The PPE master's program has distinguished itself over the years as the most significant intellectual training pursued by future politicians, managers, and experts in politics and society. Among PPE graduates are figures such as David Cameron, Christopher Hitchens, and Tony Abbott. The BBC regards this master's program as the most influential shaper of British politicians.

Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

About our programme

The Faculty of Philosophy, in a partnership with the Faculty of Business and Administration, are pleased to announce the launch of their new jointly organized MA program in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, starting October 2017. It is the first PPE program in Romania, and one of the very few in Eastern Europe. Internationally, PPE programs are highly successful at the most prestigious universities, due mainly to the unique combination of skills, perspectives and analytical tools they provide. The first PPE curricula was established at Oxford in the 1920s, and the model was soon followed worldwide. Today universities such as Oxford, London School of Economics, Warwick, Princeton, Yale or Duke offer PPE degrees at various levels. After 1990, PPE programs have gained hold also in “continental” Europe, and are offered, among others, by Leiden, Lund, Amsterdam, Bern, Zurich, Graz, Hamburg, Milan, Prague and now Bucharest. There is an ever increasing demand on the labor market for employees with an excellent intellectual mobility, able to deploy competently multi criteria tools for analysis and who are apt to grasp the various challenges of a decision-making situation (ethical, economical, social etc). Our PPE syllabus aims to meet this demand, educating future professionals who can fulfill easily different organizational roles in business, government, politics or research). The huge numbers of PPE alumni with spectacular careers (to give but one example, in 2015 in Great Britain both the prime minister and the opposition leader were former PPE students) are the best evidence for the array of opportunities that PPE programs consistently deliver. By its nature, an MA program in Philosophy, Politics and Economics is highly inter-disciplinary. The course and seminar instructors are highly reputed professors and researchers from the faculties of Philosophy and Business and Administration, as well as invited experts at the top of their profession in constitutional law, political science or economics.

Courses

Critical Thinking in the Social Sciences

"Critical Thinking in the Social Sciences" is devoted to exploring a problem. Three approaches interweave, and how they fit is still a puzzle. First, logical, reasoning and critical thinking skills: how we ought to think, what we ought to warrantedly say or do. Second, games as frames for how agents interact: mutual benefit, long-term vs. short-term, learning strategies and problem-solving prowess in a social setting. Here, sophistry and rhetorically nicely wrapped fallacies raise the important question of how come they are so frequent and luring despite their fallacious character. Third, cognitive biases and how they affect individual agents and their reasoning, situations that call for heuristics that trade speed over accuracy. Finally, not just how these three approaches interact, but also what they do to our shared values, in morals or art alike. An introductory course, crosslisted PPE with "Mind the Brain", the local programme in cognitive science, is waiting for your input and perspective.

Modern Political Thought

The course intends to be an exciting journey into the complicated world of political ideas and the way they work in our private and public lives. Modern political thought is perhaps the best destination, managing to be at the interface and also at the intersection of some of the greatest challenges that these ideas launch. Although, the “bad mouths” say that it is not a big deal, considering that political thought has to answer only two broad questions – e.g. 'who gets what?', and 'says who?' (Jonathan Wolff) -, we will see that although true they lay unsuspected traps for it but, above all, sufficient grounds and reasons for it not to be easily convinced.

There will be many stops and revisits, many stumbles and escalations and many controversial paths: What is or should be the basis of property? Who has or should have property rights? What is just or not in the distribution of material goods? What kind of good is political power? Why freedom and equality matter? Why democracy? What does mean rule of law? Are women politically less endowed than men? Who decide this? Are human beings equal? Why disagreement counts? Why religion tolerance is a cooperative institution? What is political pluralism? Why not epistocracy? and many more.

What will be beyond any controversy is that we will not go astray. We will have with us the best guides that modern political thought has had: from Machiavelli to Milton and the Levellers, from Hobbes and Locke to Rousseau, from Montesquieu to Madison and Hamilton, from Bentham to Paine and Burke, from Wollstonecraft to Mill, from Hume to Kant and last but not least from Smith to Marx. What are you waiting for?

Elements of Economic Thinking

This PPE course offers a broad exploration of economic thought, combining an introduction to foundational concepts and theories of modern economics with an introductory historical journey through pivotal ideas and schools from the 17th to the 20th century. Students will engage with the evolution of economic paradigms, examining how historical contexts shaped theories and their applications. The course also explores themes related to the philosophical dimensions of economic thought, both analytical and normative, encouraging critical reflection on the economic way of thinking and its influence on contemporary policy and societal structures.

Ethics and Economics

The received wisdom is that, although sharing for a while a common intellectual history, not much is left today to provide meaningful links between ethics (and philosophy, more generally) and economics. Economics might
have been a part of moral science in its early stages, but this outlook was supposedly replaced by a dismal commitment to a conceptual toolkit that leaves no room for ethical thinking. The main objective of the course is to question this assumption, following two main routes.

