A new interdisciplinary major at Virginia Tech fosters high-level critical thinking to arrive at solutions that are not only economically sound, but also socially, ethically, and politically informed. The philosophy, politics, and economics major is a collaboration across three departments.

“The major attracts driven students in the humanities and social sciences who have a genuine interest in working across disciplines and a desire to engage with cutting-edge, socially relevant research,” said Michael Moehler, an associate professor of philosophy and director of Virginia Tech’s Program in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

Moehler cites Nicholas Work as the embodiment of the interdisciplinary spirit of the program. Work, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2018 with degrees in business management and political science, is now a master’s student in the Department of Political Science, where he researches the dynamics of the sharing economy.

“Our students read thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant, who all have identified something essential about the human condition that transcends time,” Moehler said. “The philosophers’ ideas were relevant for their own generations, and they are relevant today.”