PPE (No, not personal protective equipment)

And of the need for perpetual self reeducation

Apparently, there are people in the world who just cannot bring themselves to settle on a particular subject matter to study. I am one of them.

One hears about generalists, but it’s hard today to cross from the sciences to the social sciences to the humanities — and even to theology, which can rarely be studied in any public or private university. I’ve made all those crossings.

It’s also hard to move from studying contemporary subjects to studying deeply historical ones, for example from ecology, established as a modern science only in the 1960’s, to classical philosophy or (again) theology. I’ve made those moves, too.

The wisdom of all this hopping around is questionable, and yet I don’t know how to come to a fuller view without it.

Shortly after receiving my PhD in ecology, specializing in environmental ethics — so a course of study with a good deal of public policy and philosophy added on to theoretical scientific studies, mathematical modeling, and applied conservation — I began homeschooling my children. I found I had to go back to study really basic things like literature, history, and… (wait for it) … phonics. 🤣 Small children must learn to read, and to spell.

Then there was grammar. I was always fine with writing, but my skill was all intuitive based on immersion in my native language, everyday usage, plus lots of reading. A formal study of grammar turned out to be a godsend and one of the most useful things I have ever done. I don’t mean learning rules for punctuation, or how to make nouns and verbs agree in person and number. I also don’t mean modern linguistics. I’m referring to old-fashioned Harvey’s-type grammar, a theoretical approach to understanding how language works, the kind of understanding needed to learn a highly inflected language like Latin or Greek: noun cases, moods, verbals (participles, gerunds, infinitives), clauses, syntax, and so on.

Because we ended up doing classical education at home, from re-learning such basic foundations as phonics and grammar, I expanded to the trivium arts (three of the seven), especially classical rhetoric; then, lots of Greek and Latin history and culture; then, on to the Great Books. Arguably, 1) the liberal arts (trivium, quadrivium), 2) classical languages and culture (Greek and Latin), and 3) the tradition of western civilization as read through its classical authors and texts — these three streams comprise the basic components of “classical education” as we understand it in the west.

(I’ve since come to the conclusion that enculturating in western civilization alone is not nearly enough. At the very least we need a worldwide sense of geography and history; and a deep dive into classical East Asian philosophical, ethical, and political traditions coming out of China and its periphery, and probably India as well.)

As my kids got older, I became increasingly interested in theology, and ultimately I returned to school, ostensibly to study the rhetoric of the Church Fathers. That ended up in a full-blown adventure at seminary, where I dove into liturgy and theological aesthetics, along with the patristics, and with scripture study since patristic theology is more heavily based on reading scripture than it is even on classical (Greek) rhetoric methods. (We’re talking the “eastern” Fathers here, not primarily Latin ones; where the eastern or oriental tradition includes not only Greek but Syrian writers, etc. The canon of patristic greats is much wider and deeper in the east than the usual singling out of Augustine and Aquinas in the Latin tradition.)

Now I’m trying to see if all these classical wisdoms — philosophical as well as theological — are actually able to speak to us humans today, living as we do in a decidedly new, geologically new era, the Anthropocene. Frankly, I’m not sure they are. But that remains to be seen.

What I require now is re-education yet again, not only (as a non-expert) in various fields of science and technology, but also to grasp what I call the human factor: how we got here, and what we might do about it. In contemporary terms, this is most frequently a matter of political economy.

As one does, in my notes and personal journal, I tend to attach shorthand abbreviations to interest areas: AW for ancient wisdom, WHT for world history (for travelers), and PPET for philosophy, political economy, and theology. It’s been said that “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts” (by Carl Schmitt), and I believe it. Modern political and economic ideas can be traced back, in large part, to theological concepts and practices that arose in the early Christianity period, carrying on, no doubt, from classical Greece and Rome.

Come to find out, there is a whole, long, tradition of studying PPE — philosophy, politics, and economics — that originated at Oxford over a century ago and has now spread all over the world.

More than any other course at any other university, more than any revered or resented private school, and in a manner probably unmatched in any other democracy, Oxford PPE pervades British political life. From the right to the left, from the centre ground to the fringes, from analysts to protagonists, consensus-seekers to revolutionary activists, environmentalists to ultra-capitalists, statists to libertarians, elitists to populists, bureaucrats to spin doctors, bullies to charmers, successive networks of PPEists have been at work at all levels of British politics – sometimes prominently, sometimes more quietly – since the degree was established 97 years ago.

(Source: PPE: the Oxford degree that runs Britain | Higher education | The Guardian)

A basic course of study in these three subjects: philosophy, politics, and economics has formed the basis of almost all preparation for political leadership in Great Britain, one of the most important countries in Europe, and with the highest level of colonial involvement and influence worldwide — which de-colonialized almost entirely during the 20th century, leaving behind a massive legacy, for both good and ill.

This is an extraordinary fact, that such an educational program has dominated the thinking of so many leaders over the course of a century, and with such global impact.

In some places, the study of law is added to PPE, making it PPEL.

At one time there was a thought that the natural sciences were needed as well, but this was unfortunately, though understandably, given up.

At first, the reformers wanted the new course to include a large science component – something Dominic Cummings and other current PPE sceptics think the degree gravely lacks – but that proposal proved one innovation too many.

(Source: ibid.)

The Guardian piece, a long read, gives pertinent historical background and context to the origins and operations of the program and its impact.

I tried to find the reading list for the PPE course of study at Oxford, or from any of its worldwide clones or variants. This was surprisingly hard to do, and what I did find was not inspiring.

As I undertake a PPET re-education of my own, I will end up creating my own syllabus. I’ll read from one classic text or author to the next, selecting from the usual suspects, western classics of political and economic thought, and also from an increasingly wide swath of contemporary books analyzing all manner of global economic and political issues. Eastern classics and analyses must be included as well.

I’ll bring my theological background to bear; and try to engage new studies emerging in political and economic theology.

All of this should be helpful in assessing the new post-liberalisms (and anti-liberalisms) emerging today even in the west. They have long held sway in the east and globally, even as the world has looked per force to the west and its hegemony over the last few hundred years. Societies worldwide have been forced to contended with the US and Europe’s motivated agenda towards democratization, as political transformation ostensibly must go along with the universally desired economic development (increased wealth) and modernization, and with playing in a global market.

Anyway, PPE as an educational imperative in the Anthropocene. Or PPEL. Or PPET. Plus the sciences. Trying to figure out how to be a good human in the Anthropocene, by bringing to bear ancient wisdoms as far as possible, must take account of the world’s philosophies and political economies, evolving as they are in both thought and practice.