A Philosophical Minimum for Physics Teachers?

Abstract

Teaching science in the secondary school requires the ability to connect to other worlds, so as to provide students not only with the basis for any future technical disciplinary skills, but also with an integrated general culture. This is all the more valid for physics, as it often meets with hostility or disinterest from students. Among the various fields of knowledge, philosophy is one of those that most spontaneously offers opportunities to engage with the topics addressed in a physics course. What philosophical skills and knowledge must physics teachers have, then, in order to complement their lessons with philosophical suggestions? Here I propose a few, which I consider the indispensable minimum and which are validated by both the personal teaching experience and the opinion of trainee teachers.