Western and Eastern Philosophy on Engineering Education

The purpose of this study is to report the contents of philosophy education for science and engineering students at Toyo University, and to propose various ideas for improving education in these subject areas. Regarding class of “Philosophy of Science”, this paper examines questionnaire results revealing the engineering students’ perception of the difficulty level of the material, and their image of Western philosophy, Eastern philosophy, and Japanese philosophy. Survey results revealed that East/West comparisons increased students’ level of understanding. At first, they were skeptical about Eastern philosophy, but after completing the curriculum they reported that it is deeply connected to science, and helps to solve social challenges. Japanese philosophy and Monozukuri spirit classes aim to challenge students’ prejudices toward philosophy and science by discussing how science has developed from the tradition of natural philosophy.