Fall 2019 Indiana University PHIL-P 107 13175 Philosophy and the Environment
Course Overview
In this class, we will investigate many important ethical and philosophical questions pertaining to the environment. The content of the course is divided into two parts, framed by two questions: what value does the environment have, and what should we do about climate change?
What value does the environment have? The environment often is valuable to us because it meets our needs. We use trees, rocks, and minerals to build buildings. We use rivers to generate electricity and to drink from. We use plants and animals to eat. But many of us, including environmentalists and in particular the founders of the environmental movement in America, believe the environment has value beyond usefulness for human needs. To determine what value, if any, the environment has beyond its usefulness for our needs, we will explore broader questions about (1) the nature of value and morality (2) how our values and moral obligations might extend beyond humans to other sentient beings and perhaps even further to biotic communities and ecosystems, and (3) what role our ideas about nature and our aesthetic values can or ought to play in our valuing of the environment.
What should we do about climate change? Given a firm grip on the basic scientific consensus on climate change, it is natural to conclude we collectively have much to do about climate change. But here’s a question with a less straightforward answer: what should each of us do about climate change? For example, should we each reduce our net carbon emissions to zero? Should we each stop driving gas guzzlers, or eat less red meat? Should we even stop having kids? We will see how different authors give different answers to these questions and give different justifications for their answers. Our first and main goal, therefore, is to explore questions about (1) what obligations individuals may or may not have to combat climate change. Exploring these questions raises further questions to explore about (2) what role each individual has in meeting a collective’s goal in combatting climate change, (3) what businesses and corporations should do about climate change, (4) the upsides and downsides of engineering the planet or ourselves to combat climate change, and (5) tricky moral issues about our responsibility to future generations.
Course Calendar
Part 1: What Value Does the Environment Have?
Week 1, Aug 27th and 29th: Introduction to Philosophy and the Environment.
Char Miller, “A Sylvan Prospect: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Early Twentieth-Century Conservation.” Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, Chapter 10, “Hetch Hetchy.” The Wilderness Act of 1964. (Recommended: Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment, Chapter 1, “The Environment as an Ethical Question.”)
Week 2, Sept 3rd and 5th: The Land Ethic and Ethics
Tuesday: Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic.” Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, Chapter 11, “Aldo Leopold: Prophet.” Elliot Sober, “Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism,” Sections 1. Thursday: Sober, Sections 2 and 3. Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment, Chapter 4, “Normative Ethics,” Sections 1 and 2
Week 3, Sept 10th and 12th: Ethics, both Human and Animal
Tuesday: Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment, Chapter 4, “Normative Ethics,” Sections 1, 2, and 4, up to p. 98 (stop at “Another approach.”). Chapter 5, “Animal Ethics,” Section 1. Thursday: Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment, Chapter 5, Sections 2-4. Paper 1 on Peter Singer’s animal ethics assigned, due next Wednesday
Week 4, Sept 17th and 19th: Biocentric and Ecocentric Ethics
Tuesday: Paul Taylor, “Biocentric Egalitarianism,” Sections I-V. Thursday: Taylor, Sections V-X (repeat Section V). Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment, Chapter 6, “The Value of Nature,” Sections 1 and 2
Week 5, Sept 24th and 26th: Anthropocentrism and Species
Tuesday: Lilly-Marlene Russow: “Why Do Species Matter?” Thursday: Dale Jamieson: “Against Zoos.” Paper 2 on Russow’s views assigned, due next Wednesday
Week 6, Oct 1st and Oct 3rd: Nature and Naturalness
Tuesday: Robert Elliot, “Faking Nature.” Thursday: Took field trip of IU Campus guided by IU Geology Education Director Polly Sturgeon. Vogel, Thinking like a Mall, Chapter 5, “Thinking like a Mall.”
Week 7, Oct 8th and Oct 10th: Some Critical Perspectives on Nature and Wild Animals
Tuesday: Vogel, Thinking like a Mall, Chapter 5, “Thinking like a Mall.” (Assgined think piece on tour from Thursday asking to relate what students learned about geology and IU campus to an author discussed so far). Ramachandra Guha, “Radical Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique.” (Recommended: https://www.publicbooks.org/when-did-nature-become-moral/) Also: Wednesday October 9th event on majoring in the humanities, led by the College’s Walter Center for Career Achievement, Time TBA.
Week 8, Oct 15th and Oct 17th: The Aesthetics of Nature, and Wrapping Up
Tuesday: Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment, Chapter 6, “The Value of Nature,” Sections 3, 4, and 5. Thursday: Review session
Week 9, Oct 22nd: Tuesday: Exam 1
Part 2: What Should We Do About Climate Change?
Week 9, Oct 24th: Thursday: John Broome, Climate Matters, Chapter 1, “Introduction,” and Chapter 2, “Science.” Watched documentary “Thin Ice” on climate scientists.
Week 10, Oct 29th and Oct 31st: Should We Each Do Something about Climate Change? Part 1
Tuesday John Broome, Climate Matters, Chapter 2, “Science,” Chapter 7, “Uncertainty.” (Recommended: Chapter 3, “Economics”) Watched short documentary “Dulce.” Thursday: NPR article: “Should We Be Having Kids in the Age of Climate Change?” John Broome, Climate Matters, Chapter 4, “Justice and Fairness.”
Week 11, Nov 5th and Nov 7th: Should We Each Do Something about Climate Change? Part 2
Tuesday: John Broome, Climate Matters, Chapter 4, “Justice and Fairness,” Chapter 5, “Private Morality.” Thursday: Broome continued, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, “It’s Not My Fault: Global Warming and Individual Moral Obligations” Sections 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. Paper 3 on Broome and articulating one's views on climate change ethics, due next Wednesday.
Week 12, Nov 12th and Nov 14th: Individuals, Collectives, and Climate Change, Part 1
Tuesday: Marion Hourdequin, “Climate Collective Action and Individual Ethical Obligations.” Thursday: Kirk Ludwig, “From Individual to Collective Responsibility: There and Back Again.” Kirk Ludwig present in class to receive questions from students.
Week 13, Nov 19th and Nov 21st: Individuals, Collectives, and Climate Change, Part 2
Tuesday: Denis G. Arnold and Keith Bustos, “Business, Ethics, and Global Climate Change.” (Recommended: Politico piece on Human Rights and Climate Change) Thursday: Workshop for Paper 4 due Dec 5th – articulating one’s views on climate change ethics and responding to objections
Week 14, Nov 26th and Nov 28th: Thanksgiving break.
Week 15, Dec 3rd and Dec 5th: Climate Change, Human Engineering, and Meat Consumption
Tuesday: S. Matthew Liao, Anders Sanberg, and Rebecca Roache, “Human Engineering and Climate Change.” Recommended: Michael Sandel, “The Case Against Perfection.” (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-perfection/302927/) Thursday: Anders Nordgren, “Ethical Issues in Mitigation of Climate Change: The Option of Reduced Meat Production and Consumption.”
Week 16, Dec 10th and Dec 12th: Climate Change and the Right to Children
Tuesday: Sarah Conly, One Child: Do We Have a Right to More?, Chapter 2: “The Right to a Family,” and Abstract and pp. 103-106 of Chapter 4, “Sanctions.” Thursday: Exam Review.
Final: 5pm-7pm Thursday December 19th