PL 545: Concept of Natural Value

 

Fall 2001  
Dr. Rolston  

Aug. 23.  First class.  Orientation and Introduction.

Aug. 30 - Unit I -  Intrinsic Value in Nature

Rolston, Value in Nature and the Nature of Value
Lee, Source and Locus of Intrinsic Value
John O'Neill, The Varieties of Intrinsic Value
Rolston, Naturalizing Values: Organisms and Species
Hettinger, Comments on Rolston's `Naturalizing Values'

Sept. 6  - Unit II  --  Intrinsic Value: Epistemological Troubles

Callicott, Rolston on Intrinsic Value: A Deconstruction
Norton, Epistemology and Environmental Values
Preston, Epistemology and Intrinsic Values: Norton and Callicott on
Rolston
Rolston, "F/Actual Knowing: Putting Facts and Values in Place"

Sept. 13 - Unit III -- Subjective and Objective Troubles

Eugene C. Hargrove, Weak Anthropocentric Intrinsic Value
Partridge, Values in Nature: Is Anybody There?
Rolston, Values at Stake: Does Anything Matter? (reply)
Partridge, Discovering a World of Values (reply)
 
Sept. 20 - Unit IV  -  Living Organisms, Trees

Goodpaster, On Being Morally Considerable
Attfield, The Good of Trees
Agar, Biocentrism and the Concept of Life

Sept. 27 - Unit V --  Animal Values

Johnson, Do Animals Have an Interest in Life?
Weir, Are Animals Virtuous?
Fuller, The Messes Animals Make in Metaphysics
Carruthers, Brute Experience
Jamieson and Bekoff, Carruthers on Nonconscious Experience

Oct. 4  - Unit VI -- Endangered Species versus Hungry People

Rolston, Feeding People versus Saving Nature
Attfield, Saving Nature, Feeding People and Ethics
Brennan, Poverty, Puritanism and Environmental Conflict
Rolston, Saving Nature, Feeding People, and the Foundations of Ethics

Take-home midterm exam given out

Oct. 11 - Mid-term due, and discussed, defended in class

Oct. 18 - Unit VII --  Wilderness Troubles     (Dr. Rolston in Portugal)

Callicott, The Wilderness Idea Revisited
Rolston, The Wilderness Idea Reaffirmed
Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature
Callicott, a Critique of and an Alternative to the Wilderness Idea
Noss, Wilderness--Now More than Ever (response)
Foreman, Wilderness Areas Are Vital (response)
Callicott, Deep Grammar (response to responses)

Oct. 25 - Unit VIII  --  Ecology Troubles

Sagoff, Ethics, Ecology and the Environment:
  Integrating Science and Law.
       Warning: long article!
Partridge, Reconstructing Ecology

Nov. 1 - Unit IX  --  Nature and Culture

Rolston, Nature and Culture in Environmental Ethics
Michael, How to Interfere With Nature
Sprugel, Disturbance, Equilibrium ... What is "Natural" Vegetation?
Rolston, Natural and Unnatural; Wild and Cultural

Nov. 8 -  Unit X - Pristine and Inhabited Nature

Lee, Beauty Forever?
Kimmerer, Native Knowledge for Native Ecosystems
Anderson, Tending the Wilderness
Rolston, A Managed Earth and the End of Nature?

Nov. 15 -  Unit XI -  Social Construction of Nature

Rolston, Nature for Real: Is Nature a Social Construct?
Harlow, The Human Face of Nature
Callicott, La Nature est morte, vive la nature!
Evernden, from The Social Creation of Nature, "The Fragile
Division" and "Nature and the Ultrahuman"

Take-Home Final exam given out

Nov. 22.
  Thanksgiving break

Nov. 29 -  Unit XII  --  Nature's troubles

Williams, Mother Nature Is a Wicked Old Witch!
Williams, Huxley's Evolution and Ethics in Sociobiological
Perspective
Hrdy, Comments
Ruse, Comments
Burhoe, Comments
Cobb, Comments, Befriending an Amoral Nature
Williams, Reply to Comments
Rolston, Disvalues in Nature

Dec. 6 - Class discussion of Final Exam

Grading:

Weekly reading tests               25%
Class participation                25%
Take home mid-term, discussed      25%
Take home final, discussed         25%
                                  100%


Text Materials

Agar, Nicholas, "Biocentrism and the Concept of Life,"  Ethics 108(1997)147-168.

