Schedule for EVSS 695 Environmental Philosophy

Hettinger, Spring 2011


Dale Jamieson, Ethics and the Environment

1.         Jamieson, Ch 1: The Environment as an Ethical Problem pp. 1-25

            a.         Urban Environmental Ethics

                        i.         Alastair Gunn, “Rethinking Communities: Environmental Ethics in an Urbanized World,” Environmental Ethics (1998)

            b.         Supplemental (i.e., non-required) reading

                        i.         Environmental Justice: Peter Wenz, “Just Garbage,” from Faces of Environmental Racism (1995)

                        ii.        Is Nature Stable or Delicately Balanced? Don Worster, “The Ecology of Chaos” and J. Baird Callicott, “Do Deconstructive Ecology and Sociobiology undermine Leopold’s Land Ethic?” in Beyond the Land Ethic (1999)

2.         Humans and Nature; Religion and Nature

            a.         Paul Moriarty, "Nature Naturalized: A Darwinian Defense of the Nature/Culture Distinction," Environmental Ethics (2007)

            b.         Lynn White, “On the Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis,” Science 1967

                        i.         Supplemental Reading: Wendell Berry, “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” in Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community (1992)

Addition: Dale Jamieson, "An American Paradox" Climate Change (2006)

3.         Jamieson, Ch 4: Normative Ethics; Consequentialism, Virtue ethics, and Kantianism, pp. 76-101

            a.         Environmental Virtue Ethics

                        i.         Rosalind Hursthouse, “Environmental Virtue Ethics,” in Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (2007)

4.         Precautionary Principle

            a.         Marion Hourdequin, “Doing, Allowing, and Precaution” Environmental Ethics 29, 4 2007 339-358.

5.         Jamieson, Ch 5: Humans and Other Animals; Speciesism, Regan/Singer, and Using Animals, pp. 102-144

            a.         Doug MacLean, “Is ‘Being Human’ a Moral Concept?” (Defense of speciesism) Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly ( 2010)

6.         Lamenting and Policing Predation: Tensions between Environmental and Animal Ethics

            a.         Cowen,Tyler. "Policing Nature," Environmental Ethics 25(2003):169-182.

            b.         Ty Raterman, "An Environmentalist’s Lament on Predation," Environmental Ethics (2008)

            c.         Jeffery McMahon, “The Meat Eaters,” NY Times, September 19, 2010

            d.         Supplemental reading: Aaron Simmons, “Animals, Predators, the Right to Life, and the Duty to Save Lives, Ethics and the Environment (2009)

                        i.         Animals, predators and right to life, ethics and env 14,1

7.         Jamieson, Ch 6 on Biocentrism and Ecocentrism, pp. 145-153

8.         Ecocentrism

            a.         Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic” & Preface from A Sand County Almanac (1947)

            b.         J. Baird Callicott, “The Land Ethic” in Companion to Environmental Philosophy (2001)

            c.         Supplemental reading

                        i.         Paul Taylor’s, Respect for Nature (1986) selections

9.         Jamieson, Ch 3 & Ch 6 on Intrinsic Value and Valuing Nature, pp. 68-75 (“Intrinsic value from Ch 3: “Meta-ethics”) and pp. 153-162 (on “Valuing reconsidered,” “The plurality of values,” and “Aesthetic values” from Ch. 6: “The value of nature”)

            a.         Valuing nature

                        i.         Thomas Hill, “Finding Value in Nature” Environmental Values 2006

                        ii.        Robert Elliot, “Instrumental Value in Nature as a Basis for the Intrinsic Value of Nature as a Whole,” Environmental Ethics 2005

10.       Convergence hypothesis

            a.         Ben Minteer, Introduction to Nature in Common? Pp. 1-13

            b.         Katie McShane, “Anthropocentrism vs Nonanthopocentrism: Why Should we Care?” Environmental Values 2007.

11.       Convergence hypothesis continued

            a.         Holmes Rolston, “Converging versus Reconstituting Environmental Ethics” in Nature in Common

            b.         Bryan Norton’s response to Rolston, pp. 246-250, in Nature in Common

12.       Jamieson, Ch 6: On “Natural values” and “Conflicts and Tradeoffs,” pp 162-175

            a.         Allen Thompson, “Responsibility for the End of Nature: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming” Ethics and the Environment 2009

13.       Jamieson, Ch 6: Natives vs Exotics, pp. 175-180

            a.         Mark Woods and Paul Veatch Moriarty, "Strangers in a Strange Land: The Problem of Exotic Species," Environmental Values (2001)

            b.         Ned Hettinger, Ned, "Exotic Species, Naturalisation, and Biological Nativism," Environmental Values (2001)

14.       Wilderness: Critique and Defense

            a.         William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” in Reinventing Nature (1995)

            b.         Dave Foreman, “Wilderness Areas for Real” in The Great New Wilderness Debate (1998)

15.       Humans versus Nature?

            a.         Holmes Rolston, “Feeding People vs Saving Nature,” from World Hunger and Morality (1996)

            b.         Robin Attfield, “Saving Nature, Feeding People, and Ethics” Environmental Values (1998)

16.       Jamieson, Ch 7: Nature’s Future, pp. 181-205

17.       The Critique of Consumption

            a.         Peter Wenz, “Personal Choices, Consumerism, and Human Nature” from Environmental Ethics Today (2001)

18.       Future Generations

            a.         Brian Barry, “Sustainability and Intergenerational Justice”

19.       Climate Ethics

            a.         Stephen Gardner, “Ethics and Global Climate Change, ” introduction to Climate Ethics (2010)

            b.         Simon Carey, “Climate Change, Human Rights, and Moral Thresholds,” from Human Rights and Climate Change (2010)

20.       Climate Ethics continued

            a.         Peter Singer “One Atmosphere,” from One World: The Ethics of Globalization (2002)

            b.         Walter Sinnott-Armstong, “It’s Not My Fault,” from Perspectives on Climate Change (2005)

21.       Geoengineering

            a.         Christopher Preston, “Geoengineering and the Presumptive Argument From Environmental Ethics” Draft (2011)

22.       Representing Nature

            a.         John O’Neill, “Who Speaks for Nature,” in How Nature Speaks (2006)


Glenn Parsons, Aesthetics & Nature

23.       Parsons, Ch 1: Approaching the Philosophy of Natural Beauty (1-17) and Parsons, Ch 2: Imagination, Belief, and the Aesthetics of Nature (18-33)

24.       Parsons, Ch 3: Formalism (34-48) and Parsons, Ch 4: Science and Nature Aesthetics (49-65)

25.       Parsons, Ch 5: Pluralism (66-80) and Parsons, Ch 6: Nature and the Disembodied Aesthetic (81-94)

26.       Parsons, Ch 7: Aesthetics and the Preservation of Nature (95-113)

27.       Parsons, Ch 8: Nature in the Garden (114-127) and Parsons, Ch 9: Art in Nature (128-140)