Environmental Philosophy

goldsworthy yellow across purple field

Philosophy 245, Fall 2012, Ned Hettinger

Syllabus
Schedule of Assignments

Crtical Question Dates

Spring Philosophy Courses
GRE scores by major
Paper Assignment
Possible paper topics
Articles for papers
Suggestions for Writing Your Paper

Quiz score explanation

*Environmental Studies Minor
*Masters Environmental Studies
*CofC Sustainability Office

Presidential Candidates Environmental Positions

Eating Animals Events

https://hettingern.people.cofc.edu/images/pollution_beautiful_john_pfahl_Bethlehem.jpg
Date
Reading assignment
Class Notes
Miscellaneous

Tuesday, Dec 11, 12pm in our classroom
Exam on Aesthetics and Nature

Exam study questions

Aesthetics and Nature
 

Glenn Parsons

Carbon Cap and Trade in California

Thurs, Nov 29
Parsons, Ch 9: Art in Nature (128-140)
Parsons on Env Art

Andy Goldsworthy

Goldsworthy's Rivers and Tides

Tues, Nov 27
Katherine Robinson and Kevin Elliott, "Environmental Aesthetics and Public Environmental Philosophy"
Robinson & Elliott on Aes Preservationism
Temple Grandin
Public Lecture, Tues, Nov 27, 7:00 pm. Sottile Theatre
(Free quiz opportunity)

Bekoff, Going to Slaughter: Should Animals Hope to Meet Temple Grandin?
Are Animals Autistic Savants?
Tues, Nov 20
Parsons, Ch 7: Aesthetics and the Preservation of Nature (95-113)
Parsons on Aes Preservationism
 
Paper Due (new date)
Mon, Nov 19 (Paper copy, inside mailbox 14 Glebe, 4pm
   
Thurs, Nov 15

Parsons, Ch 6: Nature and the Disembodied Aesthetic (81-94)

Parsons on Engagement

Mountain Top Removal, Fri, Nov 16, Noon, Physicians
(Free quiz opportunity)

Fate of Oxen at Green Mtn College

Tues, Nov 13
Parsons, Ch 5: Pluralism (66-80)
Parsons on Pluralism

Consumption and Culture
Green Bag, Mon, Nov 12, 12-1:30, Stern Ctr Ballroom
(Free quiz opportunity)

"Sun Come Up" (GW Documentary) & Panel Discussion, Tues, Nov 13, 6:00pm
Hollings Science Center, 58 Coming Street, Rm 121
(Free quiz opportunity)

Thurs, Nov 8
Parsons, Ch 4: Science and Nature Aesthetics (49-65)
Parsons, Ch 4: Science in Nature Aes

Sinnott-Armstrong no harm in driving gas guzzler (video)

Against Eating Local
The inefficiency of local food

Native Group Tries Geoengineering

Friday, Nov 2:
Paper proposal due (by email)
     
Thurs,Nov 1
Parsons, Ch 3: Formalism (34-48)
Parsons, Ch 3: Formalism in Nature Aes

Conservative Lorax (humor)

Eating Loved Farm Animals

Tues, Oct 30
Parsons, Ch 2: Imagination, Belief, and the Aesthetics of Nature (18-33)
Parsons, Ch 2: Thought, PM view, and Aes Norms
Film: Story of Earth Liberation Front, Mon, Oct 29, 5:30 RSS 235
(Free Quiz Opportunity)
Thurs, Oct 25

Glenn Parsons, Aesthetics and Nature (hereafter “Parsons”), Ch 1: Approaching the Philosophy of Natural Beauty (1-17)

Parsons, Ch 1: Nature, Beauty, History, & Aes Quality
 

Tues, Oct 23: Exam on Palmer's book

Study Questions for Exam

Ethics of Wild and Domesticated Animals
 

Eating Animals

Tues, Oct 23, 5pm TD Arena: Talk by author Jonathan Foer on Eating Animals
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Additional time to meet Foer:
3:15-4:00p, Stern Center Ballroom (Jewish Student Union, Jewish Studies faculty and students and others)
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Mon, Oct 22, 4pm ECTR 118
Sustainability of Food Choices

(Free Quiz Opportunity)

New York Times Essay Contest on Why Ethical to Eat Meat

Where Cows are Happy and Food is Healthy

Kristof, Please Wince
(response to above and attack on Foer)

Thurs, Oct 18

Palmer, Ch 8: Puzzling Through Some Cases and Conclusion, pp 141-166

Palmer, Ch 8: Cases and Conclusion
 
Tues, Oct 16
Palmer, Ch 7: Some Problems and Questions, pp. 115-140
Palmer, Ch 7: Human assistance, domestication, painless killing
 
