The Certificate in Ethics and Society aims to provide students with a broad background in ethics and social philosophy. The objective of the certificate is for students to competently navigate questions of social and ethical values on a wide range of issues. The program is structured to foster a deep understanding of both the theoretical foundations and the practical applications of ethics. By allowing choice from a wide range of courses in ethics, the certificate provides students the opportunity to gain experience making and assessing value judgments on a variety of important social issues or to focus on the particular issues most relevant to their major or their area of interest. The certificate is open to students in any major or minor. 

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  1. Analyze the sources of agreement and disagreement among the major schools of thought in ethics.
  2. Apply ethical frameworks from each of the major schools of thought in ethics to solve ethical problems.
  3. Extract, analyze, and reconstruct arguments from major texts in ethics, both historical and contemporary.
  4. Evaluate ethical arguments in terms of both soundness and validity.
  5. Demonstrate the application of basic ethical concepts and principles to ethical problems.
  6. Explain the theoretical rationale behind principles in professional and practical ethics.
  7. Assess current challenges to ethics and describe current conflicts within ethics.
  8. Demonstrate skills in written and oral presentation, engaging in fruitful oral discussion, debate, and formal presentations that are logically coherent, clearly and concisely stated, and accessible to their peers on topics within ethics.

Effective Fall 2023

Additional coursework may be required due to prerequisites.

PHIL 205Introduction to Ethics3
Select 12 credits from the following: 112
PHIL 103
Moral and Social Problems (GT-AH3)
PHIL 104/ANEQ 104
Values, Culture, and Food Animal Agriculture
PHIL 130
Bioethics and Society
PHIL 201/CS 201
Ethical Computing Systems (GT-AH3)
PHIL 240
Philosophies of Peace and Nonviolence
PHIL 305A
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Business Ethics
PHIL 305B
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Medical Life Science
PHIL 305C
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Caring Professions
PHIL 305D
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Engineering
PHIL 305E
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Animal Science
PHIL 305F
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Information Science
PHIL 305G
Philosophical Issues in the Professions: Research Ethics
PHIL 312
Philosophy of Law
PHIL 320
Ethics of Sustainability
PHIL 322
Biomedical Ethics
PHIL 330/AGRI 330
Agricultural and Food System Ethics
PHIL 345
Environmental Ethics
PHIL 350
Social and Political Philosophy
PHIL 353
Feminist Philosophies
PHIL 366
Philosophy of Aging
PHIL 447
Ethical Theory
Program Total Credits:15
1

 At least 9 credits must be from upper-division (300- to 400-level) courses.