Research and teaching philosophy in the context of integration

The conference took place on December 3, 2008 with the participation of many students, postgraduates, staff, lecturers, and philosophy researchers from many universities across the country. More than 30 papers were presented.

Before the conference began, Dr. Nguyen Thuy Van - Head of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said: Philosophy is one of the sciences that can provide people with concepts and methods of perceiving the world. Therefore, in the past, now and forever, the role of building a correct worldview and methodology for scientific cognition and practical activities of philosophy cannot be changed. But that is a matter of theory, but is it true in practice? Is philosophy really as important and necessary as people say? If that is really the case, does the dissemination of philosophical knowledge today meet the requirements that society and practice demand, especially in the context of integration and development? That is also the main topic that delegates focused on discussing at this conference.

[img class="caption" src="images/stories/2008/12/04/img_7760.jpg" border="0" alt="Dr. Nguyen Thuy Van (right) - Head of Philosophy Department" title="Dr. Nguyen Thuy Van (right) - Head of Philosophy Department" width="240" height="161" align="right" ]

One of the issues that many delegates mentioned was determining the correct role and significance of this science in the current context as well as how to develop, supplement and apply Marxist philosophy to real life and university teaching practices. Dr. Nguyen Vu Hao (Faculty of Philosophy) said that it is necessary to correctly determine the relationship between philosophy and politics, not to politicize philosophy in an extreme way. Philosophy must maintain its relatively independent position as a science and not be identified with politics. In addition, it is necessary to create a driving force for true spiritual creativity, encourage freedom of thought and debate as a premise for philosophical creativity. According to Dr. Nguyen Vu Hao, it is regrettable that Vietnam is currently one of the few countries without a Philosophy Association - an important criterion for assessing the level of development of philosophy and philosophy education of a country, which is also an obstacle to integration with world philosophy.

[img class="caption" src="images/stories/2008/12/04/img_7784.jpg" border="0" alt="Dr. Nguyen Vu Hao - Deputy Head of Philosophy Department" title="Dr. Nguyen Vu Hao - Deputy Head of Philosophy Department" width="240" height="161" align="left" ]

In response to the Ministry of Education and Training's decision to merge three scientific subjects: Philosophy, Scientific Socialism, and Political Economy into one subject called Principles of Marxism, many delegates expressed their concerns that: With such a general structure, the subject has become much more concise and overcomes the overlapping of some contents between the old subjects. However, the implementation of this innovative program, if not carefully calculated and prepared, may lead to a tendency to simplify the knowledge of Marxism-Leninism. Moreover, up to now, the research and teaching of Marxism-Leninism has been carried out in three independent subjects, so most lecturers often specialize in only one field: either Marxist-Leninist Philosophy or Marxist-Leninist Political Economy or Scientific Socialism. According to the new program, each person will be responsible for teaching all three subjects, but without careful investment, teachers themselves can easily fall into a state of confusion about the parts they have not taught, leading to students not fully grasping the knowledge.

[img class="caption" src="images/stories/2008/12/04/img_7754.jpg" border="0" alt="Prof. Dr. To Duy Hop (Institute of Sociology)" title="Prof. Dr. To Duy Hop (Institute of Sociology)" width="240" height="161" align="left" ]

The issue of innovation in the study and teaching of philosophy today is one of the most mentioned contents by many delegates. Many presentations have pointed out limitations such as: the study of Marxist-Leninist philosophy in recent years has developed but has not made any groundbreaking and changing contributions; philosophical research but is poor in the ability to apply the principles of Marxist-Leninist philosophy to analyze and verify the Party's guidelines and policies; there is a lot of theoretical research but there is no technical research to test theoretical issues in practice; a one-line approach - not integrated with modern knowledge but heavily focused on imposing teaching methods, indulged in citations... On the student side, students lack background knowledge and many other necessary skills to be able to study philosophy... On the teacher side, teaching is not creative, does not apply knowledge to practice, making philosophy a difficult subject to understand and too esoteric for students. The current curriculum of this subject is a common curriculum for many training units without taking into account the purpose of philosophy training in each major and each field has its own characteristics...

It can be said that the opinions discussed at the conference have come to an agreement with their own opinions, with criticism and debate to reach consensus on solutions to the problem of improving the quality of research and teaching philosophy today. It also demonstrates the real concerns, the constant struggles of many teachers who have devoted many years of their lives to the research and dissemination of philosophical knowledge. Raising many issues, the conference also hopes to bring about many changes in the thinking and actions of current teachers and students of philosophy.