PPE Courses
The PPE Minor requires five courses: An interdisciplinary Gateway Course, an interdisciplinary Capstone Seminar, and then one course, from a list of options, in each of Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics. The tabs below will lead you to a list of the courses that count towards the PPE Minor along with information about which particular sections are being offered in the upcoming semester. The Gateways and Capstones are offered in both the Fall and Spring Semesters. The other courses are offered on variable schedules, but on a fairly regular basis.
The Gateway course cannot be taken in the same semester as the Capstone; and we recommend that you take the Gateway fairly early in your academic career if possible. Experience suggests that having taken it will greatly enhance your experience of a broad range of other courses you will end up taking during your time at UNC.
Feel free to reach out to us via email if you have any questions.

Virtue, Value, and Happiness | PHIL 160
Exploration of different philosophical perspectives about right and wrong, personal character, justice, moral reasoning, and moral conflicts. Readings drawn from classic or contemporary sources. Critical discussion emphasized. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 9:05 AM to 9:55 AM
Days: MWF
Instructor: Watkins, Alfredo
Honors: Virtue, Value, and Happiness | PHIL 160H
Exploration of different philosophical perspectives about right and wrong, personal character, justice, moral reasoning, and moral conflicts. Readings drawn from classic or contemporary sources. Critical discussion emphasized. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Wendt, Fabian
Practical Ethics: Moral Reasoning and How We Live | PHIL 163
Topics may include war, medical ethics, media ethics, sexual ethics, business ethics, racism, sexism, capital punishment, and the environment. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Honors: Practical Ethics: Moral Reasoning and How We Live | PHIL 163H
Topics may include war, medical ethics, media ethics, sexual ethics, business ethics, racism, sexism, capital punishment, and the environment. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Dougherty, Thomas
Bioethics | PHIL 165
An examination of ethical issues in the life sciences and technologies, medicine, public health, and/or human interaction with nonhuman animals or the living environment. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 8:00 AM to 9:15 AM
Days: TR
Instructor: Marcoci, Alexandru
Bioethics | PHIL 165
An examination of ethical issues in the life sciences and technologies, medicine, public health, and/or human interaction with nonhuman animals or the living environment. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 002
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Days: TR
Instructor: Marcoci, Alexandru
The Ethics of Peace, War, and Defense | PHIL/POLI/PWAD 272
An analysis of ethical issues that arise in peace, war, and defense, e.g., the legitimacy of states, just war theory, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH, GL, NA
Times: 10:10 AM to 11:00 AM
Days: MW (with multiple recitations)
Instructor: Spinner-Halev, Jeff
Recitations: Yes
Justice, Rights, and the Common Good | PHIL 273
This course will focus on justice and the common good, applying theoretical justifications to contemporary social and economic issues. Readings will include classical and contemporary literature on the nature of justice and rights.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 11:15 AM to 12:05 PM
Days: MWF
Instructor: Passinsky, Asya
Justice, Rights, and the Common Good | PHIL 273
This course will focus on justice and the common good, applying theoretical justifications to contemporary social and economic issues. Readings will include classical and contemporary literature on the nature of justice and rights.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 002
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 12:20 PM to 1:10 PM
Days: MWF
Instructor: Passinsky, Asya
Race, Racism, and Social Justice: African-American Political Philosophy | PHIL 274
This course will aim to introduce students to some of the main issues in African American political philosophy. To do so we will examine historical and contemporary texts that have sought to answer important political questions about being Black in the U.S.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 8:00 AM to 9:15 AM
Days: TR
Instructor: Spicer, DeeAnn
Morality, Law, and Justice | PHIL 280
Explores issues in legal philosophy such as, What is law? Does it serve justice or undermine it? Can punishment be justified? When is a person responsible?
