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[Artwork by Evie, who looked at determinism, exploring a range of ideas including genetic and psychological determinism.]
Can our personalities change over time, or are they set at birth?
If everything is determined, what becomes of morality?
How sceptical should we be, and why does scepticism matter?
These are the sorts of questions many adults mull over during long car journeys or late-night conversations. They are also the questions that our Block 5 (Year 11) Philosophy, Religion & Ethics students have been discussing this term.
They began by exploring key philosophical concepts, from thinkers such as a Plato, Aristotle, Locke and Kant, looking at subjects such as free will and determinism, appearance and reality, change and identity and scepticism. With guidance and support from teachers, students then went on to conduct their own independent research, building the skills they will need later on in the course, particularly for the final assignment where they get to design their own utopia.
Their current assignment is titled 'A Creative Response to a Philosophical Idea'. Each student created a poster that summarised their research, before presenting it to the PRE department. Alongside this they produced a creative response that clearly translated their chosen philosophical idea into a visual or practical format. These included painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, short stories, video and stop-start animation.
Key to the success of their project was the ability to communicate their concept clearly with their finished piece. As a school, we believe it is imperative for students to turn abstract philosophical ideas into clear, structured critical thinking that can be shared and discussed. As their teacher, Amanda Bruzon, who joined Bedales as Head of PRE this year, notes, ‘You know the students are engaged in their learning when they tell you they’ve stayed up late into the night debating their ideas with a scientist friend!
‘GCSE Religious Study can be very content-heavy, more focused on learning about others’ ideas, whereas the BAC encourages them to develop their own. They get to choose their direction of study within the parameters of the coursework brief. The fact that students will stop me in the corridor, or while I’m walking my dog to ask about things that we’ve been discussing in class, is striking.
‘The level of engagement and desire to take things beyond the remit is just a given. The students are proud of their learning, they’re not just doing it because they’ve been told to, they want to learn from each other and are interested in each other’s ideas. We’re teaching students to be able to reason, to be properly informed and show appreciation of others’ ideas without having to agree with them. We hear all the time that people are turning away from religion, but this kind of education gives young people the ability and opportunity to explore the big questions.’
We asked three of Amanda’s students to tell us a little bit more about the topics they studied…
Ed
For my topic I chose solipsism. Solipsism was a difficult topic to grapple with, and it was especially difficult to decide how to present it. I chose to recreate famous scenes from shows such as Peep Show, where two people are essential, but presented it with only one person and then panning to silence. From my study of solipsism the skill I feel I gained is to deal with totally world shattering philosophy while not going a bit mad. While I encourage an exploration into solipsism, there are plenty of examples of people losing their minds slightly- remembering to stay grounded was definitely another skill gained.
Leon
For my topic, I chose appearance and reality, and had to create a poster describing the topic and outlining the foundation. Within the poster, I evaluated how different philosophers linked the two ideas, the applications, and historical context. After the poster I made a creative artifact. I chose a sketch which depicted individuals in a train carriage with their line of vision being tinted to its own colour and reality, representing Kant’s idea of how the mind repurposes all raw data and turns it into what can be perceived. I learnt how to arrange data, and how the history behind the relationship of appearance and reality was influenced by the time of the philosopher’s origin.
Liberty
During the philosophy part of the course, I was able to develop my own research and focus on the aspects of free will that I enjoy. It helped me to understand how important these topics are to society and our lives. I was able to discover new ideas and think further on my own original thoughts. I liked being able to make something creative out of things I was learning in class and understand how difficult it is to create a philosophical idea in art, because you cannot explain all the opposing arguments.
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