The Principle of a Problem-Based Approach and Its Consequences for Teaching Philosophy and 'Ethik'

The problem-based approach in teaching is a central concept of general didactics and technical didactics. It is a substantial principle and not one of those fashionable terms in didactics that are unjustifiably overrated. The discipline of didactics of philosophy can claim that it developed the problem-based approach first. Early in dialogic-pragmatic didactics of philosophy, Ekkehard Martens already understood philosophy as a “problem-based process of communication.”In the following, I would like to discuss the problem-based approach in teaching regarding three aspects: The problem-based approach as a philosophical immanence The problem-based approach as a historical imperative The problem-based approach as a didactical consequenceThe last aspect is further subdivided into three levels, the theoretical-conceptual level, the methodical-practical level and the empirical-critical level.