Redovisning för Nationella nätverket för praktisk och teoretisk filosofi

Abstract

The national network for philosophy, practical and theoretical, was established in order to facilitate and coordinate cooperation in philosophy education at the Masters degree levels in Sweden. In order to accomplish this, all the universities giving, or planning to give, Masters degree courses or programs decided to start a common system for giving courses and also giving credit for courses taken. In short, the idea was that each university pledged to make certain of their Masters degree courses easily accessible to participants from other universities. This entails making changes to the usual courses in two respects. First, the general model of scheduling the courses over a number of weeks had to be abandoned in favour of giving the lectures in a more concentrated form, making it possible for visitors from other places to follow the course. this would also mean that there would be some parts of the courses that were given as distance courses. Second, we had to make sure that there were no administrative difficulties, so that the students could follow courses at different universities without suddenly finding that they were not admitted to a course, or that their newly completed courses were not accepted at their home univeristies. We would also find means to ensure that there was a certain amount of coordination concerning what kind of courses that were to be given, and when they would be given, in order to prevent clashes. This meant that we had to make sure that information was disseminated properly. It is still too early to fully evaluate certain aspects of this cooperation we would have to wait a few years to see whether the students really get better teaching this way, compared with the old system, where students stayed at their home universities for the duration of their studies. After all, it might be the case that the students in the long run find it more trouble than it is worth to visit other universities for a short time. But our impressions so far indicate that the students have been benefitting from the new system. They seem to find it interesting to visit new philosophical environments, and they appreciate that courses to a greater extent than earlier were given by leading experts in their fields. It also seems that there is a budding network developing among the students themselves, independently of the network among the teachers and researchers.