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"
"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
2) Fredrick A. Kaufman, Foundations
of Environmental Philosophy: A Text With
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