Concept and objectives

The Witten economics degree program “Philosophy, Politics and Economics” (PPE) is different.

Long before the economic and financial crisis it was clear that a systematic training in “tunnel vision” is one of the greatest risks for functionally highly sophisticated societies. If protagonists in economics, politics and the academic world depend on narrow specialist knowledge for their career perspectives, they will easily lose sight of the wider contexts in which their own activities are located.

Not tunnel vision but multidisciplinarity

Unlike any comparable degree program in Germany, the Witten program in Philosophy, Politics and Economics widens the subject-specific focus via perspectives which systematically assess correlations between social subareas. An increasing number of similar programs is offered in Germany and abroad, but many of these do not really fulfil the claim of multidisciplinarity. They adhere to the rational choice theory in all disciplines involved, i.e. the perspective which turned out to be highly problematic in the financial and economic crisis, and which many economists have started to question. If philosophy, politics and economics are all assessed from the same theoretical perspective, there can be no question of real multidisciplinarity.

At the core of the Witten Bachelor program “Philosophy, Politics and Economics” (PPE) is the analysis of institutions and organizations. The underlying concept is that political and economic processes occur within a man-made context of rules and laws, customs and causes, explicit and implicit agreements. If we want to understand political and economic processes and submit them to philosophical reflection, we must adopt and integrate various different perspectives.

The fact that the three disciplines involved tackle the analysis of “institutions and organizations” with different analytical tools ensures a plurality of perspectives which permits a fruitful discourse on complex decision-making  processes in modern society.

Multiple perspectives

This genuine multidisciplinarity creates a challenging range of perspectives for students and teachers alike. We in Witten aim to meet this challenge, which we believe to fit well with the enterprising spirit of our university. The central idea of the PPE program  - a socially and politically relevant analysis of institutions and organizations -  integrates all these perspectives. More than the classical PPE programs we set great store by cultural factors in politics and economics, we emphasize correlations between formal rules (laws and procedures) and informal institutions (such as cultural interpretations, moral principles and ways of life). This scientific interest at the interface between humanities, social and cultural sciences has a long tradition in Germany.

One characteristic of the Witten program is that the three pillars – philosophy, politics and economics – are not strictly divided into subjects and between faculties. We understand politics not as a single, separate subject, as political science; political phenomena are considered from perspectives of sociology, political philosophy, political economy, and – of course - political science as well. In the same way, economic phenomena are reflected in their social and historical contexts and on the basis of their ethical and normative self description. And finally, philosophy as analytical thinking is seen not as a glass bead game but the theory of differentiation and consideration, of substantiation and critique with practical intent.