Firstly, we will look into the fascinating cases of major authors who left a lasting imprint on both disciplines, starting with Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, and discuss the ways in which, for them, the two areas of reflection were deeply interconnected and even unified as parts of a larger theoretical project, rather than mere disjointed or even contradictory attempts.

A second route will be to explore the intersections that still persist at a fundamental conceptual level. Both ethicists and economists talk about utility, welfare, rationality, etc, but are they (partly) the same? We will discuss arguments put forward by (among others) Amartya Sen, Daniel Hausman or James Buchanan in support of the idea that (1) there still is a „moral sciency” dimension today in both positive and normative economics and (2) moral philosophers themselves might stand to gain by taking to heart some of the better lessons that economics is ready to teach.

Political Economy

Political economy is a course about how society creates prosperity. The course combines knowledge from complexity economics, evolutionary psychology, and other social sciences into one integrating approach. Political economy explains the constraints on the social dynamic responsible for the emergence of institutions and the creation of wealth.

Morality and Law

The course explores the relation between morality and law across different theories both ancient and modern linking morality, economics, culture, religion, technology, politics and the legal and judicial decision-making process and the impact of different understandings of this relation on the well-functioning of institutions in different societies and on their success or failure to create a good, just and prosperous society.

Social and Political Philosophy

The topic of this course is Equality and Elitism. We focus on intrinsic or basic equality, not on economic equality (nor on other kinds of equality) and explore the following issue: is there a non-banal sense in which humans qua humans are equal, despite the obvious factual differences among them? We analyze the main contemporary arguments against intrinsic equality and assess their validity. We also examine the most important philosophical attempts to defend equality (Rawls, Waldron and others) and explain the sources of their failure. The most remarkable particularity of our approach is that we rely on later Wittgenstein’s philosophical interpretations to show how the supposed difficulties of intrinsic equality dissolve and its justification overcomes the existing objections, which are based on a mistaken view of conceptualization. The second part of the course is devoted to contemporary elitism and its offensive against political equality. We analyze the main arguments against political equality and assess their power. Our approach consists in identifying the main tacit presuppositions of elitism and in evaluating their validity. In contradistinction to most of the contemporary discussions of elitism, we do not dwell on factual issues but focus on the detection of the confusions, of the mistaken analogies and of other errors hidden in these presuppositions. We show that even when they start from some truthful observation of facts, the elitist arguments misinterpret political activity and draw inadequate conclusions concerning political participation. The lectures and the seminars are based on permanent interaction with the students (discussion of arguments, ideas and concepts) and are conducted in the general style of analytic philosophy. The aim is not to create egalitarian convictions or to consolidate some ideological positions, but only to clarify the philosophical difficulties of the topics.

Experimental Approaches in Economics

Experimental Approaches in Economics offers an exploration of how to use experimental methodologies to better analyze decision-making, strategic interactions, and policy interventions. The course integrates insights from behavioral game theory, emphasizing how real-world behavior deviates from standard economic models due to cognitive biases, social preferences, and bounded rationality. It further employs classroom experiments to illustrate how incentives, norms, and heuristics shape choices in strategic environments. The course will also cover randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as a gold standard for causal inference in policy evaluation, equipping students with the tools to design, interpret, and critique experimental studies in various policy domains.

Morality, Business and New Media

Morality, Business, and Information Technology is the course where moral philosophy intersects with business strategy and technological innovation. Course content grounds ethical theory in real-world business scenarios through case-based discussions that challenge participants to exercise moral reasoning and imagination in authentic contexts. From exploring the symbiotic relationship between ethics management and ethical management to addressing the moral implications of human-technology interfaces, the course systematically builds competencies for navigating ambiguous ethical terrain. As technological advancements continue to reshape business boundaries, this program enables participants to address pressing concerns such as human-robot interaction, generative AI and the future of work, as well as the intersection of cutting-edge technologies, sustainability, and business operations. The course offers a practical introduction to ethical decision-making tools, such as the ethical matrix, as well as to complex evaluation tools, such as the ethics audit.

Constitutional Democracy

Evidence-based policies

The Evidence-based policies class is designed to familiarise students with some of the modern tools that can be effectively deployed in policy-making processes. Overall, the class lies at the intersection of several disciplines, primarily administrative science, political science, and political theory. The class broadly consists of three parts. The first is an introductory overview on policy-making, including an in-depth discussion on the policy cycle and its various stages, but also on commonly used instruments such as the problem tree. The second part of the term is devoted to the study of methodological tools associated with the evidence-based policy approach, such as randomized control trials, qualitative comparative analysis, systematic reviews, but also other tools combining empirical and normative inquiry, such as deliberative polling. Finally, the third part consists of a number of case studies on specific policies that can be assessed through the usage of these tools, such as universal basic income or school choice.

