The environmental challenges facing the world today are urgent and complex. A variety of approaches have been enacted or proposed to address these problems, ranging from practical efforts to organize for justice to conceptual attempts to shift how we view our world. All of these approaches have particular strengths and weaknesses, and all raise important questions. The purpose of this introductory course is to survey ethical to environmental problems and to examine the central moral questions such problems raise. We will cover traditional, “mainstream” environmental ethical responses as well as more recent alternatives to and criticisms of those responses. Discussion will include concrete case studies as well as theoretical foundations, and the final essay will seek to place the theories in the context of concrete environmental problems.
Learning Goals
On completing this course, students will be able to:
- Articulate the moral questions raised by environmental problems and describe a variety of responses to those questions.
- Characterize the strengths and weaknesses associated with environmental ethical and theological perspectives
- Express confidently their own views on these perspectives, reflecting the complexity of these issues
- Apply environmental ethical and theological theories to a concrete environmental problem
Required Texts
Light, Andrew and Holmes Rolston III. Environmental Ethics: An Anthology (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003).
Haskell, David George. The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).
Optional Books
Gustafson, James. A Sense of the Divine: The Natural Environment from a Theocentric Perspective (Boston, MA: The Pilgrim Press, 1996). (This title is out of print, but on reserve in the library. You’re welcome to use the library copy, or look for it online – it’s not expensive, and a nice little book to have.)
Kaoma, Kapya John. God’s Family, God’s Earth: Christian Ecological Ethics of Ubuntu (Zomba, Malawi: Kachere Series, 2013). (This one is also on reserve, but if you’d like to purchase this and support a Zambian Anglican ethicist [and friend of mine and Bishop Tengatenga’s], copies are available from Bishop Tengatenga.)
Readings
- Week 1- Intro: Problems and Origins of Environmental Ethics: Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” in Light and Rolston
- Week 2- Value in Environmental Ethics: Anthropocentric/Nonanthropocentric Theories: John O’Neill, “The Varieties of Intrinsic Value,” Holmes Rolston, “Value in Nature and the Nature of Value,” and Bryan Norton, “Environmental Ethics and Weak Anthropocentrism,” in Light and Rolston
- Week 3- Interlude: Local Ecology: David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen, Preface, Jan. 1, Feb. 2, March 13 (Hepatica), April 2 (Chainsaw), May 25, July 27, August 1, August 8, October 5, December 31, Epilogue (Guest instructor: David George Haskell)
- Week 4- Value in Environmental Ethics: Deep Ecology and Religious Valuing : Warwick Fox, “Deep Ecology,” in Light and Rolston; James Gustafson, Sense of the Divine, Ch. 1, “The Sense of the Divine,” Ch. 3, “A Comparative Interlude”
- Week 5- Religion: Part of the Problem/Part of the Solution?: Lynn White “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” & David Loy “Religion of the Market” (Both on Blackboard); Wendell Berry, “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” in The Art of the Commonplace; Kapya John Kaoma, God’s Family, God’s Earth, 1-12.
- Week 6- Agrarianism: Wendell Berry, “The Agrarian Standard”, and Norman Wirzba, “Placing the Soul,” both in The Essential Agrarian Reader; bell hooks, “Reclamation and Reconciliation” in belonging. (Class will meet at the university farm, weather permitting)
- Week 7- Religion: Statements from Religious Traditions: Pope Francis, Laudato Si, Chs. 4, 6; O. P. Dwivedi, “Satyagraha for Conservation” (Both on Blackboard); Kapya John Kaoma, God’s Family, God’s Earth, 91-107 add Jenkins, “After Lynn White,”- or do this for pragmatism?- focus on Laudato Si for whole class?
- Week 8- Sustainability: John B. Cobb, Jr., “Toward a Just and Sustainable Economic Order,” in Light and Rolston; Willis Jenkins, “Sustainability Theory” (On Blackboard) (Guest Instructor: Kevin Hiers, Sewanee Director of Environmental Stewardship)
- Week 9- Pragmatism: Willis Jenkins, The Future of Ethics, Ch. 4; Ben A. Minteer and Robert E. Manning, “Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics,” in Light and Rolston
- Week 10- Case Study: The Tennessee River: Zygmunt Plater, “Endangered Species Act Lessons,” Leroy Poff and David Hart, “How Dams Vary and Why it Matters,” C. J. Vorosmarty et. al., “Global Threats to Human Water Security and River Biodiversity”, all on Blackboard; guest instructor, Dr. Anna George, Director and Chief Research Scientist, Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute
- Week 11- Environmental Ethics from the Margins: Greta Gaard and Lori Gruen, “Ecofeminism,” in Light and Rolston; Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gaia and God, Ch. 10; Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor, Ch. 5
- Week 12 – Environmental Justice: Willis Jenkins, The Future of Ethics, Ch. 5.; Marie D. Hoff, Sustainable Community Development, pp. 106-116; Yolanda Putman, “Chattanooga: Stop Toxic Pollution leader leaves group”, Chattanooga Times Free Press, June 21, 2009 (On Blackboard)
- Week 13- Political ecology: Paul Robbins, Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction, Chs. 1, 3