Course coordinator
Dr Nicholas Heron
Course overview
- Study period
- Semester 1, 2025 (24/02/2025 - 21/06/2025)
- Study level
- Undergraduate
- Location
- St Lucia
- Attendance mode
- In Person
- Units
- 2
- Administrative campus
- St Lucia
- Coordinating unit
- Politic Sc & Internat Studies
This course examines the development of political, philosophical and economic ideas and their interaction before the existence of today's disciplines of Political Science, Philosophy, and Economics. Key ideas studied include "the state", "happiness", and "the market". By adopting a historical approach to the development of these ideas and their domestication in rival academic disciplines, the course equips students with the ability to see where intellectual specialisation has been beneficial, and where it has hindered the analysis of social phenomena.
This course’s primary aim is to give PPE students a sense of the history of their discipline. More specifically, the goal is to help students to understand how politics, philosophy and economics came to be separate disciplines in the first place, thus requiring a degree such as PPE to try to reunite them. The animating hope is that students will then be well-positioned to develop their own syntheses of the disciplines over their next three years of study.
The course follows a chronological structure, beginning with the idea of the state c. 1650, then moving through classical political economy c. 1750-150, before concluding in the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the structuring tension between capitalism and socialism.
Course requirements
Restrictions
Restricted to students enrolled in the BPPE(Hons)
Course contact
Course staff
Timetable
The timetable for this course is available on the UQ Public Timetable.
Additional timetable information
This course comprises 12 lectures (beginning in Week 1 and finishing in Week 13, and 9 tutorials (beginning in Week 2 and finishing in Week 11).ﾠ
Aims and outcomes
The course has two aims:
I. To introduce students to the history of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics
II. To aid students in identifying intellectual and disciplinary relations between Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, and how they may be improved.ﾠ
Learning outcomes
After successfully completing this course you should be able to:
LO1.
Evaluate abstract arguments and ideas
LO2.
Relate a given piece of political economy to the history of PPE
LO3.
Speak and write persuasively using arguments from PPE
Assessment
Assessment summary
| Category | Assessment task | Weight | Due date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutorial/ Problem Set | Tutorial Exercises | 18% |
5/03/2025 - 21/05/2025 |
| Essay/ Critique | Research Essay | 50% |
2/05/2025 2:00 pm |
| Paper/ Report/ Annotation | Take-Home Assignment | 32% |
9/06/2025 - 13/06/2025
Due time: 2pm |
Assessment details
Tutorial Exercises
- Mode
- Written
- Category
- Tutorial/ Problem Set
- Weight
- 18%
- Due date
5/03/2025 - 21/05/2025
- Learning outcomes
- L01, L02, L03
Task description
Tutorial Exercises
Students are required to complete a worksheet in preparation for each week of tutorials. The worksheets consist of four reading comprehension questions and two speculative questions. Answers to the reading comprehension questions should be short (a word to a sentence in length); answers to the speculative question should be more expansive (a few sentences to a short paragraph). These questions will form the basis of tutorial discussions.
Each submission is worth 2 marks, 18 marks in total.
To receive the weekly mark, you must:
i) upload your answers to Turnitin by 5pm on the Wednesday before the weekly lecture and tutorial;
ii) answer 2 of the 4 comprehension questions correct and make a genuine effort to answer the speculative questions;
iii) attend the tutorial and participate meaningfully in discussion.
There will be no part marks, i.e. your mark each week will be either 2 or 0 (for your score will be treated as a proxy for the quality of your participation)
Missed tutorials due to illness will be counted if a doctor’s certificate is provided. If you are unable to attend due to technical issues or other unavoidable circumstances, e.g. your internet connection, you may a submit a 500-word summary of the weekly reading, along with answers to the questions. Please note that there will be a limit to the number of summaries that can be submitted in lieu of participation.
Assessment tasks are intended to evaluate a student’s abilities, skills, and knowledge. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the assessment instructions, assessments are to be completed without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Translation (MT). Failure to comply with this direction may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.
Submission guidelines
Deferral or extension
You cannot defer or apply for an extension for this assessment.
Research Essay
- Mode
- Written
- Category
- Essay/ Critique
- Weight
- 50%
- Due date
2/05/2025 2:00 pm
- Learning outcomes
- L01, L02, L03
Task description
Research Essay
This is the major assessment task for this course. It is worth 50% of the overall grade and should be 2000 words in length (+/-10%).
