When I wondered what I would do after high school, a significant factor in deciding to be a criminology major was a philosophy class I took with one of my favourite teachers. I think we sometimes misunderstand philosophy to be solely asking questions, though I think it is more about trying to understand the world around us. That is why I think philosophy is an amazing way to enhance our understanding of criminology.
With philosophy, we can dig deep into the unknowns of crime and use theories and questions to analyze cases critically. In a lot of my first-year criminology courses, I noticed how philosophy and criminology go hand in hand and how it is vital for people studying criminology to have a strong understanding of philosophy as well. While there is no need to memorize the life story of Aristotle, the teachings from philosophers past and present allow us to look beyond the law and science, and use our cognitive skills to connect these vital concepts to come to a consensus.
Looking at the world we live in now where the media is a primary source of where we get our information, philosophy can be a way for us to think beyond the information it is giving us and identify biases, profiling, and strings being pulled from greed or manipulation. This is an idea that Socrates has taught us. He said that unless we are very certain we have a secure foundation about what we believe in and what information is being presented to us, we should always be fact-checking and questioning.
That being said, philosophy is not an excuse for us to ignore information and news happening across the world, just because “we can’t believe everything the media is telling us.” Philosophy should be used to bring out the truth and in criminology, a field of study that is ever-changing, this gives us an opportunity as criminologists to encourage the truth and use fair and just means to find it. I believe that by focusing on philosophy as a key component of criminology we can shape this field to do good and seek justice. Philosophy and criminology have always been intertwined and used together and I encourage anyone interested in criminology to take a deeper look into how philosophy can enhance criminology.
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