The approach taken in this specific course is at two levels. One level involves direct conceptual analysis of the differences in disciplinary approaches. The other involves illustrating those differences by reference to specific examples in contemporary policy/institutional analysis. Topics like global warming (and environmental issues more generally); discounting the future; dealing with risk and uncertainty; the ‘global financial crisis’; public debt; population etc. will be used to examine and contrast what philosophers and economists have said about the issues and attempt an intellectually respectable synthesis. In each case, the role of ‘political elements’ will be an important part of the story - both substantively, in terms of what the expected role of political institutions might be and what political constraints may be relevant; and conceptually, in terms of the different understanding of political process that philosophers and economists tend to have.

Wherever possible, the aim will be to take issues dealt with in other courses in the PPE program and use the analysis undertaken there to investigate the relation between the disciplines and the areas they represent. In that sense the aim will be less to involve additional readings, but to induce students to reflect on material already familiar in an explicitly ‘other-disciplinary’ mode. 

 An understanding of:

1 the strengths and weaknesses of the “economic” approach to policy issues;

2. the points at which that “economic” approach comes into tension with the approach standardly employed in philosophy;

3. the tension between “best” policy/institutional arrangements as viewed from a normative viewpoint and “politically feasible” policy/institutional arrangements;

Development of :

4. skills in reasoning about policy issues in general;

5. skills in developing arguments and expressing them in written and verbal forms. 

• Class participation (10%) (Learning Outcomes 4 and 5)
• one 2,000 word essay (30%) (Learning Outcomes 1,2,3, 4 and 5)
• final exam (60%) (Learning Outcomes 1,2,3,4 and 5)

One two-hour lecture/seminar and one one-hour tutorial; plus five hours per week reading; and two hours per week (on average) writing.

Pre-requisites:

ECON2101 and at least twelve units in Philosophy;  and at least twelve units in Political Science.

Capability to use basic research techniques in the humanities and social sciences; capability to write academic essays for the humanities and social sciences.

Weekly reading to support the tutorials and lectures will be made available electronically via the Wattle site. Some additional reading will be helpful in stimulating thinking along inter-disciplinary lines, including:

• Broome (1999) Ethics out of Economics Cambridge University Press
• Gaus (2008) On Philosophy Politics and Economics Wadsworth
• Favor, Gaus and Lamond (eds) (2010) Essays on Philosophy, Politics and Economics Stanford University Press
• Hausman and McPherson (1996) Economics and Moral Philosophy Cambridge University Press
• Sen (1998) On Ethics and Economics Blackwell

None