Anderson, M. Kat, "Tending the Wilderness," Restoration and Management Notes 14 (no. 2, Winter, 1996):154-166.

Attfield, Robin, "Saving Nature, Feeding People and Ethics," Environmental Values 7(1998):291-304.

Attfield, Robin, "The Good of Trees," Journal of Value Inquiry 15(1981):35-54.

Brennan, Andrew, "Poverty, Puritanism and Environmental Conflict," Environmental Values 7(1998):305-331.

Burhoe, Ralph, "On `Huxley's Evolution and Ethics in Sociobiological Perspective' by George C. Williams,"  Zygon 23(1988):417-430.

Callicott, J. Baird, "Rolston on Intrinsic Value: A Deconstruction," Environmental Ethics 14(1992):129-143.

Callicott, J. Baird, "La Nature est morte, vive la nature!" Hastings Center Report 22(no. 5, 1992):16-23.

Callicott, J. Baird, "A Critique of and an Alternative to the Wilderness Idea," Wild Earth 4 (no. 4, Winter 1994/1995):54-59.

Callicott, J. Baird, "Deep Grammar" (response to responses), Wild Earth 5 (no. 1, Spring 1995):64-66.

Callicott, J. Baird, "The Wilderness Idea Revisited:  The Sustainable Development Alternative," Environmental Professional 13(1991):235-247.  Reprinted in Lori Gruen and Dale Jamieson, eds., Reflecting on Nature: Readings in Environmental Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press), pages 254-264.

Carruthers, Peter, "Brute Experience," Journal of Philosophy 85(1989):258-269.

Cobb, John B, Jr., "Befriending an Amoral Nature" (response to Williams),  Zygon 23(1988):431-436.

Cronon, William, "The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature," from William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature (New York: W. W. Norton, 1996), pages 69- 90.

Evernden, Neil,  "The Fragile Division" and "Nature and the Ultrahuman." Pages 88-103 and 107-124 in The Social Creation of Nature (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).

Foreman, David, "Wilderness Areas Are Vital" (response), Wild Earth 4 (no. 4, Winter 1994/1995):64-68.

Fuller, B. A. G., "The Messes Animals Make in Metaphysics," Journal of Philosophy 46(1949):829-838.

Goodpaster, Kenneth E., "On Being Morally Considerable," Journal of Philosophy 75(1978):303-325.

Hargrove, Eugene C., "Weak Anthropocentric Intrinsic Value,"


Harlow, Elizabeth M., "The Human Face of Nature:  Environmental Values and the Limits of Nonanthropocentrism," Environmental Ethics 14(1992):27-42.

Hettinger, Ned, "Comments on Holmes Rolston's `Naturalizing Values'."  Pages 86-89 in Louis P. Pojman, ed., Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 3rd ed. (Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2001).

Hrdy, Sara Blaffer, "Comments on George Williams's Essay on Morality and Nature," Zygon 23(1988):409-411.

Jamieson, Dale and Mark Bekoff, "Carruthers on Nonconscious Experience," Analysis 52(no. 1, January 1992):25-28.

Johnson, Lawrence, "Do Animals Have an Interest in Life?" Australasian Journal of Philosophy 61(1983):172-184.

Kimmerer, "Native Knowledge for Native Ecosystems," Journal of Forestry 98(no. 8, August 2000):4-9.

Lee, Keekok, "Beauty for Ever?" Environmental Values 4(1995):213- 225.

Lee, Keekok, "The Source and Locus of Intrinsic Value: A Reexamination," Environmental Ethics 18(1996):297-309.

Michael, Mark A., "How to Interfere With Nature," Environmental Ethics 23(2001):135-154.

Norton, Bryan, "Epistemology and Environmental Values"  Monist 75(no. 2, April 1992):208-226.

Noss, Reed E., "Wilderness--Now More than Ever" (response), Wild Earth 4 (no. 4, Winter 1994/1995):60-63.

O'Neill, John, "The Varieties of Intrinsic Value,"  Monist 75(no. 2, April 1992):119-137.

