Topics in PPE - PPE00002I

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  • Department: Philosophy, Politics and Economics
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
    • See module specification for other years: 2025-26

Module summary

This module investigates a range of key issues that cut across philosophy, politics, and economics, fleshing out the distinctive contribution that each discipline can provide.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

This module aims to explore how key issues in each of the three constituent disciplines of the PPE degree are inextricably linked to the other two in stimulating ways. Students will learn what the distinctive contributions of each discipline to complex debates can be and what insights the combination of the methods from the different disciplines can offer. In the process, they will develop and improve transferable skills including reading and synthesising interdisciplinary texts, analysing difficult problems, and thinking through complex material from a variety of angles.

Module learning outcomes

  • To introduce you to core concepts in the study of PPE;
  • To provide an appreciation of interdisciplinary study and analyse material in a variety of ways related to the three disciplines;
  • To understand and analyse complex problems in an interdisciplinary fashion;
  • To enhance your transferable skills (working with and synthesising interdisciplinary texts, analysing and thinking through material from a variety of angles).
  • The module gives a well-rounded overview of the theoretical and practical issues of social choice and related topics such as democracy, global priorities, well-being and happiness, political competition, social ontology, justice and finally the metaphysics of money.
  • Each of the three disciplines finds different issues with social decision making, which makes this a very suitable subject for introducing students to interdisciplinary study in PPE.

Module content

The summative assessment will be a 2500 word essay, where students are encouraged to cover a number of topics relating to, for example, democracy, global priorities, well-being and happiness, poitical competition, social ontology, justice and finally the metaphysics of money from each of the three disciplines.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100.0

Module feedback

Students will receive written timely feedback on their assessment in no later than 25 working days. They will have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s feedback and guidance hours.

Indicative reading

Jason Brennan and Hélène Landemore, Debating Democracy: Do We Need More or Less? (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021).

Alex Epstein, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels (New York: Penguin, 2014).

Bernardo Zacka, When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).