Brief introduction
The Department of Philosophy at Renmin University of China (RUC) was founded in 1956, and the undergraduate program of Philosophy was approved for enrollment in the same year. 1986, the Ministry of Education (MOE) approved the establishment of an undergraduate program in Ethics. 1999, the Ministry of Education (MOE) approved the establishment of an undergraduate program in Religion. In the same year, the Department of Religious Studies was established, and together with the Department of Philosophy, it was known as the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy of RUC. In 2005, the School of Philosophy of Renmin University of China was established, with the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Religious Studies.In 2016, the Ministry of Education approved the establishment of an undergraduate program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE). He Sijing, Wu Jiang, Zhang Tengxiao, Luo Guojie, Chen Xianda, Liu Dachun and Jiao Guocheng have served as deans of the Department of Philosophy, and Feng Jun, Hao Lixin and Yao Xinzhong have served as deans of the School of Philosophy. The current Dean and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee is Prof. Zang Fengyu, the Secretary of the Party Committee is Zhang Pengju, and the Deputy Deans are Prof. Wang Yujie, Prof. Zhang Xiao, and Associate Prof. Yuan Li.
The School of Philosophy of RUC is an important place for philosophy teaching, scientific research, political consultation and cultivation of advanced talents in China, and is currently the largest and most complete discipline with the best training system, including 10 sub-disciplines of Marxist Philosophy, Chinese Philosophy, Foreign Philosophy, Ethics, Religion, Philosophy of Science and Technology, Aesthetics, Logic, Political Philosophy, and Management Philosophy, and also establishes programmes in Philosophy, Political Science, Economics (PPE) and Master's Degree in Applied Ethics. The school has the Research Center for the Development of Philosophy in Contemporary China, which is an innovation highland of Renmin University of China. It has the Research Center for Ethics and Moral Construction and the Institute of Buddhism and Religious Theory, which both are key research bases for humanities and social sciences of the Ministry of Education. The School of Philosophy also has a major interdisciplinary innovation platform 'Philosophy and Cognitive Science' and 'Modernization of State Governance and Applied Ethics'. In its 67 years of development, the School of Philosophy has produced the first textbook of Marxist philosophy in the history of education in China, the first master's degree and doctoral degree programs in philosophy, the first postdoctoral mobile stations in philosophy, and has been named one of the first national key disciplines, The first batch of national key first-level disciplines, the first batch of first-level discipline authorization points. It has been called 'the machine tool of philosophy education in China'.
The School of Philosophy was approved as a national talent cultivation and scientific research base for basic disciplines of liberal arts (philosophy) in 1994, and was named a national specialty construction site in 2007 and a Beijing specialty construction site in 2008. It is a key base of the '211' project of the Ministry of Education, and a '985' Philosophy and Social Science innovation base. In 2017, RUC Philosophy was selected as one of the first batch of 'double first-class' disciplines in China. In recent years, RUC Philosophy actively explores the talent cultivation mode of 'strong foundation and broad knowledge', and the majors of Philosophy and Ethics have been selected as national first-class undergraduate majors under the 'Double Ten Thousand Plan', while the majors of Religious Studies and PPE have been selected as Beijing first-class undergraduate majors under the 'Double Ten Thousand Plan'. In 2019, the Ministry of Education and Shandong Province jointly established the Joint Graduate School of Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies, with Prof. Zhang Liwen as the director of the Academic Committee of the Center and Prof. Zang Fengyu as the secretary-general of the joint graduate school. In 2021, the special program of fine traditional Chinese culture began to recruit graduate students in the School of Philosophy. At present, the School of Philosophy has formed a comprehensive talent cultivation system including undergraduate, master's, doctoral, postdoctoral researchers, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan students and foreign students, and has cultivated more than 8,000 outstanding talents for various industries of the country.
The School of Philosophy has a strong faculty, laying a solid foundation for building a world-class philosophy discipline. There are 80 full-time teachers, including 47 professors, accounting for 59% of the total number of teachers; 24 associate professors, accounting for 30% of the total number of teachers; 9 lecturers, accounting for 11% of the total number of teachers; and 80 holders of doctoral degrees, accounting for 100% of the total number of teachers. There are 4 full-time foreign teachers. Twenty-four of the current faculty members, accounting for 30% of the total number of teachers, have obtained their doctoral degrees from famous overseas universities such as the University of Cambridge (UK), the Australian National University (ANU), the University of British Columbia (Canada), the University of Tokyo (Japan), the University of Leuven (Belgium) and so on. Many teachers of the School of Philosophy have been awarded the titles of national and provincial talents, including 8 experts enjoying special government allowances, 3 experts connected with the central government, 1 chief expert and 6 main members of the central government's 'Marxist Theoretical Research and Construction Project', 1 leading talent of philosophy and social sciences of 'National Ten Thousand Talents Plan', and 1 cultural celebrity and 'the four 'first batch' ' talents. There are two 'Yangtze River Scholars' Distinguished Professors, one Chair Professor, one Young Scholar, and two national candidates for the 'National Hundred and Thousand and Ten-thousand talents Project', forming a high-quality faculty led by well-known professors, with senior teachers as the main body, and young and middle-aged teachers as the backbone, combining the old, the middle-aged and the young.