Curricular Practical Training

Research for dissertation

Course instructors

Emanuel Socaciu

Emanuel Mihail Socaciu is an associate professor and deputy dean at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Philosophy. He has got his PhD in philosophy in 2008, with an applied ethics thesis on the topic of property restitution in post-communist Romania. In his 2014 book “A cui este casa mea? Preliminarii la o etica a restitutiei” (“Who is the Owner of my House? Blueprint for an Ethics of Restitution”) he proposed a conceptual and procedural tool for the moral assessment of restitutive policies (“the Popperian test for restitution”). Socaciu is the co-founder and former director of the Research Center in Applied Ethics at the University of Bucharest (www.ccea.ro). The center, established in 2004, has become one of the most prestigious ethical research organizations in Eastern Europe. His current research interests lay broadly within the areas of moral philosophy, applied ethics and political philosophy. He is writing on topics such as moral bioenhancement, the moral foundations of intellectual property, the ethics of technology and ethics of science. Socaciu has also done consulting and advocacy work for private and public organizations in Romania, helping them draft their codes of ethics, design and implement an ethical infrastructure and enhance ethical culture. He served as a member of the Research Ethics Committee at the University of Bucharest (an IRB-type body) and of the National Council for Ethics in Scientific Research.

Paul Dragoș Aligică

Paul Dragoș Aligică is a Professor at the University of Bucharest and a Senior Research Fellow in the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University in the United States. He is a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy and a member of the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea), where he is affiliated with the “Governance, Institutions, and Policy” section. He is the author of numerous books and academic articles on institutional theory, political economy, social theory, and political philosophy.

Mihaela Constantinescu

Mihaela Constantinescu is lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Romania, and executive director of the Research Centre in Applied Ethics (CCEA). Her research includes virtue ethics, business ethics, Human-Robot Interaction, and AI ethics, with a focus on the normative interplay between the concepts of moral responsibility and moral agency in relation to individuals, organizations, and AI systems. Mihaela is the winner of an ERC Starting grant for the project avataResponsibility – “Avatar agency. Moral responsibility at the intersection of individual, collective, and artificial social entities in emergent avatar communities”, implemented between 2024-2028 at CCEA, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest. Before moving to academia, Mihaela has worked for over 15 years as a communications consultant in the private, governmental and NGO fields.

Alexandru Volacu

I am an Associate Professor (ro. conferentiar universitar) at the University of Bucharest, in the Faculty of Business and Administration, where I mainly teach classes on governance, public policies, critical thinking, and academic ethics. I’ve previously worked as an Assistant Lecturer (ro. asistent universitar) at the National University of Political Science and Public Administration (SNSPA), teaching a diverse range of subjects in political science and public administration. I am also the director of the Bucharest Center for Political Theory and a member of the Justice Everywhere cooperative of political theorists. In the past I’ve been a Visiting Scholar (>1 month stay) at the University of Oxford (2015) and the Barcelona Institute of Analytic Philosophy (2023), as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (2017-2018) and New Europe College (2022-2023). My research is mainly focused on political theory, primarily on topics such as voting, democracy, and justice. Aside from publishing in international outlets, I also try to contribute to enhancing the public understanding of political and ethical issues in Romania, especially through books which are aimed at a non-specialized audience.

Bogdan Dima

Bogdan Dima is PhD Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, where he teaches Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Political Institutions. He is also teaching Constitutional Democracy at the PPE Master at the Faculty of Philosophy since 2020. His professional background is highly diversified and focuses on constitutional and legislative affairs, political and electoral strategies, legislative analysis and institutional building processes. He worked for the Presidential Administration in Romania (counsellor within the Department of Institutional and Constitutional Reform), Romanian Government (personal adviser to several prime-ministers), and the Romanian Senate (director of the group of advisers for the President of the Senate). He also had many collaboration as political consultant with NGOs, major companies and political parties in Romania. He is author of `Conflict between the Palaces. Power relations between the Parliament, Government and President in Post-Communist Romania` (Hamangiu, 2014), as well as `Systems of Government in Democracies from Central and South-Eastern Europe` (Hamangiu, 2015). Recently, he coordinated together with Professor Vlad Perju the volume `After 30 Years. Constitutional Justice in Romania` (Humanitas, 2023). He is also author of many articles and book chapters published in Romanian and foreign journals.

