Undergraduate award: Certificate in Philosophy: Metaphysics, Philosophy of Language and Ethics

Open philosophical book with a pen resting in the center, pages slightly curved, and a softly blurred background.

Do you enjoy thinking about the nature of reality, how we should treat one another, what we should believe in, what it is possible for us to know, or what it takes to be a person? This course is a chance to delve deeper into these and many more fascinating questions, supported by expert tutors.

Why choose this course with us?

Learn at Cambridge, whatever your experience: this is an open-entry course
Access Cambridge teaching in a flexible format: part-time and online
Gain a credited, Cambridge award: boost your learning and career opportunities
Join our peer-learning and Cambridge alumni communities: connection and support, for life

Course Dates

Course information

Course highlights

During this part-time online certificate course, you will:

build your understanding of some central topics in 3 areas: metaphysics; logic and the philosophy of language; and ethics
develop your ability to think carefully and rigorously about some important philosophical problems
develop key study and writing skills

As part of our learning community, you will:

engage in discussion with a diverse group of adult learners
receive specialised support from experts, not just in philosophy, but in adult learning
receive access to bespoke skills resources to better aid you in learning new critical and analytic skills
be invited and encouraged to engage with the wider resources of the University of Cambridge

Course breakdown

This course will run from 9 October 2026 to 9 June 2027.

Each term's teaching usually takes place on Sundays between 2pm and 5pm (GMT/BST). Exact teaching dates and times will be confirmed in the course guide upon enrolment.

Michaelmas term: Ethics

Course (unit 1) start date: 9 October 2026
Unit 1 end date: 6 January 2027

This unit will introduce you to philosophical ethics in theory and in application. We begin by considering three dominant schools of thought in moral philosophy: utilitarianism, which finds morality in the best state of affairs possible; deontology, which finds morality in the fulfilment of moral duties and the purity of intentions; and virtue ethics, which treats ethics not as a question of what we should do in particularly perplexing moral situations, but as a question of what it means to be a good person and live a good life. The question of a good life leads us to topic 2, in which we consider whether a well-lived life must include more than just being moral, and what we should do when morality threatens to hold us back. Why be moral when there are so many other things we could be? With some of the main philosophical positions in ethics established, we then move to consider how they apply to practical problems. In topic 3 we look at medical ethics, discussing some of the fundamental ethical concepts in medicine such as patient autonomy and consent, and some of the most challenging ethical decisions in medical practice, including decisions about how to treat patients at the end of life and how to handle irreconcilable conflicts between what patients want and what is good for them. Finally in topic 4 we consider what philosophical ethics can say about arguably the greatest challenge of our time, the climate crisis, and focus specifically on what lessons we might learn from environmental ethics.

Lent term: Introduction to logic and the philosophy of language

Unit 2 starts: week commencing 4 January 2027
Unit 2 end date: 24 March 2027

When deciding whether an argument is good or bad, one thing we want to know is whether its conclusion follows from its premises. Formal logic is a language within which we can formulate arguments clearly and test whether they are valid or invalid. It also provides a system which can enable us to unpack the structure of the claims we make in order to clarify what we are saying. In this unit you will learn how to translate sentences and arguments into and from formal logic. You will begin learning how arguments are evaluated by attributing truth-values to their components, and how to use some elements of propositional and quantificational logic – sentences, connectives, names and variables, quantifiers and operators. At the same time, we will consider the philosophical issues raised by our formal language. Are there elements of natural language which formal translations cannot capture? How do sentences get their meanings? Are there any sentences which are neither true nor false? To what extent can logic help in deciding what we should believe in?

Easter term: Metaphysics

Unit 3 starts: Week commencing 29 March 2027  
Unit 3 end date: 9 June 2027

In this unit we will address philosophical problems concerning time, space, possibility, personal identity, and the relations between objects and their properties. We’ll consider questions such as: Do past people exist? Do future people exist? If so, is there any metaphysical difference between us and them? What does it mean to say that times change from being future to being past? What makes you the same person today as you were yesterday? Is there anything which could have existed but does not? And if it doesn’t exist, then what is it? Are there things which exist but are not part of the actual world? Are persons and other objects simply collections of their traits and characteristics? Or are there also underlying substances to which these traits and characteristics are attached? What is space? Is it a real thing in its own right? Or is it just a way in which things are arranged? Does anything exist which is not in space and time?

After the course

If you enjoyed this course, you might be interested in the complementary Undergraduate Certificate in Philosophy: History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind and Political Philosophy. Students who have successfully completed both courses can apply to be awarded the Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education in Philosophy, worth 120 credits at level 4. You may also be interested in applying to the Diploma in Creativity Theory, History and Philosophy or the Diploma in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.