PHIL/POLI/ECON 698: PPE Capstone — Reasoning with Models

UNC–Chapel Hill — Spring 2023 Meetings: §001 TR 8:00–9:15; §002 TR 12:30–1:45, Peabody 2066 Instructor: Kirun Sankaran (Caldwell Hall 214A) Prerequisites: PHIL 384; permission of the department Text: Thomas Schelling, Micromotives and Macrobehavior (all other readings on Canvas)

Course Description

The capstone seminar is the final course in the PPE sequence — writing- and participation-intensive, focused on topics at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and economics. The specific focus is on models and their use in philosophy and social science. How do models help economists, political scientists, and philosophers think about descriptive and normative issues? What's the relationship between models and reality? Should models be "realistic," or can they have false assumptions?

The course is structured like a graduate seminar: we meet weekly to discuss one or two papers you're expected to have read carefully. The primary assignment (50% of the grade) is a 15-page research paper on a PPE topic, chosen in consultation with me. Other assignments build confidence and skill in writing, reasoning, and presentation. Like the PPE Program as a whole, the seminar cultivates an appreciation of how questions of justification and value intersect with an understanding of how social and political institutions work — and fail to work.

Format

An advanced seminar for senior PPE Minors: intensive seminar-style discussion with minimal lecturing, collaborative presentations and classwork, individual reading responses, and a major research paper. Expect ~8–10 hours of work per week outside class.

Assignments and Grading

1. Attendance and Participation — 15%
2. Three Argument Analyses — 5% each (15% total). Pick a social-science reading and answer, in ≤250 words: What's the research question? What mechanism do the authors argue answers it? How do the model(s) help articulate that mechanism?
3. Research Paper — 50%: Literature Review (10%), Outline/Draft (5%), Peer Review (5%), final Research Paper (30%). Apply the philosophy of social science to a research controversy from your "home" discipline. Individual meetings in Weeks 7–8 (topic) and 12–13 (draft).
4. Final Project — 20%: group presentation during the exam period, teaching an assigned paper (understanding, clarity, slide deck).

Grades truncated, not rounded, given extensive extra-credit opportunities.

Attendance, Late Work, Screens, LLMs

You learn philosophy by doing it; the class doesn't work unless you come having done the reading and actually discuss it. Three no-excuse skips per semester, then a third-of-a-letter-grade participation deduction per absence. Two one-week no-excuse extensions on non-final assignments (email ≥24 hours ahead); otherwise a third of a letter grade per day late. Laptops and phones off except by permission or accommodation. LLMs are encouraged as an aid to learning, provided you're up-front about the division of labor.

Schedule and Reading List

Loosely scheduled by design — the seminar spends more or less time on a topic depending on interest.

• Week 1 — Class Introduction; Why did Russia Invade Ukraine? Mearsheimer, "Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West's Fault"; Drezner, "The Realpolitik of the Living Dead"
• Week 2 — Schelling Appreciation. Micromotives and Macrobehavior, Ch. 1 and Ch. 3. (AA1 due Jan 20.)
• Week 3 — Philosophical Approaches to Models and Mechanisms. Ashworth, Berry, and Bueno de Mesquita, Theory and Credibility, Ch. 4; Akerlof, "The Market for Lemons"
• Week 4 — Common Pool Resources and Firms. Williamson, "The Theory of the Firm as Governance Structure"; Ostrom, Governing the Commons, Ch. 1. (AA2 due Feb 3.)
• Week 5 — More Approaches to Models and Mechanisms. Johnson, "Models as Fables"; Lovett, "Rational Choice Theory and Explanation." (AA3 due Feb 10.)
• Week 6 — Simulations (and More Schelling). Micromotives and Macrobehavior, Ch. 4; "Parable of the Polygons"
• Week 7 — Social Choice. Munger and Munger, Choosing in Groups, Ch. 7; Sher, "Voting Rules." (Meet to pick paper topics.)
• Week 8 — Galilean Idealization? Weisberg, "Three Kinds of Idealization"; Akerlof, "The Economics of Caste, and the Rat Race, and Other Woeful Tales"
• Week 9 — Models in Moral and Political Philosophy I. Kamm, "Harming Some to Save Others"; Wilson, "Internal and External Validity in Thought Experiments." (Literature Reviews due Mar 10.)
• Week 10 — Models in Moral and Political Philosophy II. Rawls, "Justice As Fairness"; Johnson, "Models Among the Political Theorists"
• Week 11 — Networks and Social Contagion. Aven, "The Paradox of Corrupt Networks" (guest lecture, Jenna Wertsching, Sociology); Wood et al., "The Network Structure of Police Misconduct." (Drafts due Mar 31.)
• Week 12 — Signaling and Preference Falsification. Loury, "Self-Censorship and Public Discourse." (Rank lists for final due Apr 7.)
• Week 13 — Writing! How to write a philosophy paper / using LLMs as a writing tool; Peer Review
• Week 14 — Papers Kirun Thinks Are Cool. Kuran, "Now out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989"; Diamond, "Banks and Liquidity Creation: The Diamond–Dybvig Model." (Research Paper due Apr 21.)
• Week 15 — Slack / Open work session

Final exams: §001 May 8, 8–11am; §002 May 4, 12–3pm.

UNC institutional boilerplate (Honor Code, ARS, CAPS, Title IX, Acceptable Use, learning outcomes, etc.) included in the distributed syllabus; omitted here for brevity.