Michael Lacewing - Philosophy for AS and A Level: Epistemology and Moral Philosophy

Christ's Hospital is an independent co-educational boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 1118 with 870 pupils. It is unique for a UK independent boarding school in that it educates a proportion of its pupils for free, and many at a reduced rate. This stems from its founding charter as a charitable school. It was established in 1552 by King Edward VI to care for poor and homeless children of the City of London, and the generosity of donors has built up an endowment that enables Christ's Hospital to maintain its charitable tradition. School fees are paid on a means-tested basis, with substantial subsidies paid by the school, so that pupils from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds are able to have a high quality, independent boarding school education.

The school, set in 1,200 acres of rolling Sussex countryside, has an impressive history of high academic achievement with an average of 12% of pupils each year taking up places at Oxford or Cambridge, and 98% of leavers going on to top Universities in the UK and abroad. Offering a choice of A levels, Pre-U, and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, it provides a healthy, stimulating and comfortable environment in which pupils learn to be independent, making the most of their abilities, whether in academia, sports, music or fine arts. The pupils grow up with a strong sense of responsibility towards each other, the school and the world around them.

The AQA A Level and AS Level Philosophy courses aim to introduce you, as a student, to some key concepts and methods in philosophy, studied as an academic discipline. The AS level raises two big philosophical questions: What, and how, do we know? and What is morally right and good? The A level covers these two questions and adds two more: Does God exist? and What is the mind? They both introduce you to philosophy by considering some of the very best attempts to answer these questions, the arguments of some of the very best philosophers in history as well as recent discussions. In this textbook, we look at the first two issues, which the AS and A level share. In an accompanying textbook for A level only, we look at the issues of God and the mind.

One aim of this textbook is, of course, to cover the ideas and arguments that are on the syllabus. But it aims at more than that. First, it aims to show you how to do philosophy not just to tell you, but to show you, what philosophical thinking and philosophical writing is like. This is important because the AS level and A levels aim to introduce the methods of philosophy, as well as the ideas. Second, it aims to get you engaging in the argument. The discussion is provocative and leaves many lines of thought hanging. So, for instance, you might come up with new objections or replies that haven't yet been discussed, or argue that a particular point is convincing or implausible. That's the idea. This textbook doesn't try to tell you what should be said, only (some of) what could be said. (That leads to one important difference between this book and your essays. The book tries to be even-handed, and doesn't often draw firm conclusions. In your essays, you'll be expected to defend a particular point of view.)