The faculty of the School of Philosophy has produced a considerable number of weighty academic achievements. Principles of Dialectical Materialism and Principles of Historical Materialism, edited by Xiao Qian and others, and Principles of Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism, edited by Li Xiulin and others, are textbooks that have influenced generations of university students. The Complete Works of Aristotle, edited and compiled by Miao Litian, was the first Chinese translation of the complete works of famous Western philosophers in China, and won many awards after its publication. Marxist Ethics edited by Luo Guojie, Essentials of Chinese Buddhist Philosophy by Fang Litian, and Harmony Study by Zhang Liwen have had a significant impact on the domestic academic community. In recent years, RUC scholars of philosophy have been releasing profound academic achievements, among which the representative ones include the 14-volume Collected Works of Chen Xianda, the 6-volume Collected Works of Luo Guojie, the 6-volume Collected Works of Xia Zhentao, the 12-volume Collected Works of Fang Litian, the 9-volume Collected Writings of Kant edited by Li Qiuling, the 6-volume Zeller’s History of Ancient Greek Philosophy edited by Nie Minli, etc. The Complete Works of Immanuel Kant edited and translated by Li Qiuling, and the Research on Some Major Issues of the Basic Theory of Marxism by Chen Xianda won the First Prize of the Sixth Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Research of Higher Educational Institutions by the Ministry of Education. Zhang Liwen's History of the Development of Philosophical Trends in China won the First Prize of the Eighth Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scientific Research of Higher Educational Institutions by the Ministry of Education.
The faculty of the School of Philosophy is excellent, and many teachers have won various awards from the national level, the Ministry of Education and the Beijing Municipality. Chen Xianda was awarded the Wu Yuzhang Lifetime Achievement Award and the title of 'Top Ten Most Beautiful Teachers in China', Liu Dachun and Guo Zhan were honored as National Model Teachers, Zhang Liwen was honored as a 'Virtuous Expert in Philosophy and Social Sciences', and Gong Qun and Nie Minli were honored as Beijing's Famous Teacher. Li Qiuling was honored as Beijing Outstanding Teacher, Zhang Zhiwei was honored as 'Pioneer of Teaching and Educating' in Beijing Education System, Zang Fengyu was honored as Beijing Famous Young Teacher, and Zang Fengyu and Liu Wei were honored with the First Prize of the Basic Skills Competition for Young Teachers in Beijing. The Wisdom of Western Philosophy won the second prize of National Excellent Teaching Achievement Award, and was honored as a national quality course. Pass on from Generation to Generation - General Introduction to Traditional Chinese Philosophy, Focal Issues in Contemporary Philosophy, and Deep Wisdom in Ordinary Life - Dialectical Materialism were honored as national quality courses. Prof. Yao Xinzhong's team was awarded the first prize of 2017 Beijing Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award and the second prize of 2018 National Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award. Prof. Zang Fengyu's team won the first prize of Beijing Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2022 and the second prize of National Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award in 2023. Western Philosophy: Traditions, Classics and Methods was honored to be on the list of the first national first-class undergraduate courses. Frontiers of Philosophy and Research Methods was honored as a model course for postgraduate courses on ideology and politics in Beijing universities in 2021.
The School of Philosophy is based on high-end academic research and strives to build a highland of social service. In recent years, the Marxist philosophy team of the School of Philosophy, with Prof. Chen Xianda as its leader, has stood on the tide of the times, issued new voices of philosophy and made new theories of the times, published more than one hundred theoretical articles in People's Daily, Guangming Daily, China Social Sciences and other mainstream media and top academic journals, which has led the theoretical research on cultural confidence, thickly planted the theoretical foundation of cultural confidence, enhanced the theoretical backbone of cultural confidence, reflecting the strong sense of historical mission and responsibility of Marxists. Since 2006, entrusted by the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee and the Ministry of Education, the School of Philosophy has organized seventeen training courses for patriotic religious figures, training more than 900 patriotic religious figures. It has given full play to the active role of religious figures and believers in promoting economic and social development, implemented the Party's policy on religious work, and served as a model for higher education in China to serve national strategies.
The School of Philosophy attaches great importance to international exchanges and cooperation, and the degree of internationalization has been increasing in recent years. It has signed cooperation agreements or memorandums with universities and colleges in nearly 20 countries, such as the University of Oxford (UK), Ghent University (Belgium), University College London (UCL), and the University of Western Ontario (Canada), and has carried out exchanges and cooperation at multiple levels and in multiple directions. The university has pushed forward the international connection of master's and doctoral degree programs, set up an international exchange platform, improved the talent cultivation mode, and held high-level international academic conferences. We have established a full English master's degree program 'Chinese Philosophy, Religion and Culture', which has trained students from the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway, Ukraine, Costa Rica, South Korea, Pakistan, Vietnam, Japan, the United Kingdom, Thailand and other countries, and has gradually formed an academic brand with international influence.
After more than 60 years of teaching and academic exploration, the School of Philosophy of RUC has developed into a first-class and internationally renowned center of philosophy education and research in China. In the future, the School of Philosophy will continue to strengthen the construction of first-class disciplines, consolidate its academic advantages in basic theoretical and applied research in philosophy, enhance the social influence and international academic reputation of its philosophical disciplines, build an enterprising RUC philosophical disciplinary community, and promote the modernization of philosophical education together with philosophical colleagues at home and abroad. Remaining true to the original aspiration, we will strive for excellence, and through further efforts, present the times with thick academic discourse, strive to walk out an innovative road of building a world-class philosophy discipline with Chinese characteristics, and promote the philosophy discipline of RUC to play a greater role and make unique contributions in the process of realizing the great prosperity and great development of philosophical and social sciences.