Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) is a popular interdisciplinary degree which combines study from the three eponymous disciplines. It is most strongly associated with the University of Oxford – the institution that first offered the degree – and the University of Pennsylvania, but is increasingly being offered at other universities across the English-speaking world.

In the past, this was a programme taken predominantly by those who sought a career in politics or public life – and quite a few who subsequently achieved it – but now also by those seeking a broader range of subjects for their first degree. The degree is currently offered by universities in the United Kingdom (such as Oxford, York, Durham, Warwick, UEA, Manchester, Lancaster, and Essex), in the United States (such as the University of Pennsylvania, Pomona College, Claremont McKenna College, Eastern Oregon University and The King's College) and in South Africa (at Stellenbosch and Cape Town). Oxford's famous PPE graduates include Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Wesley Clark, David Cameron, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and Benazir Bhutto, among others.

PPE was established in Oxford in 1920 as a modern alternative to Classics (known as Greats) because it was thought that a course in Philosophy and Ancient History was no longer sufficient for those entering the civil service. It was thus initially known as Modern Greats. It was also the first opportunity for students to study philosophy at Oxford without having to learn Ancient Greek or Latin and hence sparked a huge growth in the number of students studying philosophy at Oxford.

The design of the programme emanates from 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 authoritative structures that govern society and help solve collective action problems. Moreover, the study of political science is thought to put students in a position to evaluate the choices political systems and regimes regularly make. 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. Additionally, the analytical framework of economics (the rational actor model) is an important approach to studying social phenomena and, as such, students ought to be familiar with it.

Course of study at Oxford

The PPE course at Oxford takes three years and awards undergarduates a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. The average intake across the university is 300 undergraduates per year. All undergraduate colleges offer PPE.

Prelims course

In the first year undergraduates will take introductory course in all three subjects, mostly taught in traditional Oxford-style tutorials. These courses include:

Introduction to Microeconomics
Introduction to Macroeconomics
Moral Philosophy (primarily John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism)
General Philosophy (epistemology and metaphysics)
Logic
Introductory Politics of France, Germany, the USA and the U.K.; both individually and in comparative context
Introductory political theory
An IT project based upon political or economic statistics (which undergraduates have to pass, but which does not contribute to their final grade) using either the SPSS statistical package or Microsoft Excel.

There is some choice in the first year courses. For example, undergraduates will not always study the politics of all countries listed, and some colleges make Logic or Moral Philosophy optional.

At the end of the first year undergraduates sit "Prelims" – preliminary examinations – in all three subjects. These are officially marked only by "pass", "fail", or "distinction" (though undergraduates will be unofficially informed of their scores). If undergraduates pass these exams, they carry on into their second year. If they fail, they must retake the exams. If the undergraduate fails on the second attempt they might be sent down (Oxford term for being expelled), or possibly just suspended. If an undergraduate gets a mean mark across his three papers equivalent to a distinction he will normally be awarded a scholarship or postmastership by his college.

Final Honours Schools

In the second and third years undergraduates work towards their Final Exams. Originally undergraduates had to continue studying all three subjects, however in 1970 it was decided that undergraduates could specialise in two of the three subjects. Most undergraduates now do this, though it is still possible to continue taking all three — known as going tripartite. Undergraduates take prescribed core courses, and then usually choose four optional papers from a list of the various courses offered. These courses are now taught through a mixture of tutorials and departmental classes (though tutorials are still the primary method). At the end of the third year undergraduates take their eight Finals Papers (or seven papers and one thesis). The exams are marked according to the Oxford system of degree classes — a First, an Upper Second (2:1), a Lower Second (2:2), a Third, pass, or fail.

The courses that undergraduates can take for their finals vary widely, with over fifty available. Within Politics it is also possible to study sociology, thus making a PPE degree very flexible.

In the Oxford degree there is no attempt to integrate the various strands of PPE and it is left up to the individual undergraduate to draw parallels between their papers (for example between Ethics, Political Theory, and Welfare Economics). However at some other universities (such as UEA and York, the first besides Oxford to offer a PPE degree) some compulsory work is done to bring the different strands together.

The PEP School at York

PPE is one of four undergraduate programmes run by the School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy (PEP School) at the University of York, the other programmes being Economics/Philosophy, Economics/Politics and Philosophy/Politics. The PEP School is a collaboration between the three respective departments. It was founded in 1986, and now takes nearly a hundred students each year, of whom around two thirds enrol for PPE itself. The main differences between the PPE programmes at York and Oxford are, firstly, that at York PPE students must continue with all three subjects through to graduation (although some choose to switch from PPE to one of the two-subject PEP programmes at the end of the first year) and, secondly, that at York each student in the PEP School takes at least one of the three interdisciplinary course modules (currently "The Democratic Economy", "A Theory of Justice", and "Rationality, Morality and Economics").

The PEP Program at Jerusalem, Israel

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel offers a three-year B.A. degree in Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science. The Israeli PEP program was founded in 1999 by a group of Oxford graduates including Avner De-Shalit and Daniel Attas. The program offers a range of unique interdisciplinary courses from which students may choose, along with the core courses in each of the disciplines.

External links

University of Oxford | Interdisciplinary fields | Philosophy | Political science | Economics