Environmental Ethics
PL-345 — Course Syllabus (2002)

PL 345: Environmental Ethics

Fall 2002

Dr. Rolston, Instructor

Tuesdays, 7.00 - 9.50 p.m.

Approximate schedule and reading assignments:

Aug 27. Humans in Nature (no reading assignment)

Sept 3. Emerson, Nature

Sept 10. Mill, Nature

Sept 17. Chapter 1. Valuing and Following Nature

Dr. Rolston in Edinburgh, Scotland. Class taught by Jo Arndt

Sept 24. Chapter 2. Animals. Callicott, on Animal Liberation

Oct 1. Chapter 3. Organisms. Taylor, Biocentrism

Oct 8. Test # 1

Oct 15. Religion and Ecology. White on Christianity

Oct 22. Eastern Religion, Feminism, Ecology

Smith, Tao Now

Earhart, Japanese Religion

Warren, Ecological Feminism

Native Peoples

Callicott on American Indians

Redford, Ecologically Noble Savage

Oct 29. Chapter 4. Species. Eliott, Faking Nature

Nov 5. Chapter 5. Ecosystems. Leopold, Land Ethic

Nov 12. Test # 2

Nov 19. Chapter 6. Value Theory

Nov 26. Thanksgiving break

Dec 3. Chapter 7. Environmental Policy

Chapter 8. Environmental Business

Dec 10. Chapter 9. Down to Earth, Personal Residence

Dec 17. Exam Week. Test # 3.

Class summary:

Environmental ethics is a systematic account of values carried by the natural world, coupled with an inquiry into duties toward animals, plants, species and ecosystems. A comprehensive philosophy of nature is illustrated by and integrated with numerous actual examples of ethical decisions made in encounters with fauna and flora--bighorn sheep, whales, ducks, butterflies, sequoias--and with endangered species and threatened ecosystems.

The ethics developed is informed throughout by ecological science and evolutionary biology, with attention to the logic of moving from what is in nature to what ought to be. Attention is given to religious perspectives on nature, Judeo-Christian, Eastern, and native American, and to classical philosophies of nature, particularly in romanticism in Emerson and in "hard science" as represented by John Stuart Mill.

A value theory is developed for human encounters with the natural world, with both subjective and objective elements.

The ethical theory is applied in detail to social, public, and business policy. The ethics concludes by exploring the historical experiences of personal residence in a surrounding natural environment. Environmental ethics is an adventure in what it means to live as a responsible human being in the community of life on Earth.

Text: Rolston, Environmental Ethics, Temple University Press

Reading Packet by Copyrite Shop for sale in CSU Bookstore.

Same readings, and others optional, are on CSU Library Electronic Reserve. See below.

Class materials:

Earhart, H. Byron, 1970. "The Ideal of Nature in Japanese Religion and its Possible Significance for Environmental Concerns," Contemporary Religions in Japan 11:1-26.

Callicott, J. Baird, 1980. "Animal Liberation: A Triangular Affair," Environmental Ethics 2:311-338.

Callicott, J. Baird, 1982. "Traditional American Indian and Western European Attitudes toward Nature," Environmental Ethics 4:293-318.

Elliot, Robert, 1982. "Faking Nature," Inquiry 25:81-93.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 1926, 1961. "Nature" [1844] In Emerson's Essays, 1st and 2nd series. NY: Thomas Crowell.

Leopold, Aldo, 1949, 1968. "The Land Ethic." In A Sand County Almanac. NY: Oxford University Press.

Mill, John Stuart, 1874, 1969. "Nature." One of Three Essays on Religion, in Collected Works, vol. 10, pp. 372-402. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Redford, Kent H., 1990. "The Ecologically Noble Savage." Orion Nature Quarterly 9 (no. 3):25-29.

Rolston, Holmes, III, 1988. Environmental Ethics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Smith, Huston, 1972. "Tao Now: An Ecological Testament," in Ian G. Barbour, ed., Earth Might Be Fair. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Taylor, Paul, 1981. "The Ethics of Respect for Nature," Environmental Ethics 3:197-218.

Warren, Karen J., "The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism," Environmental Ethics 12(1990):125-146.

White, Lynn, Jr., 1967. "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis," Science 155:1203-1207.

The readings are all in the course packet, CSU Bookstore, which is the most convenient way to obtain them.

The readings are each separately listed on CSU Library Electronic Reserve, and to obtain them here you have to have a computer and read each one on-line, or download each one (Adobe PDF) file and print it. For this you will have to be registered for the class and to use your CSU ID number; this is required to meet copyright restrictions.

Some additional articles available on electronic reserve, optional and not required for the class, are:

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

Rolston, Holmes, III, "Naturalizing Values: Organisms and Species," in Louis P. Pojman, ed., Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing/Thomson Learning, 2001).

Rolston, Holmes, III, "The Wilderness Idea Reaffirmed," Environmental Professional 13(1991):370-377.

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

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

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

Rolston, Holmes, III, "Environmental Ethics: Values in and Duties to the Natural World," in F. Herbert Bormann and Stephen R. Kellert, eds., The Broken Circle: Ecology, Economics, Ethics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).

The above seven articles can also be downloaded from Rolston's website.

Grading:

Option I. 3 tests, each 30%. Each test has Part I, Reading Test

Part II, Discussion Questions

The reading test questions are short answer, five or six of them, and require you to summarize arguments and positions encountered in the readings. About 50% of the test.

The discussion questions are essay (2-3 paragraphs) and require you to defend your own position in the light of what you have learned in class.

About 50% of the test.

Class participation, 10%

Option II. 3 tests, each 20%.

Paper, 30% 10-12 pages, typed

The paper should be about ten pages, double-spaced, in further analysis of some of the arguments, positions, theories, cases, discussed in the readings and in class.

Class participation, 10%

Option III. To be worked out with instructor under special circumstances.

Professor Rolston's office: Eddy 241

Office Hours: Tuesdays, Thursdays 5.00-6.00 p.m.

Phones: 491-5328, office

491-6315, philosophy office, with answering machine. After hours, leave word at this number.

484-5883, home

Further references and notes:

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.

There are over two dozen systematic works in environmental ethics. Complete lists may be found on the ISEE website bibliography under "Anthologies" and "Systematic Works."

Environmental ethics courses are taught in several hundred universities and colleges on several continents, many also listed on the website. Graduate work and theses completed are also listed on the website.

There are four main professional journals in the field: Environmental Ethics, Environmental Values, Ethics and the Environment.