Welcome to Philosophy at Reigate College!
Our team is comprised of two highly enthusiastic teachers, including myself, Mike Fogg, and Ellen Collins. Between the two of us we have close to 30 years of experience teaching philosophical arguments and we are deeply passionate about the subject. We’re looking forward to welcoming you to the department in person at the beginning of the academic year, but before then, we’d like you to complete a series of tasks and activities in preparation for the A Level course.
Many of you won’t have studied Philosophy as a separate subject before, so we’re really keen you have a good understanding of what the course is about before you start. These tasks have been designed with that in mind and are for you to complete independently at home over the coming months. There will be the chance to discuss what you’ve learnt when you start at College in September.
The tasks are organised in three distinct steps and should all be completed by Choices Day on 27 August 2025. This is to give you the best insight into what the courses will be like and/or help prepare you for them.
Please note, some Course Leaders (for example for Music) may release their tasks earlier, as they may form part of the College’s audition process. If this applies to you, you’ll be notified separately.
New Starters Course Tasks and Activities
| Release date | Suggested Completion Dates | |
| Explore your Subject | 1 June | 1 July |
| Get Going | 1 June | 1 August |
| Aim High | 1 June | 1 September |
Introducing Philosophy – three philosophical questions
Philosophy is a highly regarded academic subject, held in the greatest esteem by the top universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge. It’s relevant to numerous different areas of study from Law and Politics, to History and Mathematics. Indeed, some of the greatest thinkers in human history have studied Philosophy, including Einstein and Aristotle. However, Philosophy is not simply a way of gaining access to the top universities, or honing one’s reasoning skills. You should choose Philosophy because you find it exciting and interesting.
As an introduction to some of the topics studied in Philosophy, we’d like you to choose two of the tasks below:
Task One: Is Pleasure the Ultimate Good for Humans?
What is the ultimate goal of human life? Why do we try to get an education, a good job and a family? One important answer to these questions is called ‘hedonism’. The hedonist holds that pleasure is the ultimate goal for humans. We get an education in anticipation of getting a good job, because we think this will give us pleasure. We dream about winning the lottery or becoming famous because we think this will give us pleasure. We pursue money or power because we think these will give us pleasure. However, some philosophers have produced doubts about hedonism. Perhaps we strive for more than pleasure after all. They produce a so-called thought experiment – The Experience Machine – to show that we desire more than just pleasure. Watch the following clip and answer the questions on a separate typed, or handwritten document, which you should bring with you to your first philosophy lesson. Please pay special attention to the final, evaluative question, where you will be asked to give your own opinion.
PHILOSOPHY – Ethics: Hedonism and The Experience Machine [HD]
- According to hedonism what it the only thing that is good for us?
- ‘…your experiences in the machine and actually doing these things will be…’
- Explain the experience machine thought experiment.
- What is the ‘formal argument’:
1)
2)
Therefore, - Is hedonism false? Does the experience machine thought experiment show that there is more to life than simply pleasure? Give reasons for your response.
Task Two: Can We Know Anything?
The philosophical sceptic doubts that we can have knowledge. They propose sceptical ‘scenarios’ to show that we can know little or nothing. For instance, some consider the possibility of an evil genius or demon deceiving us, feeding us ideas as if there is an external world and as if our knowledge of simple mathematical truths is correct. Given this sceptical possibility, can we even know that there is a world of material objects e.g. tables, chairs and human bodies beyond our mind? Can we even know that we exist? Of course, no one actually believes that an evil genius exists, but does the mere possibility that they do, undermine our knowledge of the world and of mathematics and the self? Watch the following clip below until 4.40 and answer the questions on a separate typed, or handwritten document, which you should bring with you to your first philosophy lesson. Please pay special attention to the final, evaluative question, where you will be asked to give your own opinion.
PHILOSOPHY – Epistemology: The Problem of Skepticism [HD]
- What is Academic Scepticism?
- Briefly explain Pyrrhonian scepticism.
- Outline the dreaming argument.
- What could you still know if you are dreaming according to Rene Descartes?
- What does the possibility of the evil genius/demon lead us to doubt?
- Can you overcome the evil genius/demon doubt? Can you know there is a world beyond your mind, that you exist and that mathematics is correct? Give reasons for your answers.
Task Three: Can We Prove God’s Existence Using Science?
