ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS-- RELP 2171
Section 5610 9:30-10:45 TTH ADM 303 Fall 2003
Dr. Seth Holtzman
office: ADM 313
hours: MW 3:30-5 (2nd & 4th Mondays); TTh 11-12 (if no meeting); F 2-5; & by appointment
phones: 637-4229 office; 637-4428 dept secretary; 636-9666 home
email:
SYLLABUS
Course Summary:
This course provides an introduction to environmental ethics, which is standardly thought of as the application of ethics to our relationship to the environment. However, environmental ethics is not at all simply applied ethics, and so we will not primarily be considering specific environmental issues such as pollution or overpopulation. The subject matter includes various theoretical questions, requring abstract thought, such as these:
-- Why environmental ethics at all? Isn't environmental science sufficient?
-- Whose responsibility is it to reach ethical judgments about the environment? Policy-makers? Citizens? Scientists?
-- What does "environment" mean? The natural environment? Human environment? The biological? The physical environment, too?
-- How does ethics apply to the environment? Do one or more of the major ethical theories help? Or is a new "ethics" needed? What are some of the major theories of environmental ethics?
-- What is our view of nature? Why does it cause us philosophical problems when it comes to applying ethical thought to the environment? What is the role of philosophy in environmental ethics?
Clearly, this course requires us to think about particular ethical issues as well as to think philosophically about ethics. Catawba's Ethics course (RELP 2170) is not a prerequisite for our course, so we need to discuss ethics per se. Roughly speaking, ethics is that area of the culture that deals with what we ought (not) to be and to do as persons (versus as the individuals we are). Unlike, say, science, ethics is a highly controversial and problematic area of the culture. Although we find ourselves committed to ethical judgments, many cultural critics have pointed out that we are not really comfortable in the arena of ethics. This will complicate our course even more.
Class format will be mostly lecture and guided discussion.
Requirements and grading:
1) Attendance is required; you cannot learn the course on your own. As part of lecture or for purposes of Socratic questioning, I may elicit some material from you. So you must keep up with the readings, that day's class, and the ongoing course. You need to be present, mentally active and prepared. Also, your participation through asking questions, raising relevant issues, and discussion is important. Class participation can raise your final grade by 1/3 of a grade.
2) Occasional writing assignments on the readings, usually a one-page essay. These essays help you wrestle with the readings and help me gauge how much you are absorbing. I encourage you to work on readings with classmates, if you choose. But on written assignments, separate and should come to your own thoughts. I will drop your lowest essay grade. Late essays will not be accepted. Missed essays get an "F". Together they count 20% of your grade.
3) A take-home essay midterm, testing your understanding up to that point of the readings, issues, and problems covered in the course. Tentatively, handed out on Oct. 16 and due on Oct. 23. Either computer-generated, or handwritten in a blue book; write in pen. 25% of your grade.
4) Small group work project: an 8-10 page analytical paper in which you examine a specific applied environmental issue (approved by me) using course ideas. Due the last day of class. I will lower the grade on late papers. 25% of your grade.
5) A final exam, testing your overall grasp of the course, not your memory of specific facts. I might pass out a list of study questions two weeks in advance. Blue book required; write in pen. Exam date: Saturday, Dec 6, 10:30am. 30% of your grade.
I expect you to complete assignments in a timely fashion. Other expectations about your written work: on the topic, typed, paginated, tidy (including bound), standard margins and fonts, and dark print. Your paper should have a cover page with your name, course name and number, date, my name, and a title ("My Paper" if you like). Your short essays need not have a cover page.
Criteria employed in evaluating written work include these:
** Is your work clearly written? Are its claims precise? Is it clearly structured? Does it have an explicit overall direction? Would it be intelligible to an interested student?
** How well do you understand and appreciate the complexity of the issue or problem you are addressing? To what extent have you made good use of the relevant concepts, distinctions, positions, and reasons included in course readings or brought out in lecture or in discussion?
** Is your work supported by good reasons? Are your claims and reasons throughout the paper consistent with each other? Have you anticipated and responded to any reasonable objections to your reasons or to your position?
Here is what the grades mean:
"A" Superior mastery
"B" Good mastery
"C" Satisfactory achievement
"D" Less than satisfactory achievement
"F" Unsatisfactory achievement; Failure to achieve minimum competency
A+ 97-100 B+ 87-89 C+ 77-79 D+ 67-69
A 93-96 B 83-86 C 73-76 D 63-66
A- 90-92 B- 80-82 C- 70-72 D- 60-62
I assign plus/minus grades, though A+ is not a possible final grade for the course. Grades can and should measure achievement only.
Texts:
1) Richard C. Foltz, ed., Worldviews, Religion and the Environment: A Global Anthology (Thomson Wadsworth, 2003). Abbreviated "WRE" in readings listed at end of this syllabus.
2) Fredrick A. Kaufman, Foundations of Environmental Philosophy: A Text With Readings (McGraw Hill, 2003) Abbreviated "FEP" in readings listed at end of this syllabus.
3) Handouts of articles and other pieces that I will provide.
