Philosophy course for students of IT specialties: what should it be?
Not so long ago, two very interesting discussions appeared on the Habré on the problems of training IT specialists in modern Russian universities ( 1 and 2 ). The participants in these discussions criticize the domestic system of higher education, since it is (1) very much divorced from real practice and (2) overloaded with general educational subjects.
Many people speak negatively about the practice of teaching philosophy in Russian universities. As a person who has taught philosophy and worked at the relevant department for almost 10 years, I cannot but admit that such harsh criticism is quite reasonable and fair. In many Russian universities, philosophy teaching is far from meeting the requirements of today. Below, I will try to offer a constructive solution to the problem and present my thoughts on how to make the philosophy course interesting for techies in general and IT specialists in particular.
In the comments to posts, the links to which I have given above, many say that too much time is allotted for general education subjects in Russian universities. This is not quite true: curricula are redrawn, as they say, as God puts it, and the hours on general education subjects (including philosophy) are constantly being reduced. And it's very bad. What useful knowledge can a teacher bring to students in just 10 lectures on philosophy? What will students do with these classes? For a student and for a teacher, such a course is only wasted time. I propose another solution: not to shorten the course of philosophy, but to bring it as close as possible to life.
Many people believe that philosophy is divorced from life. It seems that such an opinion is formed in them largely due to the existing practice of teaching philosophy. Philosophy is not abstract wisdom. This is an attempt to look at many everyday problems from a different, sometimes completely unexpected side. Why would not computer students learn to develop a new perspective on the problems of their own field? Moreover, modern computer technologies provide rich and interesting material for philosophical understanding ...
In my opinion, the most common mistake in teaching philosophy is increased attention to the historical part of the course. Why do we need to focus on the historical part, if: (1) hours are given to philosophy and so little and (2) reading the works of philosophers of the past will be beneficial if and only if a person reads them out of interest, and not just because This is needed for the exam. Therefore, I would remove all special lectures on the history of philosophy. I would build a philosophy program as follows:
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Topic 1. Introduction to philosophy (the subject and method of philosophy, the role and place of philosophy in the system of culture).
Topic 2. The problem of knowledge. The main epistemological categories: subject, object, knowledge, cognition, information (in the framework of lectures on this topic, you can simultaneously consider the problems of artificial intelligence).
Topic 3. Language as a means of knowledge (the problem of the origin of language, natural and artificial languages, the problem of machine modeling of language ability and machine translation).
Topic 4. Science as a form of consciousness (criteria for the scientific nature of knowledge, methods of form and methods of scientific thinking).
Topic 5. Truth as the purpose of knowledge. Criteria of truth. Modern concepts of truth.
Theme 6. The problem of consciousness. Consciousness and body, brain and mind. Theories of consciousness: history and modernity. Here you can also consider the problems of artificial intelligence, but you can also highlight it in a separate topic.
Theme 7. The philosophical meaning of the problem "man - technology" (here you can speculate - and not without interest! - about the problems of human-computer interaction).
Topic 8. Engineering design: the essence, the methods of the function (here we compare the methodological concepts of technical sciences and the corresponding approaches in programming).
Theme 9. Virtual reality as a subject of philosophical understanding.
Topic 10. The Internet as a socio-cultural phenomenon.
Topic 11 Computer and art (here you can talk about many things: about the problem of authorship in the digital age, about the problems of replicating a work of art, about new forms of art, etc.)
Something like this I see the content of the philosophy course for IT people. How else can it be supplemented, modified, improved. I will be glad to hear the opinion of both fellow humanitarians and technicians of various specialties.
Many people speak negatively about the practice of teaching philosophy in Russian universities. As a person who has taught philosophy and worked at the relevant department for almost 10 years, I cannot but admit that such harsh criticism is quite reasonable and fair. In many Russian universities, philosophy teaching is far from meeting the requirements of today. Below, I will try to offer a constructive solution to the problem and present my thoughts on how to make the philosophy course interesting for techies in general and IT specialists in particular.
In the comments to posts, the links to which I have given above, many say that too much time is allotted for general education subjects in Russian universities. This is not quite true: curricula are redrawn, as they say, as God puts it, and the hours on general education subjects (including philosophy) are constantly being reduced. And it's very bad. What useful knowledge can a teacher bring to students in just 10 lectures on philosophy? What will students do with these classes? For a student and for a teacher, such a course is only wasted time. I propose another solution: not to shorten the course of philosophy, but to bring it as close as possible to life.
Many people believe that philosophy is divorced from life. It seems that such an opinion is formed in them largely due to the existing practice of teaching philosophy. Philosophy is not abstract wisdom. This is an attempt to look at many everyday problems from a different, sometimes completely unexpected side. Why would not computer students learn to develop a new perspective on the problems of their own field? Moreover, modern computer technologies provide rich and interesting material for philosophical understanding ...
In my opinion, the most common mistake in teaching philosophy is increased attention to the historical part of the course. Why do we need to focus on the historical part, if: (1) hours are given to philosophy and so little and (2) reading the works of philosophers of the past will be beneficial if and only if a person reads them out of interest, and not just because This is needed for the exam. Therefore, I would remove all special lectures on the history of philosophy. I would build a philosophy program as follows:
')
Topic 1. Introduction to philosophy (the subject and method of philosophy, the role and place of philosophy in the system of culture).
Topic 2. The problem of knowledge. The main epistemological categories: subject, object, knowledge, cognition, information (in the framework of lectures on this topic, you can simultaneously consider the problems of artificial intelligence).
Topic 3. Language as a means of knowledge (the problem of the origin of language, natural and artificial languages, the problem of machine modeling of language ability and machine translation).
Topic 4. Science as a form of consciousness (criteria for the scientific nature of knowledge, methods of form and methods of scientific thinking).
Topic 5. Truth as the purpose of knowledge. Criteria of truth. Modern concepts of truth.
Theme 6. The problem of consciousness. Consciousness and body, brain and mind. Theories of consciousness: history and modernity. Here you can also consider the problems of artificial intelligence, but you can also highlight it in a separate topic.
Theme 7. The philosophical meaning of the problem "man - technology" (here you can speculate - and not without interest! - about the problems of human-computer interaction).
Topic 8. Engineering design: the essence, the methods of the function (here we compare the methodological concepts of technical sciences and the corresponding approaches in programming).
Theme 9. Virtual reality as a subject of philosophical understanding.
Topic 10. The Internet as a socio-cultural phenomenon.
Topic 11 Computer and art (here you can talk about many things: about the problem of authorship in the digital age, about the problems of replicating a work of art, about new forms of art, etc.)
Something like this I see the content of the philosophy course for IT people. How else can it be supplemented, modified, improved. I will be glad to hear the opinion of both fellow humanitarians and technicians of various specialties.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/130742/
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