Philosophy, Politics and Economics

Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) is a popular interdisciplinary undergraduate/post-graduate degree which combines study from three disciplines.

The first institution to offer degrees in PPE was the University of Oxford and this particular course has produced a significant number of notable graduates such as Christopher Hitchens, the British–American author, philosopher, polemicist, debater, and journalist; David Cameron, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Ed Miliband, the former Leader of the Opposition; and Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister of Australia.

In the 1980s, the University of York went on to establish its own PPE degree based upon the Oxford model; the University of Warwick, the University of Manchester, and other British universities later followed. According to the BBC, the Oxford PPE "dominate[s] public life" (in the UK). It is now offered at several other leading colleges and universities around the world.

History

Philosophy, Politics and Economics was established as a degree course at the University of Oxford in the 1920s, as a modern alternative to classics (known as "literae humaniores" or "greats" at Oxford) because it was thought that a course in philosophy and ancient history was no longer relevant for those entering the civil service. It was thus initially known as "modern greats". The regulation by which it was established is Statt. Tit. VI. Sect. 1 C; "the subject of the Honour School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics shall be the study of the structure, and the philosophical and economic principles, of Modern Society."

Christopher Stray has pointed to the course as one reason for the gradual decline of the study of classics, as classicists in political life began to be edged out by those who had studied the modern greats.

Dario Castiglione and Iain Hampsher-Monk have described the course as being fundamental to the development of political thought in the UK, since it established a connection between politics and philosophy. Previously at Oxford, and for some time subsequently at Cambridge, politics had been taught only as a branch of modern history.

Course material

The programme is rooted in the view that to understand social phenomena one must approach them from several complementary disciplinary directions and analytical frameworks. In this regard, the study of philosophy is considered important because it both equips students with meta-tools such as the ability to reason rigorously and logically, and facilitates ethical reflection. The study of politics is considered necessary because it acquaints students with the institutions that govern society and help solve collective action problems. Finally, studying economics is seen as vital in the modern world because political decisions often concern economic matters, and government decisions are often influenced by economic events. The vast majority of students at Oxford drop one of the three subjects for the second and third years of their course. Oxford now has more than 600 undergraduates studying the subject, admitting over 200 each year.

Academic opinions

Oxford PPE graduate Nick Cohen and former tutor Iain McLean consider the course's breadth important to its appeal, especially "because British society values generalists over specialists".

Geoffrey Evans, an Oxford fellow in politics and a senior tutor, critiques that the Oxford course's success and consequent over-demand is a self-perpetuating feature of those in front of and behind the scenes in national administration, in stating "all in all, it's how the class system works". In the current economic system he bemoans the unavoidable inequalities besetting admissions and thereby enviable recruitment prospects of successful graduates. The argument itself intended as a paternalistic ethical reflection on how governments and peoples can perpetuate social stratification.

List of universities offering PPE

United Kingdom

• Durham University
• Goldsmiths, University of London
• Keele University
• King's College London
• Kingston University
• Lancaster University
• London School of Economics
• The Open University
• Queen's University Belfast
• Royal Holloway, University of London
• Swansea University
• University College London
• University of East Anglia
• University of Essex
• University of Exeter
• University of Hull
• University of Leeds
• University of Manchester
• University of Oxford
• University of Reading
• University of Stirling
• University of Sussex
• University of Warwick
• University of York

Ireland

• National University of Ireland, Maynooth
• University of Dublin (under the designation PPES with sociology)

Canada

• Mount Allison University
• University of British Columbia Okanagan
• University of Regina
• University of Western Ontario
• Wilfrid Laurier University

United States

• Carroll University
• Carnegie Mellon University (under the designation "ethics, history, and public policy")
• Claremont McKenna College
• Denison University
• Duke University (certificate)
• Eastern Oregon University
• Emory & Henry College
• George Mason University
• Juniata College
• The King's College (New York)
• La Salle University
• Mercer University
• Minnesota State University, Mankato
• Murphy Institute (Tulane University, under the designation "political economy")
• Pomona College
• Suffolk University
• Transylvania University
• University of Alabama at Birmingham
• University of Akron
• University of Arizona (under the designation "PPEL" - with law)
• University of Iowa (under the designation "ethics and public policy")
• The University of Michigan (honors program)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (minor)
• University of Notre Dame (minor)
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Pittsburgh
• University of Richmond (under the designation "PPEL" - with law)
• University of Southern California (under the designation "Philosophy, politics and law, abbreviated "PPL")