Thurs, Oct 11
Palmer, Ch 6: Past Harms and Special Obligations, pp. 96-114
Palmer, Ch 6: Past Harms and Special Obligations
 
Tues, Oct 9:
Palmer, Ch 5: Developing a New, Relational Approach, pp. 77-95

Palmer, Ch 5: New Relational Approach

Death of Barry Commoner
Thurs, Oct 4
Palmer, Ch 4: Wildness, Domestication, and the Laissez-faire Intuition 63-76
Palmer, Ch 4: Wildness, Domestication, and LFI
 
Tues, Oct 2
Palmer, Ch 3: Capacities, Contexts and Relations, pp. 44-62
Palmer, Ch 3: Capacities, Contexts, Relations

Movie about Aldo Leopold
Tues, Oct 2, 4:45, RSS 235
(Free quiz opportunity)

Thurs, Sept 27
Palmer, Ch 2: Capacity-Oriented Accounts of Animal Ethics, pp. 25-43
Palmer, Ch 2: Capacity Animal Ethics

Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce

Policing Nature

Tues, Sept 25
Clare Palmer, Animal Ethics in Context (Columbia 2010) (hereafter “Palmer”), Introduction and Ch 1: Animals’ Capacities and Moral Status, pp. 1-24
Palmer, Intro and Chapter One

Carol Adams
Sexual Politics of Meat
Talk details
Tues, Sept 25, 4pm, RSS 235
(free quiz opportunity)

about Clare Palmer

 
Ethics and Climate Change
 

Greenbag Lunch
on Climate Change

Mon, Sept 24, 12-1:30
Stern Center Ballroom
(free quiz opportunity)

 

Thurs, Sept 20
Exam on Ethics and Climate Change

Study Questions on Ethics of Climate Change
 
Animal Minds Panel
Animal Neuroethics Paper
Thurs, Sept 20, 3:30, RS Smalls 235
(free quiz opportunity)
Tues: Sept 18

Ty Raterman, “Bearing the Weight of the World: On the Extent of an Individual's Environmental Responsibility”

Raterman on Extent of Individual Env Responsibility
 
Thurs, Sept 13
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, “It’s Not My Fault,”in Gardner, pp. 332-346.
Sinnott-Armstrong's Not My Fault

Individual env action?

Going Green but Getting Nowhere

Do Individual Acts Help Save the Planet?

Joakim Sandberg “My Emissions Make No Difference”: Climate Change and the Argument from Inconsequentialism

Story of Change (video)

Tues, Sept 11
Stephen Gardner, “Is ‘Arming the Future’ with Geoengineering Really the Lesser Evil?: Some Doubts about the Ethics of Intentionally Manipulating the Climate System” in Gardner, pp. 284-312 
Gardner on Geoengineering

Preston on mechanisms for geoengineering

David Keith, "Should we Engineer the Planet?" (video)

  
Thurs, Sept 6
Peter Singer “One Atmosphere,” in Gardner, pp. 181-199.
Singer on CC

 

Tues, Sept 4
Simon Caney, “Climate Change, Human Rights, and Moral Thresholds,” in Gardner, pp. 163-177
Simon Caney, CC and Human Rights

Why Organic May Not Be Healthier For You (NPR, audio)

Thurs, Aug 30
Henry Shue, “Deadly Delays, Saving Opportunities: Creating a More Dangerous World?” in Gardner, pp. 146-162.
Shue, Deadly Delays

Jamieson on Climate Change (video)

Climate Science Primers

Tues, Aug 28
Derek Parfit, “Energy Policy and the Further Future: The Identity Problem,” in Gardner, pp. 112-121
Parfit, Identity Problem
The Cost of Cool
Thurs, Aug 23
Stephen Gardner, “Ethics and Global Climate Change,” introduction to Stephen Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson, & Henry Shue, Climate Ethics: Essential Readings (Oxford, 2010) (hereafter, “Gardner”), pp. 3-35
Gardner, Ethics and Global Climate Change

Who is the World's Biggest Polluter?

About People's Climate Change Beliefs

US CO2 Emissions Drop

Lomborg's website
Lomborg reverses course

Tues, Aug 21
Introduction
   
     
       
       
       
       
Animals Food Week by CofC Green  

Where Cows are Happy and Food is Healthy

Kristof, Please Wince
(response to above)

Monkey Sense of Fairness?

 

Inside the Greenhouse (Understanding climate change via the arts)

Articles about: How Harmful Are Individuals Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

 

Blue Skies Project
(to reduce airplane GHG emissions)

Climate and having children

The Moral Costs of Climate Change (video)

 

Humor: Daily Show on Two Headed Fish

Goldsworthy Site

Video link: Rivers and Tides