I find it extraordinary that while the philosophy department of NUS offers modules that touches upon just about every single subject ever taught in the university, that none of these modules are considered part of the major requirement of said subjects.

For example:
PH2218 Business and Ethics (God knows that all businessmen ought to have more of the latter. SMU, for instance, has a small module on ethics that is part of their requirement, but it’s pretty much corporate lip service towards ethical conduct of business)
PH2220 Social Philosophy and Policy (Why is this not part of Sociology’s curriculum?)
PH2221 Medical Ethics (For obvious reasons)
PH2223 Introduction to Philosophy of Technology (For computing students)
PH3202 Philosophy of Law (Now, Law School has something called Introduction to Legal Theory, but it feels like they are simply paying lip service to legal philosophy as a whole)
PH3220 Philosophy of Culture (Essential for anthropologists, sociologists, political scientists, historians; just about every humanity subject is related to the subject of culture)
PH4201 Philosophy of Science (For obvious reasons)

It is remarkable that the philosophy department is as overlooked as it is. Certainly it is not necessary to know the philosophy behind the subject you are learning, what I can’t understand is why none of these modules are cross-listed as part of the modules endorsed by, say, med school for Medical Ethics? In fact, cultural studies are such a crucial part of humanities that it is remarkable that Philosophy of Culture is just a philosophy module, nothing more. Does this mean that the entirety of NUS has just ignored the philosophy department as a source of useful pedagogy that may potentially have enriched the learning of their students by far? That seems pretty much the case.

Is philosophy useful insofar as learning is concerned? Do scientists, for example, need to know the philosophy of science to graduate, and proceed to scientific stardom? I know for sure that the first time I had ever heard of Occam’s Razor was at KI class, and never at Physics; I am certainly confident that there exists students who have never heard of that concept even at graduation. Occam’s Razor is the basic of basics within the philosophy of science, and conceptual awareness of how science works (or how it ought to work) is definitely something that is crucial to a scientific education, but this appears to be assumed knowledge.

Similarly, humanities students do not need to know the philosophy of culture to study their subject, but an inevitable encounter with the problem of culture will reveal just how truly lacking their understanding of this abstract concept is. Sometimes, it is much simpler not to have to re-invent the wheel, and the curricula are not helping by their exclusion of the module.

Perhaps what is most useful about philosophy today is the value theory, and the age-old debates raging back and forth concerning ethics. However, subject specific philosophy is still a potent force that cannot be ignored because education will be poorer for the lack of understanding about the basic nature of the subject of study. There is a need to integrate philosophy into modern pedagogy, especially at universities where students are more active in dissecting ideas. Let the change happen soon.
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