• Taylor University
• University of Washington Tacoma
• Virginia Tech (minor)
• Wesleyan University
• Western Washington University
• Wheeling Jesuit University (under the designation "political and economic philosophy")
• Yale University (under the designation "ethics, politics and economics", abbreviated "EP&E")

South Africa, Nigeria, Australia and New Zealand

• Australian National University (program started in 2012, after the popularity of La Trobe's PPE course)
• Birla Institute of Technology and Science,India
• La Trobe University, Australia (the first official PPE program in Australia, designed for high-achieving school leavers, commenced in 2011)
• Stellenbosch University
• Obafemi Awolowo University
• University of Cape Town
• University of KwaZulu-Natal
• University of South Africa
• University of Johannesburg
• University of Otago, New Zealand
• University of Witwatersrand

Continental Europe

• American University of Paris
• Institutes for Political Studies also known as "Sciences Po"
• Bifrost University
• Free University of Bolzano
• Ca' Foscari University of Venice (under the designation of "Philosophy, International and Economic Studies" abbreviated "PISE")
• Charles University in Prague
• Alliance 4 Universities (Charles III University of Madrid, Autonomous University of Madrid, Autonomous University of Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University)
• Erasmus University College
• Istanbul Bilgi University (political economy and social philosophy)
• Karlshochschule International University
• Leiden University
• Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli, Rome (Italy)
• Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
• Lund University
• University of Amsterdam
• University of Bayreuth
• University of Bern (under the designation of MA "political, legal and economic philosophy" abbreviated "PLEP")
• University of Zurich (under the designation of MA "economic and political philosophy")
• University of Graz (under the designation of MA "political, economic and legal philosophy" abbreviated "PELP")
• University of Hamburg (under the designation of M.Sc. "politics, economics and philosophy" abbreviated "PEP")
• University of Lucerne
• University of Milano, Italy ("Politics and economics", with a base in humanities common to the Political sciences Ba programme)
• University of Saarland, Germany
• University of Tromsø
• VU University Amsterdam
• Witten/Herdecke University (bachelor and master), Germany

Middle East and Asia

• Tel Aviv University (under the designation "PPEL" - with law), Israel
• Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
• Peking University
• Sogang University
• Rangsit University, Thailand
• Thammasat University, Thailand
• Waseda University
• Yale-NUS, Singapore
• Amity University, India
• Asian University for Women, Bangladesh
• Ashoka University, India

South America

• Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (under the designation "Ciencia Sociales, Orientación en Política y Economía"), Argentina

See also

• List of University of Oxford people with PPE degrees
• Literae Humaniores
• Philosophy and economics

External links

• PPE, Oxford University – Official Website

• 'Hitchens, Christopher Eric', Who's Who; 2012, A & C Black, 2012; online edn, Oxford University Press, December 2012 ; online edn, January 2012 accessed 5 December 2014
• [1] "Balliol was the birthplace of the modern degree of PPE in the 1920s. A. D. Lindsay, who subsequently became the master of the college, played a key role in the establishment of the degree and Balliol has long remained a major college for the study of PPE, and PPE has long been a major subject within Balliol."
• University of Oxford (1926) The Examination Statutes. together with the regulations of the boards of studies and boards of faculties for the academical year 1926-1927. Oxford: Clarendon Press; pp. 149=54
• Christopher Stray, Classics Transformed: Schools, Universities, and Society in England, 1830–1960. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 336. ISBN 0-19-815013-X.
• Dario Castiglione and Iain Hampsher-Monk, The History of Political Thought in National Context. Cambridge University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-521-78234-1
• Q45 - BA (Honours) Politics, Philosophy and Economics - Open University Degree. .open.ac.uk (2012-10-16). Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
• [2] Archived December 20, 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• Course - A-Z All - Undergraduate - Courses : Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland. Tcd.ie (2012-11-19). Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
• [3]
• Philosophy, Politics & Economics. Ppe.unc.edu. Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
• [4]
• Qualification stream: Philosophy, Politics and Economics, unisa.ac.za. Accessed 2014-06-19.
• uj.ac.za. Accessed 2015-09-12.
• http://www.wits.ac.za/academic/humanities/socialsciences/philosophy/8640/ppe_degree.html. Accessed 2015-11-10
• [5]
• PPE Programme at VU Amsterdam
• Philosophie, Politik und Ökonomik B.A.
• 北京大学元培学院. Yuanpei.pku.edu.cn (2009-11-10). Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
• Sogang University. Sogang.ac.kr. Retrieved on 2013-08-12.
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