Hi- I need urgent help!!!!
I am currently searching for an EPQ topic on Philosophy (perhaps also related to sociology?) and my deadline for a form of initial ideas is this Friday. Yet I am struggling so much to find a title!
I am also doing a research project and lecture on Philosophy in Literature, so it would be really great if my EPQ subject could be related to this in some way, so that my research for the EPQ could potentially aid aspects of my research for my lecture, and vice versa.
Regardless of the topic, I want to make sure that it is a somewhat emotive subject that I feel I can argue well on and feel that I have produced a socially relevant essay on, as opposed to simply doing my EPQ on a random, abstract topic that has no relevance in today's world.
My three potential topic ideas are:
-Religious belief and atheism
- The End of History
- Personhood/soul
Regarding atheism and religion, I have considered the following questions:
'why should we care about whether God exists?'
'Is the decline of religion in the 21st century a force for good?'
'to what extent does modern society require atheism?'
'To what extent does the decline of religious belief in the 21st century suggest that religion historically has merely been a means of explaining the unexplainable?'
or something along those lines. Yet I wonder whether or not a question like that would not be philosophical enough, since I am planning on applying to Cambridge for Philosophy next year.
Or perhaps an analysis of one of the following quotes:
"God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh" - Voltaire
"The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life." - Freud
Alternatively, a concept which I would argue has a good balance of Philosophical and Sociological ideas would be the philosophy of the end of history, with perhaps the question of 'To what extent can the end of history be viewed as a realistic idea?' or something like that.
I have also been considering perhaps some more pure philosophical concepts for my title, such as the metaphysics of identity, consciousness and the soul - what makes us what we are?
Yet building on this, I have also become greatly interested in the concept of personhood, and in particular, what defines beings as persons holding moral worth.
I would love to explore this more metaphysical/ethical route as an alternative to my potential religion questions, but I have no idea with where to start in finding an actual title for an EPQ on a topic like that.
OR, alternatively, a question which I could imagine encompassing both philosophical and sociological elements could be something to do with the role and relevance of Philosophy in a postmodern world. And I think I could relate this to literature in some aspects, which would help with my lecture research. But I would have no idea how to word this question/title - help??
I can imagine this is quite an incoherent post to respond to, especially because all my ideas are so different - I just really want to make sure that my EPQ topic is perfect, as it is being finalized very soon - if anyone has any thoughts or ideas, they would be much appreciated. So sorry for the lengthy post!