Mar 29, 2024  
2021-2022 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2021-2022 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, B.A.


More information about Interdisciplinary Programs :

A minimum of 120 credit hours is required for a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

 

Director: Joshua Hochschild

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:

  1. 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.
  2. Students will be able to analyze and differentiate between philosophical and theoretical perspectives regarding moral reasoning and human behavior.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

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 Justice Seminar (3)  , PPE 300 Liberalism (3)  , and PPE 498 Research & Analysis Seminar (3)  ).

 

Core Requirements (46 to 49 credits)


Electives


26 to 29 Credits

Notes


There is no minor in PPE. Student interested in a minor should review the catalog sections for Economics, Philosophy, Political Science or Theology.

To earn a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, students must complete a minimum of 120 credit hours. Students must also earn a major GPA of 2.0, and a cumulative GPA of 2.0.

Sample Four Year Sequence


Freshman Year

Fall Semester

FSYM 101 The First Year Symposium (3)  

World Languages I (3)

MATH 105 Elementary Statistics (3)  (either semester)

ECON 101 Foundations of Economics: Macroeconomics (3)  

Elective (3)

15 Credits

Spring Semester

PHIL 103 Foundations of Philosophy (3)  

WCIV 102 Origins of the West (3)  

World Language II (3)

ECON 102 Foundations of Economics: Microeconomics (3)  

PPE 200 Justice Seminar (3)  

15 Credits

 

Sophomore Year

Fall Semester

PHIL 203 Philosophy in the Modern Age (3)  

WCIV 201 The Western Imagination: The Renaissance to the Great War (3)  

MATH 211 Mathematical Thinking (3)  

PSCI 201 International Relations (3)  or PSCI 206 Comparative Politics (3)  or PSCI 210 Public Policy (3)  

PPE 300 Liberalism (3)  

15 Credits

Spring Semester

AMER 202 America in the World (3)  

THEOL 220 Foundations of Theology: Faith and Revelation (3)  

Elective (3)

PSCI 201 International Relations (3)  orPSCI 206 Comparative Politics (3)  or PSCI 210 Public Policy (3)  

Elective (3)

15 Credits

Junior Year

Fall Semester

ARMO 300 Modernity in Visual Art (3)  or ENMO 300 Modernity in Literature (3)  or MUMO 300 Modernity in Music (3)  or THMO 300 Modernity in Theatre (3)  

THEOL 320 Encountering Christ (3)  

GNSCI 1XX Lab Science (4)

ECON 403 Econometrics (3) *

THEOL 335 Political Theology (3)  

16 Credits

Spring Semester

PHIL 300 Ethics and Human Good (3)  or THEOL 300 Ethics and the Human Good (3)  

XXGE 3XX Global Encounters Course (3)

PSCI 349 Political Economy & Globalization (3)  or ECON 205 History of Economic Thought (3)  

PPE Elective (3)

Elective (3)

15 Credits

 

Senior Year

Fall Semester

PPE 498 Research & Analysis Seminar (3)  

PPE Elective (3)

Elective (3)

Elective (3)

Elective (3)

15 Credits

Spring Semester

PPE Elective (3)

PPE 480 PPE Internship (3)  (any semester or summer)

Elective (3)

Elective (3)

Elective (3)

15 Credits

*ECON 403 is offered in Fall of even years. Students should plan to take this course in junior or senior year.