It asks you to choose one of the primary sources from Part I of the course – Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Thomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ Manifesto for the Communist Party or John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty – and undertake a detailed analysis of it.
More specifically, it asks you to:
i) Situate the text in its appropriate historical context (whether political, social and/or intellectual);
ii) Explain its content and analyse its major claims;
iii) Explore the significance of its argument in relation to the overall course theme, i.e. separation/unification of politics, philosophy and economics (or their relevant proxies, e.g. the state, happiness, the market).
Please note that the aim is not merely to present a good summary of the content (though that may form part of your analysis), but to develop a compelling argument about the text based on your consideration of these three aspects.
For this exercise, you will be expected to consider the source as a whole – and not just the brief excerpt read in preparation for class. This is not to say that you will need to cover every aspect of the text: both Leviathan and the Wealth of Nations, e.g., are more than 500 pages long! Rather, the expectation is that your reading will be targeted and directed; and indeed, one of criteria according to which you will be assessed will be your ability to identify the key arguments. In this respect, the course reading will be a good place to start!
This is a research essay, which means that you will be required both to engage directly with your chosen primary source to substantiate your claims and to consult appropriate secondary sources (i.e. chapters/articles/books about your sources) to help situate their arguments. Specifically, it is expected that no less than 10% of your essay should be direct quotes from your primary source with page numbers included (approximately 10 quotes). There is also the expectation that you engage no fewer than five secondary sources.
Assessment tasks are intended to evaluate a student’s abilities, skills, and knowledge. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the assessment instructions, assessments are to be completed without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Translation (MT). Failure to comply with this direction may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.
Submission guidelines
Assignments for this course will be submitted electronically via Blackboard and using Turnitin.
In uploading an assignment via Turnitin you are certifying that it is your original work, that it has not been copied in whole or part from another person or source except where this is properly acknowledged, and that it has not in whole or part been previously submitted for assessment in any other course at this or any other university.
When you successfully submit your assessment to Turnitin after previewing the uploaded document (to make sure that you have chosen the correct file), you should see the “Submission Complete!” message. After this, a downloadable Digital Receipt will display on your Assignment Dashboard. It is your responsibility to download the Digital Receipt as proof of submission. Turnitin will not send this receipt to you automatically.
If you don’t see the downloadable receipt on your assignment dashboard, you should regard your submission as unsuccessful.
If the submission was not successful:
- Note the error message (preferably take a screenshot).
- Go to your assignment page and see if it is possible to submit again.
- If you cannot submit again, then email your course coordinator immediately.
Deferral or extension
You may be able to apply for an extension.
Late submission
A penalty of 10% of the maximum possible mark will be deducted per 24 hours from time submission is due for up to 7 days. After 7 days, you will receive a mark of 0.
Unless an extension is granted, penalties for late submission apply. Students are penalised 10% of the maximum possible mark allocated for the assessment item for every calendar day that an assessment item is late.
Marks will be deducted each day for up to 7 calendar days, at which point the submitted item will not receive any marks unless an extension has been approved. Each 24-hour block is triggered from the time the submission is due.
Take-Home Assignment
- Mode
- Written
- Category
- Paper/ Report/ Annotation
- Weight
- 32%
- Due date
9/06/2025 - 13/06/2025
Due time: 2pm
- Learning outcomes
- L01, L02, L03
Task description
Take-Home Assignment
This is a summative assessment task that asks you to provide a response of 1500 words (+/-10%) to a question relevant to the PPES1101 course, using appropriate course materials to support your claims. You should refer to at least four of the set course readings in your response, with at least two of them being from Part II of the course. No additional research is required.
The prompt will be released on Blackboard at 12pm, June 9.
Sample question: Economics separated from politics and philosophy around the time of Smith. Is this true?
Note how the question is broad, but detailed evidence will be required to produce persuasive answers. In addition, some evidence will normally be available for both sides of the question, meaning that you need to show the reader how you weigh the evidence and then decide.
Assessment tasks are intended to evaluate a student’s abilities, skills, and knowledge. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the assessment instructions, assessments are to be completed without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Translation (MT). Failure to comply with this direction may constitute student misconduct under the Student Code of Conduct.
Submission guidelines
Assignments for this course will be submitted electronically via Blackboard and using Turnitin.
In uploading an assignment via Turnitin you are certifying that it is your original work, that it has not been copied in whole or part from another person or source except where this is properly acknowledged, and that it has not in whole or part been previously submitted for assessment in any other course at this or any other university.
