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Philosophy 380 - Environmental Ethics - Spring 1998
Michael P. Nelson
Office: 415 CCC; phone 346-3907
Office Hours: Mon. 11-12, 4-5; Tues. 4-5 (and by appointment)
TEXT
Rental:
Donald VanDeVeer and Christine Pierce, eds., The Environmental Ethics and Policy Book second edition, (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1998)--listed as (EEPB) below.
Purchase:
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County.Almanac: With Essays on Conservation from Round River (New York:
Ballantine, 1966)--listed as (ASCA) below.
Philosophy 380 Supplemental Readings (listed as (SR) below.
REQUIREMENTS
1. A 5 min./short-answer type reading quiz will be announced for each reading assignment. No late reading quizzes will be accepted (don’t even ask), but the two worst grades will be dropped. The average of the remaining grades will equal 1/4 of the course grade.
2. Students will choose one of the following three options to determine the remaining 3/4 of their course grade:
a. Three multiple-choice examinations as scheduled below, each equal 1/4 of the course grade.
b. Three medium-length (7 page) papers on a specific topic (which must be approved by the instructor) within each section, to be turned in at the end of that section (on the date of the exam for each section), each will equal 1/4 of the course grade.
c. One full-length (20 page) paper on some topic in environmental ethics (subject to approval of the instructor). This will be turned in no later than the final exam period and will count for 3/4 of the course grade.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Reading Assignment Topic
1. Introduction
Reading: Donella Meadows "Biodiversity: The Key to Saving Life on Earth" (SR); Ann Causey "Environmental
Ethics: What’s the Point?" (SR).
2. Mill and Muir: 19th Century Precursors
Reading: John Stuart Mill "Nature" (SR); John Muir "The Wild Parks and Forest Reservations of the West," "American Forests," "Hetch Hetchy" (SR).
3. The Environmental Crisis?: Whose Fault?
Reading: "Genesis" chapts. 1 -3 (SR); Lynn White Jr. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis" (EEPB:485-54); Fritjof Capra "The Newtonian World Machine" (SR).
4. Evolutionary Thought: Animal Welfare Ethics or First-Phase Extensionism
Reading: Charles Darwin "Mental Powers" chapt.11[of The Descent of Man] (SR); Aldo Leopold (ASCA: xvii-36, 101-08, 116-19); Peter Singer "Animal Liberation" (EEPB:95-102); Tom Regan "The Case for Animal Rights" (EEPB:102-
109).
FIRST EXAMINATION
5. Evolutionary Thought Cont.: Biocentrism or Second-Phase Extensionism
Reading: Kenneth Goodpaster "On Being Morally Considerable" (EEPB:141-47); Paul W. Taylor "The Ethics of Respect for Nature" (EEPB: 160-73).
6. A Critique of Extensionism
Reading: Donald VanDeVeer "lnterspecific Justice" (EEPB:109-23); Mark Sagoff "Animal Liberation and
Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce" (SR); J. Baird Callicott "Review of Tom Regan, The Case for
Animal Rights. (SR).
7. The Gaia Hypothesis and Gaian Ethics
Reading: James Lovelock and Sidney Epton "In Quest for Gaia" (SR); Aldo Leopold "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest" (SR); Lawrence Johnson "Toward the Moral Considerability of Species and Ecosystems" (SR).
8. Ecological Thought
Reading: Aldo Leopold (ASCA: 11-16, 137-41, 158-63, 188-210); Paul Shepard "Ecology and Man: A Viewpoint"
SECOND EXAMINATION
9. Deep Ecology and Radical Environmental Activism
Reading: Bill Devall and George Sessions "Deep Ecology" (EEPB:221-26); Dave Foreman "Strategic Monkeywrenching" (EEPB:629-32); Reed Noss "Biologists, Biophiles, and Warriors" (SR).
10. The Land Ethic
Reading: Charles Darwin "Mental Powers" chapt.II [of The Descent of Man] (SR); Frans de Waal "Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals" (EEPB: 82-94); Aldo Leopold "The Land Ethic" (ASCA:237-64).
11. The Land Ethic Criticized and Defended
Reading: J. Baird Callicott "The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic" (EEPB: 184-98); Michael Nelson "Holists and Fascists and Paper Tigers ... Oh My!" (SR).
12. Ecofeminism
Reading: Karen Warren "The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism" (EEPB: 257-71); "Margarita Garcia Levin "A Critique of Ecofeminism" (SR).
13. The Great New Wilderness Debate
Reading: Aldo Leopold "Wilderness" (ASCA:264-79); Michael Nelson "Rethinking Wilderness: The Need for a New Idea of Wilderness" (SR).
FINAL EXAMINATION
Attendance, Participation, and Grading Policy
Since material on the exams will draw from information and interpretation developed only in class, absenteeism will affect your grade.
Please note that, although this is largely a lecture-style course, in-class participation is very welcome.
Conversion from numerical to letter grade: 94-100=A; 90-93=A-; 87-89=B+; 84-86=B; 80-83=B-; 77-79=C+; 74-76=C; 70-73=C-; 67-69=D+; 62-66=D; 60-61=D-; 0-59=F.