Sir, – Further to to Joe Humphreys's interview with the co-founder of the UK-based Philosophy Foundation, Peter Worley ("Should children be encouraged to doubt?", May 19th), the article correctly points out that philosophy is not properly covered in the Leaving Cert religious education (RE) syllabus as Plato and Aristotle are merely name-checked in one RE module.
However, philosophy does appear in both the Junior Cert and Leaving Cert syllabi for classical studies. If the Greek philosophy topic is chosen at Junior Cert, it constitutes 20 per cent of the course. This rises to 25 per cent if the philosophy topic is selected for Leaving Cert. The intellectual benefits of studying philosophy are well known to teachers and students of classical studies alike.
In the interview, Peter Worley states that “leaving school and getting involved in the real world will involve dealing with situations where the answer is not in the back of the book”. I could not agree more. This is why the syllabi for Classical Studies at second level are built around primary sources from the ancient world; in the case of the philosophy topic, the selected works of Plato. – Yours, etc,
IAN MAGUIRE,
Classical Association
of Ireland – Teachers,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.