Philosophy Department of Xidian University is a professional philosophy team with vigor and energy in China. There are now 25 full-time teachers, including 9 professors and 8 associate professors. Our team is dominated by young people. The vast majority of teachers have doctorates and graduated from famous domestic universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. Many teachers have many years of foreign research experience. In addition to excellent professional vision, they also have broad international vision, fruitful academic achievements and rich teaching experience. At the same time, Philosophy Department has also hired more than 20 well-known part-time professors and cultural tutors at home and abroad.
Relying on the humanities of School of Humanities and the national humanistic quality education base for university students, Philosophy Department of Xidian University has established the Cross-cultural Research Center of Zhongnan Culture Academy and adopted tutorial system to carry out academy-style elite education. Meanwhile, the Shaanxi Intelligent Society Development Strategy Research Center, a key research base for philosophy and social sciences in Shaanxi Province, has been established to give full play to the national leading professional advantages in electronic information, artificial intelligence and intelligent education of Xidian University in ways that creatively explore new humanistic education modes and cultivate compound innovative talents needed in the era of intelligent society. Moreover, the Department has also established two collaborative innovation research centers, "Information Science and Cognitive Philosophy" and "Traditional Philosophy and China's Modernization", forming a professional academic research team to provide an intellectual platform for cultivating compound innovative talents in combination with the advantageous disciplines of Xidian University.
Philosophy Department of Xidian University plans to admit about 30 undergraduate students majoring in philosophy every year, with a first-class master's degree in philosophy and a doctoral degree in management philosophy. It plans to admit and cultivate master students in Marxist philosophy, Western philosophy, Chinese philosophy, philosophy of science and technology and other major fields, and to admit 15 master students in philosophy and 4 doctoral students in management philosophy every year. Based on the rich cultural and geographical environment in Xi'an and the profound research of teachers in different fields, relying on the long humanistic spirit of Xidian University, and combined with science and engineering majors well-known in the whole country such as electronic information and artificial intelligence at the same time, Philosophy Department of Xidian University absorbs excellent philosophy discipline resources at home and abroad, highlights the development characteristics of philosophy major, and makes efforts to build a professional training platform centering on philosophy of science and technology and traditional Chinese philosophy. It has gradually formed a highly recognizable research and training mode for characteristic humanities of Xidian University, such as information philosophy, philosophical reflection on artificial intelligence and VR technology, and overseas research on Chinese philosophy. It not only pays attention to the teaching of students' basic knowledge and the improvement of their humanistic literacy, but also emphasizes teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. According to the characteristics of each student, point-to-point professional guidance is implemented in the form of life tutorial system, so that students specialize in, excel in and apply what they have learned. In recent years, nearly half of the graduates trained by Philosophy Department have passed the examination of famous universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University to study for postgraduate or overseas. Many graduates have obtain employment and start businesses in government, enterprises, institutions, social organizations and other departments.
Philosophy Department of Xidian University implements a life tutorial system and provides students with life tutor to guide them in their daily affairs in various aspects such as study and life. It cultivates talents with professional spirit and scientific attitude. Life tutors and students are also teachers and friends. They carefully teach them in their studies and care for their lives. They usually give lectures and exchange knowledge, thus forming a healthy and harmonious teacher-student relationship and a good and orderly climate for learning.
Since the beginning, Philosophy Department of Xidian University has always stressed the importance of reading and thinking. We encourage students to read and create various conditions for students to meet their desire for reading and knowledge. Many teachers in the Department not only do their duty well in classroom teaching and scientific research, but also make full use of their usual leisure time to organize students to carry out various types of reading parties on a voluntary basis. For example, the "Chuxia Philosophy Society" founded by Mr. Chen Zhiwei holds reading activities almost once a week every semester and persistently holds them for four consecutive years in readingZhuang Zi, The Analects of Confuciusand the original books of Western philosophy. In addition, "Dedicated Reading Club" founded by Mr. Zhang Simin mainly leads students to read works of Zhang Zai, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming and other Neo-Confucianism masters, as well as pre-Qin classics includingMencius, The Great LearningandThe Doctrine of the Mean. Other teachers in Philosophy Department also hold reading activities from time to time. This has formed a tradition in Philosophy Department. Students have learned the basic methods of reading the original philosophical works in these reading parties, with good reading habits cultivated. In the process of daily edification, they have wisdom in hold and elegance in mold, gradually change their temperament and develop elegant gentleman personality.
Philosophy Department of Xidian University has also strengthened exchanges and cooperation with universities around the world and the country. With Lundao Zhongnan Cross-Cultural Forum and Huashan Scholar Forum as platform, it often invites experts and professors from world-renowned universities and universities across the country to give reports to the Department in an effort to provide students with opportunities to contact academic frontiers. In recent years, we have invited Alain Le Pichon, President of the EU Intercultural Research Institute and Professor of the University of Paris, Professor Bryan Van Norden and Prof. Chenyang Li of Yale University-National University of Singapore, Professor Cheng Zhongying of University of Hawaii, Professor Paul Healy of Swinburne University of Technology, Professor Simpwara, University of Maryland, Professor Ivan V. Ivanov from Bulgaria, Professor Lin Anwu, Taiwan Scholar, and other internationally renowned scholars, as well as famous national scholars such as Professor Chen Jiaying, Professor Sun Zhengyu, Professor Hong Handing, Professor Yang Guorong, Professor Sun Zhouxing, Professor Liang Tao, Professor Gu Su, Professor Fu Youde, Professor Lai Xianzong and Professor Zhao Tingyang, to give more than 60 academic lectures for the Department, and some of them have been employed as part-time professors and cultural tutors of the Department. These academic reports provide a good opportunity to expand students' horizons and lead them into academic palace. At the same time, the Department also cooperates with some universities in the United States, invites teachers from these universities to give lectures to the Department, draws on the teaching experience of world-renowned universities and cultivates students' international vision.
Philosophy Department of Xidian University is also committed to holding international and national academic seminars on philosophy discipline. Over the years, the Department has held the "Times in Thought - China's Ideological and Theoretical Innovation Forum", "Forum on Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture and Socialist Core Values", National Annual Meeting on Philosophy of Science and Technology, The First Smart Society Forum, "Kant's Transcendental Philosophy and Its Historical Effects" and Annual Meeting of the German Philosophy Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Modern Foreign Philosophy, The First International Symposium on "Overseas Research on Chinese Philosophy", Symposium on "Historical Materialism and Social and Political Philosophy", On the one hand, these academic conferences have promoted the academic status of our department in the whole country. On the other hand, they have also enabled students to come into contact with experts and scholars from all over the world and the whole country, which is helpful to meet their needs for participating in academic discussions and further study.