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 1:25 PM to 2:15 PM
Days: MWF
Instructor: Cruise, Ian
Justice in Public Policy | PLCY 340
This seminar explores arguments about moral issues in public policy. Students examine both the means used to implement policies and policy ends through discussions of case studies of policy choice. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 11:15 AM to 12:05 PM
Days: MWF
Instructor: MacKay, Douglas
Justice in Public Policy | PLCY 340H
This seminar explores arguments about moral issues in public policy. Students examine both the means used to implement policies and policy ends through discussions of case studies of policy choice. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Meier, Benjamin
Honors: First-Year Seminar: Justice and Inequality | PLCY 71H
This seminar investigates the value of equality, and asks which forms of inequality are unjust and ought to be addressed by governments. Topics include income inequality, political inequality, marriage inequality, racial inequality, and global inequality.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 12:20 PM to 1:10 PM
Days: MWF
Instructor: MacKay, Douglas
The courses below count towards the PPE Minor but are not being offered this semester
Morality and Business | PHIL 164
An examination of business ethics and the types of ethical dilemmas people may face in business practices.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Liberty, Rights, and Responsibilities | PHIL 170
An examination of major issues in political philosophy, e.g., liberty, individual rights, social responsibility, legal authority, civil authority, civil disobedience. Readings include classical and contemporary writings. Honors version available
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Ethics and Economics | PHIL/PLCY 364
Recommended preparation, at least one course in ethics (PHIL 160, 163, or 170) or one course in economics. Issues at the intersection of ethics and economics, including value; the relation between values and preferences; rationality; the relevance to economics of rights, justice, and the value of human life.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Authority, Freedom, and Rights | PHIL 370
Advanced discussion of competing philosophical approaches to questions of justice, authority, freedom, rights, and the like, including libertarianism, liberalism, communitarianism, Marxism, and feminism.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH, NA
First-Year Seminar: Justice and Inequality | PLCY 71
This seminar investigates the value of equality, and asks which forms of inequality are unjust and ought to be addressed by governments. Topics include income inequality, political inequality, marriage inequality, racial inequality, and global inequality.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Intro to Comparative Politics | POLI 130
This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL
Times: 10:10 AM to 11:00 AM
Days: MW (with multiple recitations)
Instructor: Anderson, Ashley
Recitations: Yes
Intro to Comparative Politics | POLI 130
This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 002
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL
Times: 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Blackington, Courtney
Intro to Comparative Politics | POLI 130
This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 003
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL
Times: 9:05 AM to 9:55 AM
Days: MWF
Instructor: Gunderson, Jacob
Intro to Comparative Politics | POLI 130
This course examines the diversity of political arrangements in societies across the globe. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 004
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL
Times: 8:00 AM to 8:50 AM
Days: MWF
Instructor: De La Cerda, Nicolas
Classical Political Thought | POLI 270
Survey designed to introduce students to major political thinkers and ideas of the ancient world and of the medieval period. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH, NA, WB
Times: 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Days: TR
Instructor: Bickford, Susan
Modern Political Thought | POLI 271
Survey course designed to introduce students to major political thinkers and schools of thought dating roughly from the 16th century to the present. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 002
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH, NA
Times: 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Days: TR
Instructor: Schmitt, Samuel
Strategy and Politics | POLI 288
Offers an introduction to positive political theory, the application of rational choice analysis (or economic models) to the study of political phenomena. Topics include social choice theory, legislative voting, problems of cooperation and collective action, and public choice theory. Encourages students to think about politics from a critical vantage point.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS, QI
Times: 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Bassi, Anna
Elements of Politics I or II | HNRS 354
A contemporary thinker has said that all education is being introduced to greatness. That is the primary aim of this course, which will examine the political principles of the Greek writers. Our fundamental goal will be to observe great thinkers sifting the claims of religion and the polity, the individual and the community, tradition and philosophy, philosophy and politics. We will read poems by Solon, Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, Sophocles’ Antigone, selections from Herodotus’s Persian Wars, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War and several works by Plato: Apology, Crito, Meno, Republic, Gorgias, and Phaedrus. There will be several short papers and a final essay of six to ten pages. Daily class preparation is expected since the course will be conducted as a seminar. This class is open to students at all levels, Freshman through Senior year. The sole requirement is a willingness to work hard and not fall behind. In order that they may be aware of the demands of the course, all students must obtain my approval for enrollment. This course was developed with the aid of a Paul and Melba Brandes Course Development Award.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Times: 2:35 PM to 3:50 PM
