Summer Work - July 2025
Welcome to A Level Religious Studies!
Year 11 / Year 12 Summer work - Mr. Cawsey
To prepare for Mr. Cawsey's classes in September, you will need to complete the following:
Podcasts
Listen to the following podcasts about Religious Experience:
Please make notes from each of the podcasts - we will be referring to these in our first few lessons in September!
Year 11 / Year 12 Summer work - Mr. Jeffries
Philosophical Puzzles
Two philosophical puzzles to keep you fresh over the holiday.
Research the Ship of Theseus puzzle. Come up with your own response… is it the same ship? Now consider how this links to identity. Look at the work of Thomas Reid, in particular the ‘brave officer’ example.
Research the Brain in a Vat argument – what do you think?
Reading
- Introduction to a priori and a posteriori reasoning - https://iep.utm.edu/apriori/
- Introduction to Plato - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/ - Read sections 1 and 2
- Background on Aristotle – Section 2.C https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle/#SH2c
- Peter Singer; Famine, Affluence and Morality
- Watch this TedEd video on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Year 13 Summer Work
Work from Mr. Cawsey
Halakhah
We will be studying the following topics in September:
- Kashrut
- Business Ethics
Please read the following:
Kashrut:
Business Ethics:
Please make notes - we will be studying these topics in September
Work from Mr. Jeffries
Mini-Game
Two philosophical puzzles to keep you fresh over the holiday.
Research the Ship of Theseus puzzle. Come up with your own response… is it the same ship? Now consider how this links to identity. Look at the work of Thomas Reid, in particular the ‘brave officer’ example.
Research the Brain in a Vat argument – what do you think?
Reading
- Read https://iep.utm.edu/dualism-and-mind/ on the Soul and the Mind
- Read https://iep.utm.edu/rel-lang/ on Religious Language
- Van Inwagen, P. ‘Necessary Being: the Ontological Argument’ in Stump, E and Murray, M. J. (ed) (1999) Philosophy of Religion: The Big Questions, Blackwell
- Swinburne, R. (1997) ‘God-talk is not evidently nonsense’ in Davies, B. (2000)
- Read David Chalmers, Hard Problem of Consciousness
- Recap on Meta-ethics – Mackie – Inventing Right and Wrong. Chapter 1.3.
Extended – if you are targeting an A* I encourage you to read these
*All are available online.