Course Description
This course will examine the major themes and figures in environmental philosophy and ethics. Topics to be considered include: the nature of the world, the nature of ethical reasoning, environmental virtue, deep ecology, ecofeminism, environmental justice, criteria for decision-making, and the ethics of professional life in environmental fields.
Description & Rationale
In the last 30-40 years environmental ethics has developed into a major field of learning and research. Clearly inspired by a growing environmental consciousness, this branch of moral philosophy elucidates the conditions for humanity’s good and appropriate life within ecosystems.
As the field has grown a variety of approaches have been developed. This course will survey some of the leading contenders: utilitarian/consequentialist, deontological, virtue, ecofeminist, biocentric, bioregional, and deep ecology approaches. Beyond providing a survey, however, this course will engage students to assess the value of these approaches by considering their application in diverse area of environmental action (for example, in areas like climate change, habitat restoration, species and land preservation, urban sprawl, etc.).
This course will also have as a focus a description of the practical and socio-political conditions necessary for the health of humans and ecosystems together. In other words, we will explore together the making of good philosophy but also a good culture. While much of human development has presupposed the exploitation of other people and ecosystems, this course will ask students to examine the requirements of mutual health and mutual flourishing. As an aid to this work we will also examine questions of environmental racism, environmental justice, the ethics of decision-making (especially in contexts of uncertainty and human ignorance), and the ethics of action (eco-terrorism) and environmental professions.
Course Texts
Wendell Berry’s The Art of the Commonplace (Counterpoint) AC
Val Plumwood’s Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason (Routledge) EC
Andrew Light & Holmes Rolston’s Environmental Ethics: An Anthology (Blackwell) EE
Course Schedule
Week 1– Introductions: Ethics in an Ecological Age (AC, 35-46; EC, 1-37; John O’Neill’s “Meta-Ethics” in A Companion to Environmental Philosophy; Roderick Nash’s “Ethical Extension and Radical Environmentalism” in The Rights of Nature, 3-12; EE, 15-37)
Week 2– Rethinking Culture (AC, 93-134, 182-204; EC, 62-122; Stan Rowe’s “Changing the Global Vision,” “Technology and Ecology,” and “Nature, Self, and Art” in Home Place, 50-73; Carolyn Merchant’s “Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative”)
Week 3– Rethinking Science (AC, 279-292; EC, 38-61; Carolyn Merchant’s “Dominion over Nature” in The Death of Nature, 164-190; Nancy Tuana’s “Revaluing Science: Starting from the Practices of Women”; Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species [excerpt])
Week 4– Anthropocentric approaches? (EC, 123-142, 167-195; EE, 55-64; Richard Watson’s “A Critique of Anti-Anthropocentric Ethics” in P’s Environmental Ethics, 205-212; Val Plumwood’s “Paths beyond Human-Centeredness”; Brian Barry’s “Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice” [EE, 487-499]; Brundtland Report–Executive Summary)
Week 5– Biocentric approaches (Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” [EE, 38-46] & “Thinking Like a Mountain”; J. Baird Callicott’s “The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic”; Holmes Rolston’s “Value in Nature and the Nature of Value” [EE, 143-153]; Harley Cahen’s “Against the Moral Considerability of Ecosystems” [EE, 114-128]; John O’Neill’s “The Varieties of Intrinsic Value” [EE, 131-142])
Week 6– Deep Ecology (EC, 196-217; Warwick Fox’s “Deep Ecology: A New Philosophy of our Time?”; Arne Naess’s “The Deep Ecological Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects” EE, 252-274)
Week 7– Ecofeminism (Greta Gaard & Lori Gruen’s “Ecofeminism: Toward Global Justice and Planetary Health”; Karen Warren & Jim Cheney’s “Ecological Feminism and Ecosystem Ecology” EE, 276-305; Huey-li Li’s “A Cross-Cultural Critique of Ecofeminism”; Greta Gaard’s “Ecofeminism and Native American Cultures: Pushing the Limits of Cultural Imperialism”)
Week 8– Virtue approaches (Louke van Wensveen’s “The Emergence of Ecological Virtue Language”; Holmes Rolston’s “Environmental Virtue Ethics”; Philip Cafaro’s “Gluttony, Arrogance, Greed, and Apathy: An Exploration of Environmental Vice”; Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking”)
Week 9– Environmental Pragmatism (Anthony Weston’s “Beyond Intrinsic Value: Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics”; Ben Minteer and Robert Manning’s “Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics: Democracy, Pluralism, and the Management of Nature” EE, 307-330; Andrew Light’s “The Case for Practical Pluralism” EE, 229-247; “Ecological Restoration and the Culture of Nature: A Pragmatic Perspective” EE, 398-411)
Week 10– Sacred or secular? (AC, 293-320; EC, 218-235; Steven Weinberg’s “Without God” at https://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/sep/25/without-god/?pagination=false; Lynn White’s “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”; Bron Taylor’s “Dark Green Religion”)
Week 11– Environmental Justice: Rethinking Economy (AC, 207-275; EC, 143-166; Murray Bookchin’s “Social Ecology Versus Deep Ecology” in P’s Environmental Ethics, 212-222; Figueroa & Mills’ “Environmental Justice” in A Companion to Environmental Philosophy; John Cobb’s “Toward a Just and Sustainable Economic Order” EE, 359-370; Nickel & Viola’s “Integrating Environmentalism and Human Rights” EE, 472-477)
Week 12– Decision and action in the contexts of uncertainty and ignorance (Henrick Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People”; Wes Jackson’s “Toward an Ignorance-Based Worldview” and Wendell Berry’s “The Way of Ignorance” both in The Virtues of Ignorance, 21-50; Holmes Rolston’s “Feeding People versus Saving Nature?” EE, 451-462)
Week 13– Eco-terrorism? Acting professionally (Dave Foreman’s “Strategic Monkeywrenching”)