The Philosophy Department, in coordination with the Center for Ethics and Values, provides ethics training for students, postdocs, and faculty from across the university.
Undergraduate Certificates in Ethics and Values
Philosophy, Ethics, & Value Certificate
This certificate will be useful for students looking to gain a strong background in understanding the nature of ethics, ethical theory, and what makes things have value more generally, and particularly for students who aim either to pursue graduate study or seek employment in ethics-related fields, such as philosophy, law, public policy, bioethics and medical ethics. For students applying for graduate study in medicine, medical schools are increasingly emphasizing the importance of an ethics background for students seeking admission to medical school.
Students must complete (1) a three-credit 100 or 200 level philosophy course to meet philosophy upper division course prerequisites, and (2) either PHIL 350 (Ethical Theory) or PHIL 353 (Morality and Psychology (each three credits), and (3) three additional courses from the following list (each three credits):
- PHIL 350: Ethical Theory
- PHIL 351: Well-Being and Happiness
- PHIL 353: Morality and Psychology
- PHIL 354: Ethics, Animals, and the Environment
- PHIL 357: Philosophy and Human Rights
- PHIL 358: Bioethics
- PHIL 359: Ethics, Integrity, and Scientific Research
- PHIL 368: Aesthetics
- PHIL 450: Metaethics
- PHIL 451: Consequentialism and its Critics
- PHIL 452: Advanced Topics in Ethics
- PHIL 453: The Ethics of Aggregation
- PHIL 457: Harm in Morality and Law
- PHIL 471: Freedom, Determinism, and Responsibility
- PHIL 482: Aristotle’s Ethics
- PHIL 486: Kant’s Moral and Political Philosophy
Philosophy, Law, & Politics Certificate
This certificate will be useful for students looking to gain a strong background in the philosophical foundations of law, legal studies, political theory and public policy, and particularly those students who aim to attend law school or pursue graduate studies in fields related to law, policy, or politics, or who plan to seek employment in these fields.
Students must complete (1) a three-credit 100 or 200 level philosophy course to meet philosophy upper division course prerequisites, and (2) either PHIL 356 (Philosophy of Law) or PHIL 355 (Political Philosophy) (each three credits), and (3) three additional courses from the following list (each three credits):
- PHIL 354: Ethics, Animals, and the Environment
- PHIL 355: Political Philosophy
- PHIL 356: Philosophy of Law
- PHIL 357: Philosophy and Human Rights
- PHIL 358: Bioethics
- PHIL 456: Justice and Climate Change
- PHIL 457: Harm in Morality and Law
- PHIL 471: Freedom, Determinism, and Responsibility
- PHIL 486: Kant’s Moral and Political Philosophy
- PHIL 487: Hegel and Marx
Declaration of Certificate
To sign up for a particular certificate, please complete the declaration form:
Declaration of Certificate Form
Completed forms should be scanned and submitted electronically as an attachment to https://registrar.umbc.edu/RT/Records/ via your myUMBC.
The Center for Ethics and Values helps to coordinate ethics training for faculty, postdocs, and graduate students across the university taught by experts with advanced degrees in Philosophy.
Fall 2024 Responsible Conduct of Research Microcredential Series
Ethics Training Collaborations
The Center for Ethics and Values helps facilitate collaborations between experts in Ethics and others across the campus on research and grants related to ethics training. Please contact the Center’s Director, Dr. Whitney Schwab, with questions: wschwab@umbc.edu.