Partridge, Ernest, "Discovering a World of Values:  A Response to Rolston".  Pages 91-92 in Louis J. Pojman, ed., Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998).

Partridge, Ernest, "Values in Nature: Is Anybody There?" Philosophical Inquiry 8(1986):97-110.  Reprinted, pages 81-88 in Louis J. Pojman, ed., Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998).

Partridge, Ernest, "Reconstructing Ecology."  Pages 79-97 in David Pimentel, Laura Westra, and Reed Noss, eds., Ecological Integrity: Integrating Environment, Conservation, and Health (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2000).

Preston, Christopher J., "Epistemology and Intrinsic Values: Norton and Callicott on Rolston," Environmental Ethics 29(1998):409-428.


Rolston, Holmes, "Disvalues in Nature,"  Monist 75(no. 2, April 1992):250-278.

Rolston, Holmes, "Feeding People versus Saving Nature"   Pages 248- 267 in William Aiken and Hugh LaFollette, eds., World Hunger and Morality, 2nd ed., Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1996).

Rolston, Holmes, "Naturalizing Values: Organisms and Species."  Pages 76-86 in Louis P. Pojman, ed., Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 3rd ed. (Belmont CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2001).

Rolston, Holmes, "Nature for Real: Is Nature a Social Construct?"Ê Pages 38-64 in T.D.J. Chappell, ed., The Philosophy of the Environment (Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press, 1997).

Rolston, Holmes, "Saving Nature, Feeding People, and the Foundations of Ethics," Environmental Values 7(1998):349-357.

Rolston, Holmes, "The Wilderness Idea Reaffirmed," Environmental Professional 13(1991):370-377.  Reprinted in Lori Gruen and Dale Jamieson, eds., Reflecting on Nature: Readings in Environmental Philosophy (New York: Oxford University Press), pages 265-278.

Rolston, Holmes, "Nature and Culture in Environmental Ethics." Pages 151-158 in Klaus Brinkmann, ed., Ethics: The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, vol. 1 (Bowling Green, Ohio: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1999).

Rolston, Holmes, "A Managed Earth and the End of Nature?"  Pages 143-164 in Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino, Lester Embree, and Don E. Marietta, eds. The Philosophies of Environment and Technology, vol. 18 of Research in Philosophy of Technology (Stamford, CT: JAI Press, 1999).

Rolston, Holmes, III, "Value in Nature and the Nature of Value," Pages 13-30 in Robin Attfield and Andrew Belsey, eds., Philosophy and the Natural Environment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Rolston, Holmes, III, "Values at Stake: Does Anything Matter?  A Response to Ernest Partridge".  Pages 88-90 in Louis J. Pojman, ed., Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 2nd ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998).

Rolston, Holmes, III, "Natural and Unnatural: Wild and Cultural," Western North American Naturalist 61(no. 3, 2001):267-276.

Rolston, "F/Actual Knowing: Putting Facts and Values in Place," manuscript. Forthcoming in Christopher Preston, ed., Epistemology and Environment (Albany, SUNY Press, forthcoming).

Ruse, Michael, "Response to Williams:  Selfishness is not Enough," Zygon 23(1988):413-416.

Sagoff, Mark, "Ethics, Ecology and the Environment: Integrating Science and Law," Tennessee Law Review 56(1988):77-229.

Sprugel, Douglas G., "Disturbance, Equilibrium, and Environmental Variability: What is `Natural' Vegetation in a Changing Environment?" Biological Conservation 58(1991):1-18.

Weir, Jack, "Are Animals Virtuous?" (manuscript)

Williams, George C., "Reply to Comments on `Huxley's Evolution and Ethics in Sociobiological Perspective,'" Zygon 23(1988):437-438.

Williams, George C., "Huxley's Evolution and Ethics in Sociobiological Perspective," Zygon 23(1988):383-407.

Williams, George C., "Mother Nature Is a Wicked Old Witch!"  Pages 217-231 in Matthew H. Nitecki and Doris V. Nitecki, eds.,Evolutionary Ethics (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995).

The major website bibliography in environmental ethics is:

http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE.html

This site contains over ten thousand references and can be searched, with the results e-mailed to yourself.