PHI 3682: Honors Environmental Philosophy

Fall 2003

http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite/courses/PHI3682f03.htm

See my Web page for Office Hours and Syllabi: http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite

Course Description: This course provides a study of contemporary environmental philosophy, including ethical and practical issues related to the natural environment. As part of this inquiry the course focuses on the history of ideas regarding nature, on the relevance of traditional ethical standpoints to environmental issues, and the significance of both for current scientific reportage regarding the ecological crisis. We will study contributions of the European philosophical tradition as well as those of other world cultures to the ideas of nature, humanity, community, and morality underlying environmental issues. We will consider ecological ideas from an interdisciplinary perspective, including the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. The contributions of ecological feminism to the study of gender and the environment will also be our concern. Our discussion will be both theoretical and practical, encouraging each class participant to explore options for a viable ecological ethic. Each of you will be responsible for developing your own point of view based on the study of primary and secondary sources. Each will participate in class discussion, write essays and dialogues, cooperate in a group presentation, and explore the range of sources available in environmental studies. We will pay special attention to the widening range of electronic media relevant to ecological issues. Our study will be historical, thematic, multicultural and interdisciplinary, as the character of environmental thinking requires. This course has been approved for the Environmental Studies requirement in the HC Core and for the Environmental Studies concentration.

This course fulfills the Gordon Rule writing requirement of 6,000 words.

Course Requirements and Grades:

1) Two essays written outside of class, each at least 1,500 words in length (for a total of 3,000 words): each 20% of the final grade = 40% of final grade.

2) A series of ten in-class responses (assigned in class, 300 words), in essay form (totaling a minimum of 3,000 words): = altogether 40% of final grade.

3) A group presentation or project, including an outline and bibliography: 20% of final grade.

4) Regular class attendance and participation are required; repeated unexcused absences will result in a reduction of grade.

5) Essays and dialogues written outside of class will be graded for composition and content; in-class essays will be graded holistically.

You should purchase a copy of Muriel Harris, Writer's FAQ's, A Pocket Handbook, 2/e, 0-13-183125-9, available in the bookstore, for guidance in writing.

Students enrolled in this course agree to abide by the Honors College Honor Code. Please review this important document: http://www.fau.edu/divdept/honcol/students/honorcode.html.

Required Texts and Sources:

1) Schmidtz, David and Elizabeth Willott, eds., Environmental Ethics (Oxford UP), abbreviated EE

2) Starke, Linda, ed., State of the World 2003 (Norton & World Watch Institute): http://www.worldwatch.org/, abbreviated SW

3) Worldwatch CD ROM, in Honors College computer lab: contains Worldwatch publications from the last three years to date

4) Readings on Library Reserve (see syllabus below for authors and texts)

5) Online sources (please see syllabus below)

6) Environmental Ethics. Leading journal in the titular field, available in our library. You may either read the issues available in the library or, for your convenience, order them online (one year, 4 issues, is $25.00): http://www.cep.unt.edu/

.You will need to access the Muse archive either from on

campus or with a proxy server. To set up the latter see: http://www.library.fau.edu/ecollect/proxy.htm .

8) Films:

a) Waters of Destiny (on the Kissimmee River Restoration Project)

b) Bill Moyers, Earth on Edge. See the PBS Website for the program: http://www.pbs.org/earthonedge/

c) Butterfly

d) In Light of Reverence

e) Nova: The Gaia Hypothesis

f) Burke, After the Warming

Syllabus

Week Assignments

1) August 25-29 Response 1
Introductory perspectives: Schmidtz and Willott, “Why Environmental Ethics?” EE xi—xxi; Easterbrook, “A Moment on the Earth,” Leopold, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” White: “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”[1] in EE, ch. 1. Brown, Preface. Film and discussion: Waters of Destiny (on the Kissimmee River Project). “State of the World: A Year in Review” SW xix-xxiii. Recommended reading: Manussos Marangudakis: The Medieval Roots of Our Environmental Crisis,” Environmental Ethics 23 (Fall 2001), on reserve.