When you successfully submit your assessment to Turnitin after previewing the uploaded document (to make sure that you have chosen the correct file), you should see the “Submission Complete!” message. After this, a downloadable Digital Receipt will display on your Assignment Dashboard. It is your responsibility to download the Digital Receipt as proof of submission. Turnitin will not send this receipt to you automatically.
If you don’t see the downloadable receipt on your assignment dashboard, you should regard your submission as unsuccessful.
If the submission was not successful:
- Note the error message (preferably take a screenshot).
- Go to your assignment page and see if it is possible to submit again.
- If you cannot submit again, then email your course coordinator immediately.
Deferral or extension
You may be able to apply for an extension.
The maximum extension allowed is 7 days. Extensions are given in multiples of 24 hours.
Late submission
A penalty of 10% of the maximum possible mark will be deducted per 24 hours from time submission is due for up to 7 days. After 7 days, you will receive a mark of 0.
Unless an extension is granted, penalties for late submission apply. Students are penalised 10% of the maximum possible mark allocated for the assessment item for every calendar day that an assessment item is late.
Marks will be deducted each day for up to 7 calendar days, at which point the submitted item will not receive any marks unless an extension has been approved. Each 24-hour block is triggered from the time the submission is due.
Course grading
Full criteria for each grade is available in the Assessment Procedure.
| Grade | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 (Low Fail) |
Absence of evidence of achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: None of the above criteria will have been met. This student will not have addressed the question, shown no or very little evidence of reading and minimal comprehension of the issues at hand. |
| 2 (Fail) |
Minimal evidence of achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: None of the above criteria will have been met. This student will not have addressed the question, shown no or very little evidence of reading and minimal comprehension of the issues at hand. |
| 3 (Marginal Fail) |
Demonstrated evidence of developing achievement of course learning outcomes Course grade description: Falls short of satisfying all basic requirements for a Pass. The student will have demonstrated a minimal grasp of the chosen topic and will have made an effort to establish a single major argument for the essay. The student will have employed some research which correlated with the argument and will have made a visible effort to achieve adequate grammar, spelling and punctuation. Evidence of attempting to achieve a recognisable narrative flow should appear throughout the assignment. This student will have addressed the question, showing evidence of required research and a basic grasp of the issues at hand. |
| 4 (Pass) |
Demonstrated evidence of functional achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: The student will have demonstrated an adequate grasp of the chosen topic and will have made a reasonable effort to provide evidence to support a visible argument. The student will have employed an adequate research base to support the argument and will have achieved a reasonable, if not completely coherent standard of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. A recognisable narrative flow should be sustained throughout the essay. This student will have answered the question, showing evidence of adequate research and a degree of understanding of the issues at hand. |
| 5 (Credit) |
Demonstrated evidence of proficient achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: The student will have demonstrated a sound grasp of the chosen topic and will have addressed the argument by providing suitable evidence to support an argument. The student will have employed a comprehensive research base that directly relates to the topic though it may not completely support the argument and will have achieved decent levels of competence in grammar, spelling, punctuation and narrative flow. This student will have answered the question in a direct, well supported fashion, showing evidence of some wide reading and a reasonable understanding of the issues at hand. |
| 6 (Distinction) |
Demonstrated evidence of advanced achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: The student will have demonstrated a very good grasp of the chosen topic and will have addressed the argument by providing a considerable amount of evidence to support a clearly stated argument. The student will have employed a reasonably extensive and well-organised research base to structure evidence in support of the argument and will have achieved a high level of competence in grammar, spelling, punctuation and narrative flow. This student will have answered the question in a direct, reasonably sophisticated fashion, employing wide research and showing a sound understanding of the issues at hand. |
| 7 (High Distinction) |
Demonstrated evidence of exceptional achievement of course learning outcomes. Course grade description: The student will have demonstrated a highly sophisticated grasp of the topic and will have succeeded in addressing the question by providing a high level of evidence to support a clearly stated argument.ﾠThe student will have employed an extensive and well organised research base to structure evidence in support of the argument and will have achieved impeccable levels of grammar, spelling, punctuation and narrative flow.ﾠThis student will have answered the question in a direct and elegant fashion, employing significant research and showing a deep understanding of the issues at hand. |
Additional course grading information
1.ﾠFailﾠ 1 - 19%
2. Failﾠ 20 - 44%
3. Failﾠ 45 – 49%
4. Passﾠ 50 - 64 %
5. Creditﾠ 65 - 74 %
6. Distinctionﾠ 75 - 84 %
7. High Distinctionﾠ 85 - 100 %
Supplementary assessment
Supplementary assessment is available for this course.
