The Cambridge University Course
Students who come to Cambridge to study philosophy take the Philosophy Tripos. This is divided into three parts, Part IA, Part IB, and Part II, each of which takes a year.
In the first year, students take papers in Metaphysics (covering topics like the mind-body problem, free will, our knowledge of the external world), Ethics (which includes ethics, political philosophy and metaethics), and Logic (an introduction to formal logic, but also covering some topics in the philosophy of language). There is also a Set Texts paper (looking at selected works by Plato, Hume and Mill), and a general Essay paper.
In the second year, students take two compulsory papers, on Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Mind, and on Logic. Students also choose two further papers from Ethics, Political Philosophy, History of Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, Ancient Philosophy, and Empirical Psychology. All students also take a general Essay paper.
In the third year, students select any four papers from a menu of about eleven papers, and again also do a general Essay paper.
Throughout, assessment is by conventional examination, except that students can elect to submit extended essays in lieu of one paper in Part IB, and extended essays or a dissertation in lieu of one paper in Part II.
Although the three parts of the Tripos make an integrated course, it is possible to take each part separately, and thus to combine the study of philosophy at Cambridge with that of another subject. For example, one can study Part IA Mathematics and then do Part IB Philosophy; or, reversing the order, one can do Parts IA and IB Philosophy, and then do Part II Social and Political Studies in one’s final year. Combinations of this kind are quite normal, though permission to transfer between Triposes will of course depend on a student’s ability.
Lectures for the Philosophy Tripos are provided by the university. But the centre of gravity of a student’s philosophical life remains the weekly essay done for his or her supervisor. Supervisions are arranged by the college Director of Studies, but this does not mean that they happen in college: most of a student’s supervisors will be members of other colleges. In Philosophy, one-to-one supervisions are most usual, but sometimes supervisions are done in pairs.