What is the purpose of teaching philosophy at other academic courses?

Abstract

What is the role and importance of philosophical education in other academic programs? There is surprisingly little relevant empirical research on this issue -the issue that has gained importance with the latest trend of reducing the representation of philosophy teaching in the education system of the Republic of Serbia. This is exactly what we deal with in this paper: we investigate the importance, value, and preferred conception of philosophical education in other, non-core academic studies, from the perspective of students, the main participants in the educational process. Our sample includes 151 participants, male and female students of the University of Niš, who answered open-ended questions using an online questionnaire about the contribution that philosophy courses had in their education and the possibility of giving more momentum to that contribution. We analyzed the obtained data qualitatively, using the method of thematic analysis. The results of our research show that students highly value the impact of philosophy courses, they believe that they contribute to the improvement of critical thinking and effective communication skills, a better understanding of problems, learning how to learn, building a worldview, and even -contrary to the usual conception of philosophy as a general education subject -to the better understanding of one's own profession. With certain limitations that must be taken into account, this research speaks in favor of the fact that philosophy education makes a significant contribution to the education of students of various vocations, and that there are strong reasons to oppose the trend of marginalization of philosophy in other academic courses. Also, the results suggest that in the light of the new changes, it is necessary to rethink the question of how to design philosophy courses in other academic curricula.