do this course.
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Afterwards we are going to critique all of your answers on why you want to do philosophy in our first Google Meet tutorial this week.
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Don't worry, I will make your answers anonymous.
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Keep an eye on your Google Classroom for the date and time.
Why Philosophy?
There is also a GoogleDoc copy on your Classroom if you prefer to type directly onto it.
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It's underneath the topic "Introduction".
Outcomes
As we go through each lesson you will be scoring your knowledge on that topic in your appropriate outcome sheet.
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Red = I have no idea.
Orange = Okay with it.
Green = I am ready for a pop test anytime on this topic.
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You will be keeping a record for yourselves and for me as well.
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Of course you can change the different colours as we progress and revise.
What is this course about?
In this course we will be covering three different units:
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​Arguments in Action (AinA)
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Knowledge and Doubt
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Descartes​
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Hume
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Moral Philosophy
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Kant​
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Utilitarianism
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This is also the order I will be teaching these units to you in.
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The whole course concludes in two SQA exams.
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Paper 1: 2 hours 15 minutes​
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Units: Knowledge and Doubt and Moral Philosophy
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One 30 mark essay for each unit.
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Paper 2: 1 hour 45 minutes
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Units: All of them.
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AinA: 30 marks
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Knowledge and Doubt: 10 marks
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Moral Philosophy: 10 marks
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Questions range from 1 mark up to 6 marks.
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There are no assignments in this course, it is purely exam essays which are holistically marked.
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Homework
As said before I have very high expectations of all of you.
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Normally you get two different homework tasks a week, however due to the unusual e-learning circumstances you will be getting one homework task a week until we go back.
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When back at school we will return to two a week.
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I do expect these to be done to the best of your ability. I am always available to help on gmail or Meet. You just have to ask.
What Next?
This has been a lot of information to take in. So your first task and homework is to create a leaflet to describe what this course is all about.
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You can create a physical copy or an electronic one to be given to next year's Higher Philosophy Class detailing this course.
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What to include:
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Logo of the school.
Clear title.
What is philosophy?
What units you study.
What each unit is about (use the links below to help).
Classroom expectations.
Homework expectations.
Exam information
Outcomes
What can you do with philosophy in the future?
Anything else you think is relevant.
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I look forward to reading them!
Extra
If you find yourself bored or wanting something new and exciting to read/watch feel free to dip in and out of my philosophy recommendation list.