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PPEL Summer School 2024

June 4th–7th, 2024
at the University of San Diego

PPEL Overview

The Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) Undergraduate Summer School features a curriculum focusing on the practical problems of organizing and running human society. The summer school is supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (#62965). Registration, meals, and student housing are free.

Students will explore questions related to:

  • The nature of citizenship and the role individuals play in making critical decisions facing society

  • How markets function and the conditions under which they create wealth and prosperity

  • When and why markets sometimes fail

  • The role of political institutions in structuring market exchange and allocating resources

  • Strengthening critical thinking skills and cultivating intellectual humility to engage with diverse perspectives

Topics addressed during the program include:

  • The nature and justification of property rights

  • The use of market prices in coordinating economic activity

  • How trust and reciprocity facilitate personal exchange

  • The moral dimensions of:

    • Cost-benefit analysis

    • Exploitation

    • Repugnant transactions

2024 PPEL Summer School Recap
June 4–7, 2024 | University of San Diego

The 2024 Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) Undergraduate Summer School was hosted at the University of San Diego. The event welcomed 40 undergraduates from 30 different universities across the country for a four-day intensive program exploring foundational and contemporary questions about society, exchange, and governance.

Program Highlights

Students engaged in a series of lectures, discussions, and workshops led by leading scholars in philosophy, political science, economics, and law. Topics ranged from the evolution of cooperation to the ethics of corporate activism.

Featured Sessions

Plenary Lectures:

  • David Schmidtz – Philosophy Lost

  • Vernon Smith – Adam Smith’s Theory of Society

Faculty Sessions:

  • John Thrasher – Norms and Conventions

  • Candace Smith – Etiquette

  • Suzi Dovi – Rethinking the Justice Argument

  • Justin Bruner – Evolution, Cooperation, and In-Group Bias

  • Mary Rigdon – Personal Exchange

  • Saura Masconale – Corporate Activism and Democracy

  • Kingsley Brandle – Q&A: Graduate School Applications and Experience

  • Vlad Tarko – Capitalism and its Crisis of Legitimacy

  • Matt Zwolinski – Panel Discussion: Universal Basic Income

  • Simone Sepe – Generalized Freedom of Contract

Student Engagement:

  • Big Question Project Presentations – Students presented original research on pressing philosophical, political, or economic questions that matter to the future of society.