Days: MW
Instructor: Goldberg, Larry
The courses below count towards the PPE Minor but are not being offered this semester
Political Economy I: The Domestic System | POLI 401
Problems of the national government in managing capitalist development and economic growth; political constraints; patterns of conflict among domestic actors.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS
Social and Political Philosophy | POLI 470
An examination of the logic of social and political thought with an analysis of such concepts as society, state, power, authority, freedom, social and political obligation, law, rights. Honors version available
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH, NA
Honors Seminar on Public Policy and Global Affairs | PLCY 352H
The Honors Seminar on Public Policy and Global Affairs offers Carolina undergraduates of all majors and minors a unique learning, living, and internship opportunity in our nation’s capital. The seminar offers students first-hand engagement with the actors and organizations—across the public, private and non-profit sectors—that influence domestic and global affairs in Washington, D.C. It aims to expose students to a range of topics that focus on U.S. economic prosperity, national security, and the U.S. role in the broader global community. Internship placements provide opportunities for students to apply academic learning, to derive new insights and questions for seminar discussion, and to work directly with substantive experts.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Introduction to Economics | ECON 101
Introduction to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, inflation, and the determination of prices. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 006
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS
Times: 9:05 AM to 9:55 AM
Days: MWF (with multiple recitations)
Instructor: Balaban, Rita
Recitations: Yes
Introduction to Economics | ECON 101
Introduction to fundamental issues in economics including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, resource allocation, unemployment, inflation, and the determination of prices. Honors version available
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 007
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS
Times: 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM
Days: TR (with multiple recitations)
Instructor: Staub, Kalina
Recitations: Yes
International Economics | ECON/EURO/PWAD 460
An introduction to international trade, the balance of payments, and related issues of foreign economic policy.
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400 and 410 is required.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Times: 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM
Days: TR
Instructor: Vaidyanathan, Geetha
International Economics | ECON/EURO/PWAD 460
An introduction to international trade, the balance of payments, and related issues of foreign economic policy.
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400 and 410 is required.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 002
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Times: 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Vaidyanathan, Geetha
Advanced Microeconomic Theory | ECON 510
A treatment of topics in microeconomic theory not normally covered in ECON 410. Honors version available
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400 and 410 is required.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 001
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research
Times: 3:30 PM to 4:45 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Parreiras, Sergio
Advanced Microeconomic Theory | ECON 510
A treatment of topics in microeconomic theory not normally covered in ECON 410. Honors version available
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400 and 410 is required.
Offered This Semester: Yes
Section: 002
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research
Times: 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM
Days: TR
Instructor: Parreiras, Sergio
The courses below count towards the PPE Minor but are not being offered this semester
Survey of the History of Economic Thought | ECON 234
Introduction to the development of economic thought from the mercantilists, through Smith and the classicists, Marx, the neoclassicists to Keynes.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: PH
Comparative Economic Systems | ECON 267
A survey of the principles and performance of capitalist, communist, socialist, corporatist, and transitional systems
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
History of Economic Doctrines | ECON 434
A survey of the fundamental forms of economic thought from the scholastics through Keynes.
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 101, 400, and 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400 and 410 is required.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: SS
Economics of Population | ECON 454
Analysis of economic-demographic interrelations including demographic analysis, population and economic growth and development, economic models of fertility and migration, and population policy.
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 310 or 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400, and 310 or 410 is required; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Honors: Advanced Microeconomic Theory | ECON 510H
A treatment of topics in microeconomic theory not normally covered in ECON 410. Honors version available
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 410; a grade of C or better in ECON 400 and 410 is required.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter
Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research
Days: TR
Advanced Game Theory in Economics | ECON 511
Topics in noncooperative and cooperative game theory are covered, along with a selection of applications to economics in areas such as industrial organization, international trade, public finance, and general equilibrium. Honors version available
Requisites: Prerequisites, ECON 400 and 410; a grade of C or better is required; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisites.
Credits: 3
Grading: Letter