Bishop Luffa School is a Church of England Technology College in Chichester, West Sussex, for 11-18 year olds. Advanced Level Philosophy is one of the subjects that is taught there.

If you're going to do A Level Philosophy, why choose Bishop Luffa?

Firstly, because we have the best A level Philosophy results in the county.

Secondly, because the lessons are fun. We read, and we discuss. Discussion is the foundation on which the course is built. To create room for it, you're provided with custom-made texts throughout the course (written by the teacher - so feel free to criticise!). These build into a comprehensive 'total' textbook as the course goes on. There's an essay set every fortnight, with lots of guidance on how to do it. Most of our students feel very secure about what they are doing.

Thirdly, because philosophy is important. Why is society today so dull? Quite a lot of people never question what sort of a community they are living in, the values it upholds or the direction their lives are going in. That's not to say there is anything wrong with these things, but perhaps the best time to scrutinise them is when you're young. That's probably when you have fewest vested interests, and when your mind can wander most freely. Let it.

Finally, because philosophy is the World's oldest academic discipline. It may be relatively new at A level, but Universities see it as a central area of academic endeavour. And so should you.

For Entry Details, contact:

Head of the Sixth Form, Bishop Luffa School, Bishop Luffa Close, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 3LT. ENGLAND.

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Above: Members of the class of 2001 display a mixture of respect and wild enthusiasm for the AQA Philosophy Syllabus. (Photo: Dr J Ward)

What is Philosophy, Anyway?

Philosophy is the search for truth, with no prior assumptions. This often proceeds by way of an enquiry into meanings. What do we mean by - well, by just about any important word you may meet in this course of this search. The word "Philosophy" comes from two Greek words, "Philos", meaning love, and "Sophia", meaning wisdom. So literally, it is the love of wisdom. This is a bit airy-fairy, though. It's unlikely to help you decide whether you want to study it.

As we have just said, you can describe Philosophy by saying that it is concerned with questions of meaning. What do people mean when they say, for example, "I believe I've been saved from my sin", or, "I believe in human rights", or "I'm different to everyone else, because I don't conform"? How do they justify what they say? Do their justifications stand up to critical examination? Or are they just meaningless noises, uttered in a void, by deluded lumps of humanoid irrelevance? Pieces of nonsense, disguised as profundity? (This may not be an Either/ Or question!) In any case, we can only answer such questions by thought, by the marshalling of ideas.

Obviously, people don't like to have their deepest values and beliefs called into question, especially by people who are good at doing so. For this reason, many philosophers have met violent ends, or been shunned and rejected by society. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, once said, "The utter vulgarity of the herd of human beings comes through in their preference for the sort of existence a cow leads". Aristotle was chased out of his home country, and died in exile. (He said lots of other things, most of them less controversial, so he probably didn't deserve such an ignominious end). His predecessor, Socrates had said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates, too, came to a violent end.

This doesn't mean that if you do Philosophy, you'll come to a violent end!