2) September 1-5 Response 2
Animal Liberation and the Land Ethic Singer, All Animals are Equal,” Leopold, “The Land Ethic,” Rolston III, “Values in and Duties to the Natural World,” Sagoff, “Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics,” EE ch. 2. Begin Youth, “Watching Birds Dissappear,” SW ch. 2.

3) September 8-12 Response 3
Extending the Realm of Rights: Film: Butterfly. “Stone, “Should Trees Have Standing?”, Feinberg, “The Rights of Animals,” “Attfield, “The Good of Trees,” Midgley, “Duties Concerning Islands,” EE ch. 3. Recommended Reading: Brown Beth Dixon, “Animal Emotion,” Ethics & the Environment, 6.2, Autumn 2001 (online, Project Muse).

4) September 15-19 Response 4
Species Equality and Respect for Nature: “Taylor, “The Ethics of Respect for Nature,” Schmidtz, “Are all Species Equal?” Youth, “Watching Birds Dissappear,” SW ch. 2. Recommended: Frank Schalow, “Who Speaks for the Animals? Heidegger and the Question of Animal Welfare,” Environmental Ethics 22 (fall 2000).

5) September 22-26 Responese 5
Environmental Holism:

Film: Nova: The Gaia Hypothesis. Regan, “How to Worry About Endangered Species”, “Varner, “Biocentric Individualism,” Devall and Sessions, “Deep Ecology,” Sober, “Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism”, EE ch. 5. Recommended Reading: Simon P. James: “Thing-Centered Holism in Buddhism, Heidegger, and Deep Ecology,” Environmental Ethics 22 (Winter 2000). Emily Brady, “Aesthetic Character and Aesthetic Integrity in Environmental Conservation,” Environmental Ethics 24 (Spring 2002).

6) Sept. 29- Oct. 3 Response 6
How Wild Does Nature Have to Be? Krieger, “What’s Wrong with Plastic Trees?”, Katz, “The Call of the Wild,” Light, “Ecological Restoration and the Culture of Nature,” EE ch. 6. Are “diseases” “natural”? McGinn, “Combating Malaria,” SW ch. 4. Recommended: Clare Palmer: “‘Taming the Wild Profusion of Existing Things’? A Study of Foucault, Power, and Human/Animal Relationships,” Environmental Ethics 23 (Winter 2001).

7) October 6-10

Ecofeminism in Theory and Practice: ESSAY I DUE TUESDAY
Hessler and Willott, “Feminism and Ecofeminism,” Warren, “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism,” Sen, “Women, Poverty, and Population,” Rao, “Women Farmers of India’s Deccan Plateau: Ecofeminists Challenge World Elites”, EE ch. 8. MacDonald and Nierenberg, “Linking Population, Women, and Biodiversity,” SW ch. 3, pp. 38-52. Recommended Reading: Vrinda Dalmiya, “Cows and Others: Toward Constructing Ecofeminist Selves,” Environmental Ethics 24 (Summer 2002); Improving Lives.” Mark Twine, “Ma(r)king Essence-Ecofeminism and Embodiment”; Chaone Mallory, “Acts of Objectification and the Repudiation of Dominance: Leopold, Ecofeminism, and the Ecological Narrative,” both in Ethics and the Environment 6.2 (Autumn 2001) online, Project Muse. Mary Jo Deegan and Christopher W. Podeschi, “The Ecofeminist Pragmatism of Charlotte Perkins Gilman” Environmental Ethics 23 (Spring 2001).

8) October 13-17 Response 7

Multicultural Perspectives: Response 5
Film: In Light of Reverence. Cultural conflict between Native and Euro America over the significance and use of the land; see the PBS Website for the film: http://www.pbs.org/pov/inthelightofreverence/thefilm.html. Gardner, “Engaging Religion in the Quest for a Sustainable World,” SW, ch. 8. Thompson: “Environment as Cultural Heritage,” Environmental Ethics 22 (fall 2000); Foltz: “Is There an Islamic Environmentalism?” Environmental Ethics 22 (spring 2000).

