Handbook

This course introduces the disciplines of Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and more specifically the synergies and tensions surrounding their distinctive approaches to knowing the world. The major challenges facing policymakers today – from inequality to geopolitical instability – are at once political, economic and philosophical. How these challenges are understood and addressed rest on ideas and methods developed by foundational thinkers in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and especially by those whose thought embraced these three disciplines. In this course, you will study the ideas and methods of these three disciplines, and the critical interactions between them, in order, firstly, to identify their central role in contemporary public debates, and, secondly, to assess their relevance to current problems, questions and challenges. Through the analysis of specific case studies, you will engage with the multidimensional nature of global challenges, and will consider the desirability and difficulty of multi-disciplinary approaches to addressing them.