Reading and taking notes:
I expect you to do all of the reading; you will need to, in order to do well in the course. Some of the material is easy and so accessible on your first attempt. Other assignments are quite taxing and will probably require multiple readings. I suggest the following strategy for any difficult reading: read it once quickly simply to get the gist; then read it carefully for details, not worrying about the overall picture; then read it normally, fitting the details into the overall picture.
Lectures will sometimes track the readings but may also range far afield. Come to class having done the readings. You are responsible for all of it; the final exam will be frightening if you have not read everything. Since lectures can cover material not in the readings, this is another reason to attend each class.
Most students take very sketchy notes. Perhaps they feel they cannot both take notes and listen, or perhaps they do not appreciate the value of taking notes. Learn to write while you listen; it not only can be done, it will enhance your grasp of what is being said. Take as many notes as you can, without losing too much of what is said. This class is not one in which you can get by with writing down only key terms and definitions. Your notes are an invaluable resource for understanding the course and for the final exam.
Absences and violations:
To keep attendance--and learn your names--I will institute a seating chart on the second day. You pick your seat; you may change it by notifying me. I will check attendance at the start of class. If late, you risk being counted absent. If you are persistently tardy, I will deliberately count you as absent.
Do not be absent from class; after 2, further absences lower your final grade incrementally. Missing more than 7 classes for other than an emergency is automatic grounds for an "F" (or an "I" if the circumstances dictate), regardless of your other grades. Sleeping or other forms of mental non-attendance count as an absence. Missing class the day before or after vacation counts double.
When absent, you are responsible for missed assignments and classroom material. Get notes from a classmate. If you still have questions, contact me.
Cheating, as well as falsifying an emergency to skip class or an assignment violates the Honor Code. So, too, does plagiarism, the act of employing a writer's words (or even the writer's ideas) without giving the writer due credit. See me if you have any question about borrowing someone's ideas or words for your use.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS
A) Introduction: Philosophy and Environmental Ethics
1) the nature of philosophy (versus science)
2) the nature of ethics and why environmental ethics
3) why we need environmental ethics, and why it requires an understanding of philosophy
readings:
Adams, Philosophy and the Modern Mind, pp.10-12
Adams, "Philosophy and the Cultural Mind", and "Categorial Analysis", The
Metaphysics of Self and World, pp. 24-7, 34-9.
Adams, Ethical Naturalism and the Modern World-View, pp.16-8, 18-9, 25-6.
Kaufman, FEP, pp1-8
Peter List: "Environmental Advocacy by Environmental Scientists"
Mark A. Hixon: "Environmental Advocacy: Dilemma of the Citizen-Scientist"
Thomas Mills: "Position Advocacy by Scientists at Best Risks Science Credibility and at
Worst is Unethical"
Stan Gregory: "Ethics and Advocacy: Conduct of Scientists and Sense of Community"
Kristin Shrader-Frechette: "Justice and Environmental Advocacy"
Frederick J. Swanson: Advocacy by Scientists -- A Federal Scientists's view"
Laura Westra: Advocacy as a Moral Obligation
Kathleen Dean Moore: "The Missing Premise"
Holmes Rolston: "Environmental Science and Environmental Ethics"
Shannon, Meidinger, & Clark: "Science Advocacy is Inevitable: Deal With It"
B) The Ecological Crisis and its basis in our modern worldview
4) the dimensions of the crisis: our view of nature and our treatment of nature
WRE, pp.38-66
5) our modern metaphysics and epistemology
Adams, "The Metaphysics of Modern Western Culture", Religion & Cultural Freedom,
pp.93-109
6) modern science, technology, and the environment
Schumacher, chapter 2 "The Proper Use of Land", Small is Beautiful, pp.103-17
Berman,"The Birth of Modern Scientific Consciousness", pp.13-35 and "Consciousness
& Society in Early Modern Europe", The Reenchantment of the World, pp.37-55
7) economics, politics, and the environment
Schumacher, Introduction (by Roszak), Chapters 1-4, Small is Beautiful, pp.1-22, 40-62
Adams, "Humanizing the Economic Enterprise", A Society Fit for Human Beings,
pp.127-53
FEP, pp.350-374
WRE, pp. 66-75, 561-590
8) modern naturalism and modern approaches to ethics
-- religious justification for our view of nature
-- utilitarianism
FEP, pp.9-11
-- Kantianism
FEP, pp.11-15
9) responses to modern ethics
FEP, pp.78-136
C. Response to the crisis: New conceptions of nature and ethics
10) Nature in pre-modern thought
WRE, pp.79-111
11) Pre-modern ethics
12) a new view of nature: ecology
FEP, pp.36-67
13) apparent philosophical implications of ecology
14) "animo-centrist" ethics:
FEP, pp.141-190
15) biocentric ethics:
FEP, pp.194-244
16) ecocentric ethics: the "land ethic", deep ecology
FEP, pp.246-310; 377-386, 390-416
WRE, pp. 430-31, 434-46
17) new anthropocentric ethics:
FEP, pp.315-347
18) new ethics: ecofeminism
FEP, pp.386-390, 416-431
WRE, pp.456-492
19) new ethics: eco-religion
WRE, pp.10-30, 279-317, 318-356
20) ethics and reality
WRE, pp.524-554