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The Academic Sterilization of Philosophy in Albania!

2026-03-15 12:20:00Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA DIONIS FURRIKU
Dionis Furriku

The debate over the role and function of the university in contemporary society has become increasingly present in academic discourse.

In many countries, the university is no longer perceived as a space for the production of ideas and critical reflection, but increasingly as an institution oriented towards administrative management and bureaucratic performance.

In this context, educators and researchers have observed that the transformation of modern universities is often accompanied by a reduction in their intellectual dimension.

As philosophy professor Alment Muho points out, the university risks becoming a structure where the main challenge is management and not conceptual or ideological creation.

The experience of studying philosophy in Albania over the past few years seems to confirm this concern. Philosophy, which has historically been considered one of the most important disciplines for the development of critical thinking, is often reduced in academic practice to a series of formal procedures.

Instead of serving as a space where students develop ideas, challenge theoretical authorities, and construct new conceptual perspectives, the academic process often focuses on meeting formal requirements for passing exams and completing cycles of study.

This phenomenon creates a visible paradox in the Albanian education system. On the one hand, the number of university graduates increases every year; on the other hand, public perception of the quality of education and the role of the university in producing intellectual elites seems to be constantly declining.

In university classrooms, an atmosphere of intellectual apathy is often felt, where philosophical discussions – which should constitute the heart of a philosophy department – ??are replaced by a mechanical logic of preparing for exams and completing academic credits.

In these conditions, students learn to adapt to the system rather than challenge it. They learn to reproduce existing ideas, but not necessarily create new ideas.

The university diploma thus becomes a formal symbol of educational status, but not necessarily evidence of a deep intellectual formation.

In this way, the university risks losing one of its most important historical functions: producing society's intellectual elite.

This situation also raises a broader question about the role of the intellectual in Albanian society. In the tradition of modern thought, the figure of the intellectual has been closely linked to critical engagement with social reality.

Jean-Paul Sartre defines the intellectual as a fundamentally engaged figure who must use his knowledge and authority to intervene in social and political affairs, rejecting neutrality and challenging the status quo (Sartre, Plaidoyer pour les intellectuels, 1972). In this sense, the intellectual is not simply an academic specialist, but a critical conscience of society.

However, when academic institutions fail to cultivate critical thinking, the role of the intellectual is also weakened.

In such a context, philosophy – a discipline that has historically been associated with the critique of structures of thought and power – risks becoming a sterilized academic practice.

The philosophical tradition has always emphasized the importance of critical questioning. Socrates, for example, built his philosophical method on dialogue and systematic doubt, considering the search for truth as a continuous process of questioning (Plato, Apology).

Likewise, in modern philosophy, Immanuel Kant defines enlightenment as man's emergence from "self-inflicted immaturity," emphasizing that critical thinking requires the courage to use reason autonomously (Was ist Aufklärung?, 1784).

When philosophy is institutionalized in an academic system that values ??formality over critical reflection, the risk is that it loses the very dimension that makes it philosophy.

Instead of serving as a living practice of thought, it can be reduced to an academically manageable discipline – a process that can be metaphorically described as “academic sterilization”.

One factor contributing to this phenomenon is the broader transformation of contemporary universities. Higher education scholars have noted that modern universities are increasingly oriented towards quantitative performance indicators, such as the number of publications, credits, or degrees awarded.

As Bill Readings argues in his analysis of the postmodern university, the university institution risks replacing the ideal of culture with the logic of administrative performance (The University in Ruins, 1996).

In this context, academic programs are often reformed in line with management and labor market logic. One such example can be seen in the transformation of study programs from “Philosophy” to “Philosophy and Ethics” in some Albanian universities.

While this change has been presented as an attempt at modernization and a more direct connection to the practical needs of society, it has also raised concerns about the academic identity of the discipline.

Philosophy, in its classical tradition, has never been limited to a single field. Thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, and Friedrich Nietzsche have conceived of philosophy as a comprehensive inquiry into the nature of reality, knowledge, and human existence.

In this sense, reducing its identity to a particular orientation – as can be perceived in the formulation “Philosophy and Ethics” – may create the risk of a conceptual fragmentation of the discipline.

Another problem is related to how the philosophy degree is perceived in public opinion and in the job market.

In a context where philosophical studies are often already undervalued, ambiguity over the program's identity could further weaken its academic status. Students may find themselves faced with an ambiguous professional identity, not being clearly identifiable as philosophers or as ethicists.

However, the fundamental problem does not lie solely in the name of the study program. It is related to a deeper transformation of the university as an institution.

When the university begins to function primarily according to the logic of administrative management and numerical performance, its intellectual dimension risks weakening.

Instead of being a space where ideas are born and critical debates take place, the university can become a structure that primarily produces degrees.

Ultimately, the question that arises is not only whether the Albanian university is losing its intellectual character. The more important question is what happens to a society when institutions that should produce ideas start producing only diplomas.

A society may have a large number of graduates, but if it lacks critical thinking, it risks remaining intellectually impoverished.

However, the history of philosophy shows that critical thinking is not easily extinguished. As long as there are individuals willing to question, doubt, and seek meaning in the world, philosophy will continue to survive even beyond institutional constraints.

In this sense, the future of philosophy depends not only on the administrative structures of universities, but also on the intellectual commitment of scholars and students who choose to continue the tradition of critical thought.

Reference

Kant, I. (1784). An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?
Plato. Apology.
Readings, B. (1996). The University in Ruins. Harvard University Press.
Sartre, J.-P. (1972). Plaidoyer pour les intellectuals.


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