A brief developing history of School of Philosophy and Sociology in Shanxi University
The School of Philosophy and Sociology in Shanxi University grows out of the Department of Philosophy which was set up in 1980 and changed to the present name in 2003. Now there are 58 staff, including 12 professors, and 13 associate professors. The school has been approved to award doctoral degree of philosophy as the first-level discipline, and to award master's degree of sociology and demography as the first-level discipline. It runs three undergraduate programs: philosophy, ethics and social work. Through the last 30 years, the school always keeps following the basic laws of high education. In serving the local economic and social development of Shanxi, the school cultivated a large number of high-quality talents, and became one of the most important platform of talent training and academic research of philosophy and social science.
In 1983, in the leadership of professor Zhang Enci, the academic team won the master's degree of Marxist philosophy program, which become one of the earliest to get a master's degree award authority unit in Shanxi Province. In 1998, in the leadership of professor Guo Guichun, the academic team was awarded the Ph. D programs of science and technology philosophy, which is a "zero breakthrough" in humanities and social sciences of Shanxi; In 2000 the academic team get the key research base of humanities and social sciences of ministry of education, Research Center for Philosophy of Science and Technology; In 2002, the philosophy of science and technology was evaluated as the national key disciplines; In 2005, the school was approved to award doctoral degree of philosophy as the first-level discipline, which is the earliest one in Shanxi Province, and is helpful in very broad aspects, for example, to enhance the overall research level of humanities in the university, to improve the construction of philosophy and social sciences of Shanxi province, to serve the development of the local economic and social society. Since 2007, the School of Philosophy and Sociology has entered the stage of multidisciplinary collaborative innovation. In 2012, the “philosophy and modernity” was evaluated as one of the key construction platform of collaborative innovation center in Shanxi province. In 2016, philosophy was involved in the “Updating Plan” for advanced disciplines in Shanxi province, and supported by the provincial program for preponderant discipline construction. In 2017, philosophy was involved in the provincial "1331 Project". Confronting the opportunity of “Ministry-Province co-building” and the “World-class Discipline construction”, the school engaged in leading and senior talents introduction, implement the talent plan and connotation development strategy, and established some new research centers to strengthen the academic research, Research Center for Analytical Philosophy, European Philosophy and the cognitive philosophy.
In recent years, The school accomplished more than 200 scientific research projects, among which more than 50 are in the national level, the scientific research funds exceed 8 million RMB; more than 150 academic monographs, translations, and textbooks were published; The published papers exceeded 800, and more than 200 papers are published in "Chinese social science", "Philosophical Researches", "Philosophical Trends", “Studies in Philosophy of Science and Technology Research” and other key journals; the awarded various scientific research has exceeded 40. The school actively introduce foreign advanced teaching material, support the classic course, bilingual class, practice class and elaborate course. The course——“Principles of Marxist philosophy” and “logic” were rated as "excellent course" of Shanxi Province, the research report of students repeatedly won the first prize of "challenge cup"; Students’ popular journal "owl", which is distinctive and excellent, provides students with the academic training platform.
In the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan” and quite a long time in the future, in order to conform to guarantee the development strategy of comprehensive strength of Shanxi University, we would be guided by the cultivation of innovative talents in philosophy and ethics, and applied talents in social work. aiming at building a research institute, and constructing discipline with a high starting point, high standard, we will promote the internationalization of teachers, teaching and scientific research development, make the school become a first-class in the province, the leading research base, as well as the education center of domestic philosophy.