9) October 20-24 Environmentalism, Multiculturalism, Religion, Tradition: In Light of Reverence, Continued. Response 8
Recommended: A confrontation: McPherson et al., “Indigenous Worlds and Callicott’s Land Ethic.” Environmental Ethics 22 (Fall 2000); J. Baird Callicott: “Many Indigenous Worlds or the Indigenous World” EnvironmentalEthics 22 (Fall 2000); Bailey, “Approximate Optimality of Aboriginal Property Rights,” EE, ch. 11.

10) October 27-31

Rethinking the Good Life: Film: Earth on Edge. “Hill, “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments,” Milbrath, “Redefining the Good Life in a Sustainable Society,” Sagoff, “Do We Consume Too Much?”, Matthews, “Letting the World Grow Old”, EE ch. 7. Bright, “A History of Our Future,” SW ch. 1.

11) November 3-7 Response 9 Film: Film: After the Warming;

Human Population and Environmental Preservation: MacDonald and Nierenberg, “Linking Population, Women, and Biodiversity,” SW ch. 3, pp. 52-61. Feinberg, “Future Generations,” Wolf, “Population, Development, and the Environment,” Guha: “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique,” Raymond Bonner, “At the Hand of Man: Peril and Hope for Africa’s Wildlife”, EE chs. 9-10. Recommended Reading: “Environmental Anamnesis: Walter Benjamin and the Ethics of Extinction” (Winter 2001).

12) November 10-14 Nov. 11 Veterans Day Holiday
Sustainable Use, Institutional Structure, and Poverty:
Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” and “Living in a Lifeboat”; Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” Shue, “Global Environment and International Inequality,” Schmidtz, “Natural Enemies: Anatomy of an Environmental Conflict,” EE 11-12. Sawin, “Charting a New Energy Future,” SW, ch. 5.

13) November 17-21 Response 10
Group Presentations

Group 1: Randal & Jason

Group 2: Rhayfon, Slim, Shari, & Ally

Vanishing Resources, Cost-Benefit Analysis, and Environmental Policy: Wolliams, “Designing Cities as if They Were Ethical Choices,” Kelman, “Cost-Benefit Analysis: An Ethical Critique,” Leonard and Zeckhauser, “Cost-Benefit Analysis Defended,” Brennan, “Moral Pluralism and the Environment”, EE, chs. 13-14. Recommended: Daniel White, Modernity/Post-Modern Environmentalism,” The Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change. Volume 4 (in our library). Stephen Vogel, “Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature,” Environmental Ethics 24 (Spring 2002).

14) November 24-28 (Nov. 28 is the Thanksgiving holiday)

Group Presentations

Group 3: Catherine & Gaby,

Group 4: Ashley and Gleb

Environmentalism in Practice: Recommended Reading: Norton, “The Environmentalists’ Dilemma” and “Fragile Freedoms,” Rawles, “The Missing Shade of Green,” Light, “Taking Environmental Ethics Public.”

Sheehan, “Uniting Divided Cities,” SW. Ch. 7. Bookchin, “Social Ecology versus Deep Ecology,” EE 126-136. Recommended: Daniel White, “Dreams in Rebellion:The Battle of Seattle,”

Ctheory: http://www.ctheory.net/text_file.asp?pick=123.

15) ESSAY II DUE December 2—Last Day of Class; Group Presentations

Group 5: Rachel & Michael

Dec. 3 Reading Day

16) December 4-11

Exam Period: Thursday, Dec 11, 10:30 – 1:00 PM, papers returned, grades discussed; presentations during exam period, if necessary.

[1] Lynn White’s “Historical Roots of the Ecological Crisis” was originally published in the journal Science; it may currently locate under the database JSTOR in FAU’s Electronic Collection. The full citation is Lynn White, Jr., “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” Science, New Series, Vol. 155, No. 3767. (Mar. 10, 1967), pp. 1203-1207. Go into the FAU Electronic Collection at www.fau.edu/library ; click on Journals by Title, go to Science; click on the JSTOR (rather than the Ovid) version; search the article in JSTOR by author and (partial) title. Be sure to specify the journal (Science) from the journal list below—you’ll need to click on “advanced list” to find it). When the citation appears click “view article.”