Available to students in any major, UO’s Minor in Ethics is designed to enhance the capacities of critical thinking, social engagement, and reflection on major moral issues that are the hallmarks of ethical inquiry. Offered through the Philosophy Department, this Minor will prepare students with a full suite of tools for critical reflection that will help them to address the major moral challenges of the 21st century that they are bound to meet with in careers in business, science, journalism, advocacy, nonprofit work, law, and all aspects of health care.

Easy Structure

The Ethics Minor has a straightforward structure that is meant to easily fit into students’ busy courses of study in their elected major. Students take one core course in ethics plus five additional ethics-related electives. It’s that simple.

The core course requirement is designed to give students a foundation in ethical inquiry and moral reasoning—it can be fulfilled with either PHIL 102 ‘Introduction to Ethics’ or PHIL 323 ‘Advanced Moral Theory’ (both courses are offered at least once per year, and typically more frequently). The five ethics electives can be chosen from a menu of more than twenty standard course offerings with even more options every term amongst rotating topics courses (meaning there will always be multiple ethics-related electives every term). Click on the link above to explore the full list of course offerings.

Requirements:

In addition to meeting all University of Oregon Requirements for a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science Degree, students must meet the following requirements to complete an Ethics Minor:

1. Credits, Course Levels and Grades:

24 credits earned by completing six courses on the large Approved Ethics Minor Course List.

• Upper Division: At least 12 of these credits must be earned from Upper-Division courses (300 or 400-level), with at least 4 of those credits from a 400-level course.
• Residence: At least 12 of these credits must be from courses taken in residence (i.e. at UO).
• Grades: A grade of C- or better is required for a course to count for the minor. At least 16 of the total 24 credit-hours must be graded; the remainder can be taken as pass/no pass.

2. Required Course:

Core Ethics: Out of six courses, at least one must be one of the following:

• PHIL 102: Ethics
• PHIL 323: Moral Theory
• An approved alternative course from another institution

Ethics Minor Requirements Checklist:

• DOC
• PDF

Want More Information?

More details can be found in the ‘Got Ethics?: An Introduction to UO’s Ethics Minor’ informational slides. You can also email the UO Ethics Minor Director at ethicsminor@uoregon.edu.

Declare a Minor in Ethics

To declare a Minor in Ethics just click the link above which will send you to a page where you can declare your Minor in Ethics. Students taking any major (including Philosophy) can declare the minor in Ethics; as well, majors from other departments can minor in both Philosophy and Ethics. Philosophy majors and minors can have a maximum two-course overlap with their ethics-minor-qualifying courses.