A project led by Elena Leontjeva at the Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) aims to advance and disseminate an integrative understanding of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE), clarifying how free markets function as an organic system of social cooperation that supports human flourishing and prosperity. It responds to an erosion of confidence in free markets, attributed to philosophical confusion about markets, human cooperation, and state-society relationships.

Economics, as a discipline, has become overly compartmentalized, often treated as an autonomous, technical domain detached from the broader currents of human culture. Economic education frequently neglects the deeper philosophical premises around concepts such as scarcity, liberty, and reciprocity, leaving many people to see free markets as ideologies devoid of moral concerns and in need of state intervention. However, this project sees the current landscape as an opportunity to reset the narrative, taking an integrative approach that views markets as an organic system of social cooperation and an indispensable space for human ingenuity, reciprocity, social cooperation, and wealth creation.

Building on LFMI’s prior work, this project aims to reconnect economic thinking to ontological, anthropological, and epistemological foundations. It seeks to reestablish conceptual links across PPE and advance coherent methodological approaches for integrative PPE in instruction and policymaking.The work will convene an interdisciplinary cohort, build a durable network, and translate scholarship into practical training materials for educators and policy professionals across multiple settings.

The project proceeds in three phases. Conceptual Development includes two scholarly seminars exploring foundational materials on the philosophical premises of economics. Content Development processes seminar insights to publish core essays, design and publish a methodological framework, and develop educational programs through seminar proceedings, a co-creation event, and a program design workshop. Program Design and Dissemination pilots faculty and policy bootcamps, creates introductory video courses, and supports participating faculty in enhancing integrated PPE curricula.