Dorina Pătrunsu

Pătrunsu Dorina, PhD (2010) Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, specialized in Social and Political Philosophy, Institutional Analysis and Public Choice theory, Gender and Equality, DemocraticTheory. Authored books (in Romanian): Efficacity or Democracy? Philosophical dilemmas regarding the role of political institutions (2016), Evolutionism vs. institutional constructivism. Perspectives on institutional change in post-communist Romania (2017). Member of Societas Ethica (2024- current); Charter Member of The Romanian Society of Philosophy (2008-current); Charter Member of The Research Center for studying Rationality and Beliefs (CSRC) (2008-current). Principal organizer of International Conference “After Justice: John Rawls’ Legacy in the 21st Century”, November 5th-6th, 2021, University of Bucharest (https://filosofie.unibuc.ro/2021/11/03/conference-after-justice-john-rawls-legacy-in-the-21st-century/ The last published article: Is the Public Moral Instigation Against Inappropriate Free Speech Moral? Two Arguments Against the Cancel Culture, Vol. 3 No. 1 (2023): Disagreement, Free Speech and Cancel Culture, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2724-6299/15655 Participation in international conferences: Lausanne (2022), Braga (2022), Budapest (2022), ISUS Rome (2023), Braga (2023), Birmingham (2023), Oxford (2024), ISUS London (2024), Reims (2024), Uppsala (2024).

Magda Roșu

Magda Rosu is the co-coordinator of the ABC Lab (Administration, Business, Communication Laboratory), an experimental and interdisciplinary laboratory based in Bucharest. Her academic activity also includes teaching Game Theory, Econometrics, Statistics, and Data Analysis as a Lecturer at the University of Bucharest. She holds a Ph.D. in Statistics and Cybernetics and an MSc in Behavioral Economics. Her studies address public policy in terms of policy impact evaluation (institutional effectiveness) and understanding citizens' aggregate decision-making processes (relevant for counteracting fake news, managing health crises, consumption behavior, collective anxiety, and governmental communication). Her methodological approaches include correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental designs.

Laurențiu Gheorghe

Laurenţiu Gheorghe (2015) PhD in Political Philosophy, University of Bucharest, (2013) BA Orthodox Theology, University of Bucharest (2006) MA in EU Law and European Studies, University of Bucharest, (2004) MA Political and Moral Philosophy, University of Bucharest, (2002) BA Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Teaching : Philosophy of Law, Morality and Law, Theories of Democracy at the University of Bucharest, Department of Practical Philosophy and The History of Philosophy Main Interests : Exploring the limits of normativity and the interaction between norms and rules in maintaining order in society.

Călin Vâlsan

Dr. Călin Vâlsan is a Professor with the Williams School of Business at Bishop’s University (Canada) and the Faculty of Business and Administration at the University of Bucharest. He earned his Ph.D. in Finance form Virginia Tech, and his H.B.Com from ASE - Bucharest. Dr. Vâlsan teaches several courses including Political Economy, Corporate Finance, Corporate Governance, and Behavioral Finance.

Adrian-Paul Iliescu

Adrian-Paul Iliescu earned his doctoral degree (with a dissertation on the philosophy of language) in 1983. Since 1990, he has been teaching at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Bucharest. He has held positions as a Senior Visiting Fellow at several Western universities and institutes, including St John’s College, University of Cambridge; the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bielefeld (as a recipient of an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship); the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, among others. He has delivered lectures at universities in England, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, and Hungary. Additionally, he was a Fellow at the New Europe College in Bucharest. Iliescu is the author of dozens of articles and essays published in specialized journals and cultural magazines such as Secolul XX, Viaţa românească, Contemporanul. Ideea Europeană, Cultura, Observator cultural, Dilema, and 22. He has edited numerous specialized volumes and translated works by philosophers such as Wittgenstein, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, Michael Oakeshott, and F. A. Hayek. In Romania, he has published the following books: • Filosofia limbajului şi limbajul filosofiei (The Philosophy of Language and the Language of Philosophy), Editura Ştiinţifică, 1988 • Conservatorismul anglo-saxon (Anglo-Saxon Conservatism), Editura All, 1994, recipient of the Ion Petrovici Prize from the Romanian Academy • Liberalismul – între succese şi iluzii (Liberalism – Between Successes and Illusions), 1998 • Solitude and the Birth of Modernity, New Europe College, 1999 • Wittgenstein: Why Philosophy Is Bound to Err, Peter Lang Publishing, Frankfurt am Main, 2000 • Introducere în politologie (Introduction to Political Science), Editura All, 2002

Andrei Mărășoiu

Andrei Mărășoiu is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, where he also serves as a Vice-Dean. He holds a PhD from The University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA, USA) dedicated to understanding (a topic that combines the philosophy of mind, language, and epistemology). He graduated two MA programs: one in neurophilosophy (at Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA), and one in the history and philosophy of science (at the University of Bucharest). His main research interests include the philosophy of science, epistemology, philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences.

Contact

Program coordinator: emanuel.socaciu@filosofie.unibuc.ro

Secretarial office: office@filosofie.unibuc.ro

+40 21 318 15 56,
+40 21 318 29 74

Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenţei, Nr. 204, Bucharest, 060024, Romania