France Terminale Humanities, Literature and Philosophy

Chapters: 2

1. Semester 1: the search for the self

Education and emancipation · Expressions of sensibility · Metamorphoses of the self

Philosophy of Education: What Education Is and What It Is For – Philosophy of education asks big questions: what is education, why do we learn, and what kind of person should school help us become? Humans are educable: we are born able to learn almost everything. Education is wider than schooling, and schooling is wider than training. Old ideas saw the child as an empty jug to fill; newer ideas see the child as an active learner who learns by doing. Schools aim both to socialise us into society and to help each of us realise our own potential, and at its best education sets people free to think and act for themselves.
Romanticism – Romanticism was a movement in literature, art and music from about 1780 to 1850. It reacted against the Age of Reason's strict rules and against ugly, crowded factory towns. Romantics valued nature, especially wild and 'sublime' nature, strong personal feeling, the free individual, imagination and dreams, the past and folk culture. Key figures include Wordsworth, Keats, Goethe, Pushkin, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, the painters Turner and Friedrich, and composers such as Chopin and Schubert.
Philosophy of Mind: How Are Mind and Body Linked? – Philosophy of mind asks what the mind is and how it links to the body. Dualism (Descartes) says mind and body are two different things, which raises the problem of how they interact. Physicalism says the mind is what the brain does. Consciousness is our inner experience, like a torch that lights what we attend to. The unconscious (Freud) holds wishes, memories and habits we are not aware of. Related questions: what makes me the same self over time, how emotions join body and mind, and whether machines could ever think.

2. Semester 2: humanity in question

Creation, continuity and rupture · History and violence · The human and its limits

Ethics: How to Decide What Is Right – Ethics (moral philosophy) asks what we ought to do and why. Values such as honesty, kindness, fairness and respect guide choices. Three main theories help: consequences (utilitarianism, Bentham and Mill: most good for most people), duty (Kant: act on rules you could want everyone to follow; treat people as ends, never only as means) and virtue (Aristotle: build good character; virtue is the mean between extremes). Conscience is our inner sense of right and wrong. Freedom brings responsibility. Meta-ethics asks what "good" means and whether values are universal or relative. Applied ethics deals with the environment, animals, work, friendship and peace.