Originally built in May 1982 as the Dialectics of Nature Research Center of Southeast University, the Department of Philosophy and Science was formally set up in 1985, its first department head being Xiao Kuntao, a famous philosopher of China. As the backbone department of the liberal arts of Southeast University, Department of Philosophy and Science focuses on fostering postgraduate students, offering 5 teaching and research sections, i.e. Philosophy of Science and Technology, Ethics, Foreign Philosophy, Marxist Philosophy, and Sociology, as well as 2 research institutions of Ethics and Philosophy of Science and Technology. In addition, the Moral Construction Research Center of Jiangsu Province, jointly set up by Southeast University, Committee Propaganda Department of Provincial Party, Provincial Education Committee, and Provincial Education Commission, is also hosted by the Department.
The Department owns first-level discipline doctor station of philosophy and post-doctoral research centers of philosophy, offering national 985 Innovation base of Philosophy and Social Sciences and key research base of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Jiangsu Province.
The Department now has 23 full-time teachers (19 doctors, 83% of the total), including 11
professors, 6 associate professors, and 6 lecturers, with 11 doctoral supervisors. Since 2011, the application of philosophy undergraduate majors of the Department has been approved.
Since established, the Department has undertaken and completed more than 50 national and provincial research projects, and has published more than 40 works as well as over 800 articles. By now, the Department has fostered hundreds of postgraduate students. Moreover, since 1993, the Department has held various types of Leadership Postgraduate Courses authorized by sections such as Jiangsu High Education Committee, Organization Department of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, Party Committee Organization Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Audit Office of Jiangsu Province, and Organization Department of Zhenjiang Municipal Party Committee, and over one thousand students have graduated. During the process of fostering students, the Department not only focuses on improving students’ dialectical thinking and philosophical analysis ability, but also pays great attention to the combination of theory and practice, aiming at developing postgraduate students with not only solid theoretical skills but also extensive knowledge and road adaptation. After 20 years of development, the Department has become a well-known Department of Philosophy with engineering-university characteristics.
Director of the Department: Tian Haiping
Associate Head: Xia Baohua
Associate Head: Wang Jun
Party Branch Secretary: Dai Zhengnong
