Publication Details

Abstract

The author analyses the problem on the basis of experiences of the Department of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy at the Philosophical Faculty, Comenius University, Bratislava. He points at the substance of new ways and methods of the teaching and education of students of philosophy, the aim of which has been to replace and outdo the mistakes, drawbacks and inconsequentialities of the past. The author deals with the ideological and political history of the building up and development of the department, with the attacks of the revisionists against its marxist-leninist attitudes and activity, with the struggle against the manifestations of opportunism within their own ranks, as well as with the reflection of these contests in the consciousness of the students of philosophy. Further it is being pointed out what was the role, in attempt at a consistent marxist-leninist orientation of the department, of the systematic elaboration of the programmes and syllabuses of lectures anc} seminars whose organic part is the critique of the most influential contemporary trends in bourgeois philosophy and philosophical revisionism. What mattered first af all was the elaboration of a uniform conception of the teaching, which, in the final consequence, leads logically to the education of a marxist-leninist orientated and professionally well founded philosopher, pedagogue or scientific worker. An essential turn in the teaching and education of the young philosophical generation is expected from realization of a political practice that has been included into the curriculum starting in this academic year. The undergraduates of philosophy pass this practice in the 3rd till the 7th semester of their studies. The theoretical substance of this pedagogical-political measure is the scientific cognition of the indivisible unity of the marxist-leninist theory and of the political practice of the Communist Party. The point is to educate not only professionally mature marxist-leninist philosophers, but at the same time to bring their ideological and political level to such a degree that the essential part of the undergraduates could become members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia as early as during their studies. To reach this pedagogical and political-educational aim- this is the proper, innermost contents of all component parts of the teaching and education of the young philosophical generation.