Some modern philosophers think that we can prove God’s existence by appealing to evidence from the sciences. In particular, they think that the so-called ‘Big Bang’ theory, which holds that the universe began to exist some 13.7 billion years ago, supports the existence of a non-physical person who created the universe. Watch the following clip below and answer the questions on a separate typed, or handwritten document, which you should bring with you to your first philosophy lesson. Please pay special attention to the final, evaluative question, where you will be asked to give your own opinion. (And don’t worry, no scientific knowledge is required to take a philosophy course!)
The Kalam Cosmological Argument – Part 1: Scientific
- ‘Believing that something can pop into existence without a cause is…
- If something begins to exist then it must have what?
- What does Bertrand Russell say about the universe?
- ‘Any adequate model must…’
- What features must the cause of the universe have according to this argument
The Kalam argument, then, can be presented as follows:
Reason 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause. (Things can’t pop into being from nothing like magic!)
Reason 2: The universe began to exist. (The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe began to exist some 13.7 billion years ago.)
Conclusion: Therefore, the universe has a cause. (And this cause must be spaceless, timeless and non-physical, like God.)
- Does this argument establish God’s existence? Give reasons for your answer?
Four Taster Lessons
It is important have a taste of the kind of material we look at throughout the course. Below are some handouts that will give you a feel for the content we cover each week. If you are interested in studying philosophy, then please read through at least one of these, and complete the writing activities on the last page of each document.
- Ethics Handout – Animal Ethics
- Knowledge Handout – Scepticism
- Religion Handout – The Problem of Evil
- Mind Handout – Cartesian Dualism
Introducing Wireless Philosophy
There are some excellent introductions to philosophical issues on the Wireless Philosophy YouTube page
https://www.youtube.com/user/WirelessPhilosophy
The most relevant material for the first year of the Philosophy A Level course is in the sections on ‘Introduction to Philosophy of Religion’ and ‘Introduction to Epistemology’ (you can find these in the Introductory Series by Topic under the Playlists tab.)
TASK Using a note-taking technique such as mind mapping or Cornell notes, please create a summary page for two of these videos.
To explore these and other topics in more detail, please click on the link below and see the section entitled ‘About Philosophy’, for introductory podcasts: https://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/philosophy_bites//past-episodes/
Arguments
Philosophers argue about the deepest questions that humans face, like:
- Does life have a meaning or purpose?
- How should we live?
- Where did the universe come from?
- Can we prove God’s existence?
They attempt to answer these questions by producing arguments. An argument is made up of one or more reasons (called premises), which attempt to convince someone of the truth of a conclusion. The premises, or reasons, are bits of evidence which suggest that the conclusion is true. A conclusion could be any claim that you want to prove. For instance, I might want to prove the conclusion that ‘Eating meat is wrong’.
So, I would need to produce reasons or premises:
- Premise 1 – Eating meat causes unnecessary
harm to animals.
- Premise 2 – It is wrong to cause unnecessary harm to others.
- Conclusion – Therefore, eating meat is wrong.
Importantly, the reasons or premises are ‘evidence’ offered in support of the conclusion. We might even see arguments as a bit like shopping lists, such as in the following example:
- Premise 1: Because he has no sense of personal hygiene
- Premise 2: Because he lacks drive, motivation, or any ambition
- Premise 3: Because he’s very negative about most things
- Premise 4: Because he puts me down
- Premise 5: Because he has strong feelings about his ex
- Conclusion: Therefore, he’s not good boyfriend material.
Task 1: Watch the clip below, which explains what an argument is and how to structure one.
Task 2: Produce premises (reasons or bits of evidence) to support the following four conclusions: (Note, before you begin each one, decide which conclusion you wish to support; for instance, in the first argument below, you could support either the view that ‘social media platforms have a negative impact on society’ or the opposing view that they ‘do not have a negative impact on society’. You choose.)
a) Impact of social media on society
Premise 1:
Premise 2:
Premise 3:
Conclusion: Therefore, social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook and twitter have/do not have a negative impact on society.
b) The existence of God
Premise 1:
Premise 2:
Premise 3:
Conclusion: Therefore, God exists/does not exist.
c) The death penalty
Premise 1:
Premise 2:
Premise 3:
Conclusion: Therefore, the death penalty should/should not be brought back for serious crimes.
d) Free university education
Premise 1:
Premise 2:
Premise 3:
Conclusion: Therefore, university education should/should not be free.
Remember, there are no limits on the number of premises that an argument can have. Some arguments may have one premise, while others may have hundreds.
Please keep a note of your premises so we can discuss them together.
Course Leader – Philosophy A Level
