St Robert of Newminster Catholic School and Sixth

St Robert of Newminster Catholic School and Sixth Form College Year 12 Pre-Course Tasks: RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Philosophy, Ethics & DCT Scholars Knowledge Identify the different scholars we have studied in both Philosophy, Ethics and DCT Skills Outline the key theories/arguments associated with each of these scholars Extended thinking Apply the different scholars to the different topics you have covered this year.

Philosophy Scholars

Plato 427 -347 BCE Aristotle 322 -384 BCE Ancient Greek scholar who inspired Judaeo-Christian beliefs about the nature of God. He argued that empirical evidence cannot be accepted as fact and should not be trusted. Instead he argued that knowledge Plato was ‘a priori’ – it was gained prior to experience. He proposed theory of the world of forms and argued that there were essentially two forms of existence. The material world (the world of the senses) and the world of forms (the original and perfect world). He used his famous analogy of the cave to highlight this theory with the cave representing the material world and the outside showing the world of forms. The sun in the analogy represented the ‘Form of the Good’ – this was the form of all forms. The analogy is also linked to his beliefs about the soul. Plato was a dualist and argued that the soul (which was immaterial and immortal) could exist separately to the body. Plato

Rene Descartes 1596 - 1650 Plato Gilbert Ryle 1900 - 1976 Plato

Richard Dawkins 1941 - Plato David Hume 1711 - 1776 Plato

Bertrand Russell 1872 - 1970 Plato St Thomas Aquinas 1225 - 1274 Plato

William Paley 1743 - 1805 Plato Charles Darwin 1809 - 1882 Plato

Immanuel Kant 1724 - 1804 Plato Anselm of Canterbury 1033 - 1109 Plato

St Augustine 354 - 430 Gaunilo of Marmoutiers 11 th Century Plato

John Hick 1922 - 2012 Plato J. L Mackie 1917 - 1981 Plato

William Rowe 1931 - 2015 Plato Friedrich Schleiermacher 1768 - 1834 Plato

Peter Vardy 1945 - Plato William James 1842 - 1910 Plato

Rudolph Otto 1869 - 1937 Plato Richard Swinburne 1934 - Plato

Sigmund Freud 1856 - 1939 Plato V. S. Ramachandran 1951 - Plato

Ethics Scholars

Aristotle 322 -384 BCE St Thomas Aquinas 1225 - 1274 Ancient Greek scholar who inspired the ethical theory of natural law. He argued that behind every living thing lay 4 causes. They were the efficient, formal, material and final cause. Plato The most important cause was are final cause which Aristotle referred to as ‘telos’. This is a Greek term for end or purpose. Aristotle believed our ‘Telos’ was Eudaimonia or ‘human flourishing’. He said we pursue goals to reach happiness – this happiness is different to pleasure. We should not seek pleasure for our own gratification. He inspired St Thomas Aquinas who accepted his view that all human beings were motivated toward some end or purpose. He is seen as one of the earliest thinkers involved with natural law ethical theory. Plato

Joseph Fletcher 1905 - 1991 Plato Immanuel Kant 1724 - 1804 Plato

Jeremy Bentham 1748 - 1832 Plato John Stuart Mill 1806 - 1873 Plato

W D Ross 1877 - 1971 Plato Karl Popper 1902 - 1994 Plato

Pope John Paull II 1920 - 2005 Plato Peter Singer 1946 - Plato

Cardinal Vincent Nichols 1945 - Plato Robert C Solomon 1942 - 2007 Plato

DCT Scholars

Plato 427 -347 BCE Dante 1265 - 1321 Ancient Greek scholar who inspired Judaeo-Christian beliefs about the nature of God. He argued that empirical evidence cannot be accepted as fact and should not be trusted. Instead he argued that knowledge Plato was ‘a priori’ – it was gained prior to experience. He proposed theory of the world of forms and argued that there were essentially two forms of existence. The material world (the world of the senses) and the world of forms (the original and perfect world). He used his famous analogy of the cave to highlight this theory with the cave representing the material world and the outside showing the world of forms. The sun in the analogy represented the ‘Form of the Good’ – this was the form of all forms. The analogy is also linked to his beliefs about the soul. Plato was a dualist and argued that the soul (which was immaterial and immortal) could exist separately to the body. Plato