The PPE core courses provide an integrative perspective on the three main disciplines that constitute the PPE major. Students must complete the foundations requirements before taking the core courses.
This interdisciplinary course, available only to PPE majors, examines three models of human nature, each of which captures something important about social and political life, and each of which has significant blind spots. The first model sees human beings as rational actors who seek to maximize the satisfaction of their preferences. The second model sees human beings as citizens with public responsibilities that orient them toward the pursuit of the common good. The third model sees human beings as members of communities that provide an identity and a set of values that enable them to navigate the social world.
This interdisciplinary course, available only to PPE majors, examines three ways of thinking about social and political change, each of which captures something important about social and political life, and each of which has significant blind spots. The first focuses on certain “traditional” values or ways of life that should be protected and preserved. The second envisions a future of steady progress toward an identifiable social or political ideal. The third looks forward to a radical social transformation that allows us to transcend existing institutions and values.