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Undergraduate Catalog 2017-2018 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, B.A.
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Director: Amanda L. Beal
The Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) major prepares students for law school, graduate school, and growing career areas such as management and consulting, public relations and communications, legal services, business, and public service. The blend of verbal, quantitative, and analytical skills that are accumulated in the disciplines within PPE are highly desired in graduate school and in the job market. When students major in PPE, they join the likes of David Cameron, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Wesley Clark, former primary Presidential candidate and retired General of the United States Navy; and Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Editor-in-Chief of the Economist magazine.
The Philosophy, Politics and Economics program includes an undergraduate major, an internship program, and opportunities for one-on-one research. The faculty in the PPE program also encourage students to study abroad and apply for national fellowships, helping them to find programs that fit their interests and gifts.
The Philosophy, Politics and Economics faculty provide an interdisciplinary experience for undergraduate students who are seeking a challenging and comprehensive education. In this program, students will learn ways of thinking through each disciplines approach and contribution and, in doing so; realize their ability to look at the world from numerous perspectives that are both complementary and competing. The PPE faculty are committed to providing students with skills in moral reasoning; skills of rigorous inquiry; a complex understanding of philosophical foundations, political institutions, collective behavior, economic theory and economic influences; and statistical competency.
The PPE major has 5 student learning goals:
- Students will be able to identify and describe government structures, decision-making processes, the function of market forces, and larger issues regarding economic forces and development.
- Students will be able to analyze and differentiate between philosophical and theoretical perspectives regarding moral reasoning and human behavior.
- Students will be able to identify and evaluate the fundamental concepts and theories in philosophy, theology, political science, and economics, which pertain to the political-economic system, including the way that these concepts and theories are connected to one another.
- Students will understand the critical role of culture and civil society in forming people in virtue and in stewarding the ideals by which people lead their lives, and of the complementary interactions between/roles of the economy, polity, and civil society.
- Students will master the quantitative research methods techniques used in political science and economics, learning to access, construct, evaluate, and present statistical data in a clear and comprehensible manner.
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Program Requirements
The PPE major is a sequence of courses in the disciplines of philosophy, theology, political science, economics and mathematics. As any good PPE program should, this major not only asks students to take separate courses from the participating disciplines, but also to take no less than three interdisciplinary courses in PPE in which they will come to understand the complementary and contradictory assumptions in each of the disciplines (these courses are PPE 200 , PPE 300 , and PPE 498 ).
Students who major in PPE are required to take 45 credit hours of course work. The credit hours are distributed as follows: ECON 101 , ECON 102 , MATH 105 or BUS 320 , 6 credit hours of PSCI 200 , PSCI 207 , or PSCI 210 , PPE 200 , PSCI 349 or ECON 205 , THEOL 335 , ECON 403 , PPE 300 , PPE 498 , at least 3 credits of PPE 480 , 9 credit hours of electives (not including single credits given for participation in simulations or LSAT prep), only 3 credits of which may come from 100-level courses, and 6 credits of which need to be from two different subfields of PPE (select from the list below).
The PPE major has two capstone experiences - a required internship and a research and analysis seminar. The PPE Internship Program is a crucial capstone experience for all students in the PPE major. PPE students attain off campus experience working with a team on research (company research, policy research, or assessment projects) and writing up or presenting that research to a larger audience. The Director of the PPE program oversees the search and application process with each student, making recommendations for appropriate internships. The internship credits may be obtained through a semester or summer position.
PPE 498 is a senior year research capstone. It is taught by a PPE professor who is currently working on a research project in the intersection of the disciplines of PPE. During this course, the professor will work with students to help them through the research process. Students are expected to present this work at a conference or the SPARC festival.
There is no minor in PPE. Student interested in a minor should review the catalog sections for Economics, Philosophy, Political Science or Theology.
Approved Elective Courses
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