Additional assessment information
Word Length and Referencing
Unless otherwise indicated, in the case of written submissions with a specified word count, you are given a +10% leeway on the upper word limit. If your written submission is over this leeway limit, it will attract a 10 percentage point penalty. For example, if your essay is 1,500 words, you may write up to 1,650 before attracting a word count penalty. If your essay exceeds the upper word limit, it will attract a 10% word count penalty. Therefore, if your essay is worth 40 marks, you will lose 4 marks from your allotted grade. Unless specified, penalties only apply to exceeding the word length, not for failure to write a sufficient amount.
Students should note:
• The Author-date in-text referencing system will count toward the word length;
• References in the Footnote referencing system will not count toward the word length. If you are using footnotes, any content included in footnotes beyond the specific text reference will count towards the word length.
Marking Criteria/Rubric
Marking criteria and/or marking rubrics are available in the ‘Assessment’ folder on the Blackboard site for this course.
Learning resources
You'll need the following resources to successfully complete the course. We've indicated below if you need a personal copy of the reading materials or your own item.
Library resources
Find the required and recommended resources for this course on the UQ Library website.
Additional learning resources information
Essay Guide
The School of Political Science and International Studies Essay Guide can be downloaded from the School’s Student Support webpage.
The Guide sets out guidelines you should follow in preparing written assignments.
Essay Writing Assistance
The School of Political Science and International Studies schedules regular “drop-in” sessions designed to provide one-on-one advice and assistance in essay planning and writing.
There is no need to make an appointment and you are encouraged to bring your essay with you.
The day and time of these sessions will be finalised at the beginning of each semester and published on the Student Support webpage.
Student Services
Student services offer a variety of short courses during the semester which will help you improve your study, research and writing skills and thus your academic performance in this course.
Library Resources
UQ Library offers training in software, assignment writing, research skills, and publishing and research management.
The University’s library holdings for Political Science and International Studies are primarily located in the Central Library.
There is a help desk in the Library. Students are also welcome to contact the BEL/HASS Librarians for assistance.
Email: librarians@library.uq.edu.au
Learning activities
The learning activities for this course are outlined below. Learn more about the learning outcomes that apply to this course.
Filter activity type by
Please select
| Learning period | Activity type | Topic |
|---|---|---|
Week 1 (24 Feb - 02 Mar) |
Lecture |
Lecture 1. Introduction Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Week 2 (03 Mar - 09 Mar) |
Lecture |
Lecture 2. The State Part 1 begins Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 1. Hobbes Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 3 (10 Mar - 16 Mar) |
Lecture |
Lecture 3. Commercial Society Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 2. Smith Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 4 (17 Mar - 23 Mar) |
Lecture |
Lecture 4. Population Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 3. Malthus Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 5 (24 Mar - 30 Mar) |
Lecture |
Lecture 5. Class Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 4. Marx Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 6 (31 Mar - 06 Apr) |
Lecture |
Lecture 6. Liberty Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 5. Mill Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 7 (07 Apr - 13 Apr) |
Lecture |
Lecture 7. Imperialism Part II begins Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 6. Luxemburg Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 8 (14 Apr - 20 Apr) |
No student involvement (Breaks, information) |
READING WEEK No lectures or tutorials |
Mid-sem break (21 Apr - 27 Apr) |
No student involvement (Breaks, information) |
MID-SEMESTER BREAK No lectures or tutorials |
Week 9 (28 Apr - 04 May) |
Lecture |
Lecture 8. Enterprise Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 7. Schumpeter Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 10 (05 May - 11 May) |
Lecture |
Lecture 9. Aggregate Demand Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 8. Keynes Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 11 (12 May - 18 May) |
Lecture |
Lecture 10. The Market Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Tutorial |
Tutorial 9. Hayek Learning outcomes: L01, L02, L03 |
|
Week 12 (19 May - 25 May) |
Lecture |
Lecture 11. Capabilities Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Week 13 (26 May - 01 Jun) |
Lecture |
12. Course Review Learning outcomes: L01, L02 |
Policies and procedures
University policies and procedures apply to all aspects of student life. As a UQ student, you must comply with University-wide and program-specific requirements, including the:
- Student Code of Conduct Policy
- Student Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Procedure
- Assessment Procedure
- Examinations Procedure
- Reasonable Adjustments - Students Policy and Procedure
Learn more about UQ policies on my.UQ and the Policy and Procedure Library.