The Ethics Synoptic Paper

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Religious Studies at As and A level

Coursework guides for Y12 students

This page was updated on Thursday June 16, 2005

Introduction

This page will be regularly updated in order to make it relevant to your study.  Initially it is to get you started over the summer vacation. The Synoptic paper is VERY challenging and if you want a decent grade start work on it now. As a paper it carries more marks than all other papers and to get a decent grade you have to master critical evaluation or critical thinking.

GETTING STARTED.  (please do these tasks ready for Monday 16th September)

1.  You need to start a vocabulary /glossary of words associated with ethics.

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/gpi/dicts.htm   Try this but be careful not to get something that is too hard.

2.   You need to know about some main ethical theories. You have your reading but if you do not have the stuff with you try the following:-

http://www.faithnet.freeserve.co.uk/moralissues.htm. Very good basic stuff which should help you get around

http://www.geocities.com/dboals.geo/religion.html#ETHICS. This is a resources of hundreds of sites,  don't get lost....but don't go straight here either.

Some further work......to help you

3.    Look up some of the websites which I have collected for your info. You might like to MIND-MAP the contents of one of them.

http://www.essaybank.co.uk/A_Level/Philosophy/
This is a brilliant site which contains sample essays as well as all sorts of other useful things...even UCAS personal statements.  Of course you are not always told how good theyr are but useful nevertheless.  Please do not dream of copying from this site....a very dangerous practice indeed!

http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/MainTopi.asp
There are a great deal of links here and lots of things worth following

http://www.philosophynow.demon.co.uk/
The website of the magazine "Philosophy Now"  written for A level students

http://www.faithnet.freeserve.co.uk/philosophyofreligion.htm
The basic A level Philosophy page and a good guide to other sites

http://www.augustana.ab.ca/~janzb/critthink.htm
loads of stuff here about critical thinking, fallacies,  arguing logically.

What do you have to know

A.     SKILLS in Philosophy (arguments and debate, analysis of language)

B.     ETHICAL THEORIES -  Situation Ethics, Utilitarianism, deontology, emotivism, intuitionism, natural moral law, 

applied to...... 

C.    SPECIFIC ISSUES   -   Conscience and freedom, sexual ethics, war and peace,  authority, justice, law and punishment.

Sample questions:-

 -    Analyse the philosophical principles of at least one ethical theory studied and 
     evaluate its application to a moral dilemma.                                            (50)

 -   Compare and contrast the application of two ethical theories to a moral dilemma. 
     Discuss the reasons for arguing that one of these theories is more effective than the   
     other.                                                                                                   (50)

(Marks are distributed as follows for the first part of the question - "analyse" - a total of 30 marks for the second part - "evaluate" - a total of 20 marks)

PLEASE KEEP UP YOUR READING

Assignments:-     

1.     Survey of theories

Date set - Monday 21st October                         Date due -  Monday 4th November

Please research the following theories and present them in brief outline along with an example of what they mean and some observations which might include some preliminary criticisms.  

DEONTOLOGY, NATURAL LAW, UTILITARIANISM, SITUATION ETHICS

INTUITIONISM, EMOTIVISM, PRESCRIPTIVISM

Please make sure that each theory is clearly defined and that you have the principal philosophers who prose the theories.  It is important t that you understand the basis of the theory.

I have prepared a grid for you to download if you wish.  It is in "word."  Please download then save to disc and use it as a word programme.  You may modify it as you wish or ignore it completely. You may choose to arrange the theories on one piece of A3 paper.  Use different colours if this helps.  

The following websites might help you.  It is VERY BIG and is obviously intended for students and teachers so some of the stuff is hard but its is brilliant.  If you click on various of the theories there are some POWER POINT presentations which you can view or down load.  These will give you an outline of some of the theories.

http://ethics.acusd.edu/

http://truth.wofford.edu/~kaycd/ethics/index.html

These sites are very rich in material and philosophical discussion SO...

1.     Open it when you have time to have a good look around.

2.     Keep a book mark of the pages.

PLEASE KEEP UP YOUR READING

2.     DEONTOLOGY

Date set - Tuesday 10th December              Date due -  Monday 6th January

This theory is a sort of paradigm of theories that generally hold that the good is something that is known by reason or intuition. Deontology does not allow for any consideration of consequences in its assessment of "the Good".  The most important philosopher in this area is Kant and you will need to have a detailed working knowledge of his ideas and be able to expand upon and apply them.

Key ideas.   Good Will,  Intention, Summum Bonum,  Categorical Imperative, Freedom

Develop a flow chart of Kant's thinking and any relevant backgound.

Please have a look at these sites:

http://www.aspanet.org/ethicscommunity/compendium/deon.html

http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/d/duties.htm

http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/part2/sect8.html

http://www.resauce.org/as_a2/Ethics/Deontological%20theories.doc

Task.   Write a critique of Kant's view of ethics.  Include in your critique at least two examples where his ethics can be applied. Assess the strength and weaknesses of his case. (1500 wds+).  If you wish you may present this work in the form of a power point presentation which lasts no less than 20 mins including relevant slides and notes.

PLEASE KEEP UP YOUR READING

3.   Applying the theories to the dilemmas

Using the booklet of sample essays you were recently given and the information you have now already amassed. You need to write TWO detailed assay plans.  These plans should show :-

a.   the direction of your argument,  
b.   a clear process of development and analysis,  
c.   the connection between different ideas and views, 
d.   most importantly a detailed evaluation of your final position

This task should take about 6 - 8 hours and should provide and excellent basis for your mock paper on Tues April 29th.

Title 1.

" No ethical theory can satisfactorily provide a solution to every moral dilemma"  
Discuss this statement with reference to TWO moral dilemmas and TWO ethical theories

Title 2.

Analyse and evaluate the success of ONE ethical theory in its application to moral dilemmas

Each plan should total about 500 words.  If you wish you can then turn one of them into a timed writing exercise. I.e just use one plan to write a timed essay in about 1 hour and 10 mins.  This would be an excellent training programme for those wishing to do well on this paper! This is the most difficult paper you will ever sit anywhere (an examiner's view!)