Nature, Technology, and Society

Nature, Technology, and Society
Philosophy 150, Ned Hettinger, Spring 2013

	Syllabus Schedule of Assignments Explanation of midterm quiz scores Explanation of midterm exam grading Paper assignment and some possible topics Sample essay Suggestions for writing your philosophy paper Explanation of final quizzes	Why Major in Philosophy? GRE scores by Major Discussion of above Philosophy a Practical Major? About our Philosophy Major Fall Philosophy Courses About Env Studies Minor Course Evaluation Instructions
Date	Reading assignment	Class Notes	Miscellaneous
Final Exam Study Questions for Final Thursday, May 2nd, 12-3, in our class room			Conservation League May Conference Volunteer to get in free
PART IV: CONSUMPTION, SIMPLICITY, PROGRESS, AND ECOLOGICAL DESIGN
Tues, Apr 23	David Orr, “The Designer’s Challenge” Carl Pope, “Let’s Get Technical”	Orr on Designer's Challenge Pope on Technology and Environmetalism
Thurs, Apr 18	Juliet Schor, “Clothes Encounters” Juliet Schor, “Tackling Turbo Consumption"	Schor on Clothes Schor, Tackling Turbo Consumption	Juliet Schor "Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need" Schor on Plenitude (2010 video) Center for New American Dream
Tues, Apr 16	Jerome Segal, “Are We Simple Creatures?” Judith Litchenberg, “Consuming Because Others Consume” Video: The Story of Stuff	Segal, Are We Simple Creatures? Litchenberg on Consuming Because Others Consume	Growth Busters Trailer
Monday, April 15, Paper Due, 3pm, paper copy, 14 Glebe inside mailbox			Colbert on Exxon Pipeline Oil "Spill" in Arkansas Podcast: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life
Thurs, Apr 11	Peter Wenz, “Personal Choices, Consumerism, and Human Nature”	Wenz on Consumerism	*Sustainability Week, Apr 8-12* Flier Details
Tues, Apr 9	Affluenza (entire video) & Growth Busters (in class videos)	Affluenza notes	Drake "Successful" Free Quiz Opportunities Making the Business Case for Sustainability (Wed 7-8:30) Comfortably Unaware: U.S. Food Security (Thur 4:30-6)
PART III: RESTORATION, NATURE, GLOBAL WARMING, & THE ANTHROPOCENE
Thurs, Apr 4	“Hope in Age of Man” Ned Hettinger, “Valuing Naturalness in the Anthropocene: Now More than Ever”	Hettinger powerpoint on Anthropocene Questions on Hettinger on Anthropocene	Anthropocene Geological Time Erle Ellis on Anthropocene (8 minute video) Earth does not need us
Tues, Apr 2	Allen Thompson, “Responsibility for the End of Nature: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming”	Thompson, Responsibility for End of Nature
Friday, March 29, Paper proposal due, by email to hettingern@cofc.edu
Thurs, Mar 28	Ronald Sandler “Global Warming and Virtues of Ecological Restoration"	Sandler on Virtues of Restoration in GW world	Solar Powered Plane Can Fly All Day and All Night South's Rivers in Especially Poor Condition
Tues, Mar 26	Stephanie Ross, “Paradoxes and Puzzles: Appreciating Gardens and Urban Nature”	Ross on Gardens and Urban Nature	Free Quiz Opportunity, Tues, 4-5 Library 227 7 Billion and Counting: Challnges of Global Population DamNation Trailer
Thurs, Mar 21	Eric Katz, “Further Adventures in the Case against Restoration"	Katz on Restoration	Bulls Bay Nature Festival
Tues, Mar 19	Ned Hettinger, “Nature Restoration as a Paradigm for the Human Relationship with Nature”	Hettinger Restoration Powerpoint Questions on Hettinger on Restoration	Rich Roll vegan ultra athelete today his website Restoration quotes
Thurs, Mar 14	Robert Elliot, “Faking Nature”	Elliot, Faking Nature	Perils of Perfection
PART II: SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGIES: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, BIOTECHNOLOGY, AND GEOENGINEERING			Pro Technology Philosophies Shellenberger and Nordhaus on Loving Your Monsters and Postenvironmentalism (synopsis) Bruno Latour, "Love Your Monster: Why We Must Care for Our Technologies As We Do Our Children" (article) Technology Friendly Environmentalism (Colbert)
Tues, Mar 12	Geoengineering Christopher Preston, "Beyond the End of Nature: SRM and Two Tales of Artificity for the Anthropocene"	Preston on Geoengineering	About Christopher Preston Geoengineering Dumping Iron into Sea to Fight Climate Change Ethics of Geoengineering bibliography Christopher Preston, “Ethics and Geoengineering" WIRES 2012
Thurs, Feb 28: MIDTERM EXAM	Midterm exam study questions		Two Free Quiz Opportunities Addicted to Plastic Film, Wed, Feb 27, 4:30, RSS 251 Green CofC Meeting, 5:15, Tuesday, Feb 26, on Sustainability
Tues, Feb 26:	Cloning and Enhancing Human Beings Michael J. Sandel, “The Case Against Perfection: What's Wrong with Designer Children, Bionic Athletes, and Genetic Engineering"	Sandel on Enhancement of Humans	Sandel About Michael Sandel Sandel on Colbert "What Money Can't Buy" Michael Sandel: The Case Against Perfection (video) Articles on Human Enhancement Unfit for the Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement Sara Goering, “The Ethics of Making the Body Beautiful: What Cosmetic Genetics Can Learn from Cosmetic Surgery” David Wasserman, "Performance-Enhancing Technologies and the Values of Athletic Competition" Are Prescription Drugs Cheating? Claudia Mills, “One Pill Makes You Smarter: An Ethical Appraisal of Rise of Ritalin”
Tues, Feb 19 and Thurs, Feb 21	Leon R. Kass, “The Wisdom of Repugnance”	Kass on Cloning	Articles on Cloning Dan Brock, “Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con" NIH on Cloning Cloning Fact Sheet Human Cloning Attempt Failed Human Cloning Within 50 Years?
Thurs, Feb 14	Synthetic Biology Christopher Preston, “Synthetic Biology: Drawing a Line in Darwinʼs Sand”	Preston on Synthetic Biology	Green Film Series at Charleston Library Is Sustainable-Labeled Seafood Really Sustainable? President Obama On Energy and Climate Change
Tues, Feb 12	Food and Biotechnology Barbara Kingsolver, “A Fist in the Eye of God”	Kingsolver on Ag Biotechnology	About Barbara Kingsolver Farmer's Fight with Monsanto Reaches The Supreme Court Genetically Altered Salmon ("Frankenfish?") Will Frankenfood Save the Planet? Union of Concerned Scientists on Agricultural Biotechnology
Thurs, Feb 7	Information Technology David Ehrenfeld, “Pseudocommunities” Is Google Making Us Stupid? University Declares Week w/o Social Media	Ehrenfeld on Pseudocommunities What the Internet May be Doing to our Thinking	Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction Decline of Community Involvement: Review of Bowling Alone So Much For Bowling Alone: Research Says Internet Users Are Socially Engaged
PART I: PHILOSOPHY OF TECHNOLOGY	Luddism Examined		Petition for CofC to divest investment in fossil fuel companies
Tues, Feb 5 Reflective question (2-3 sentences max) to ask Mr. Sale, sent to me by email Monday evening at hettingern@cofc.edu	Visit by Kirkpatrick Sale Kirkpatrick Sale (wiki) Five Facets of a Myth by Kirkpatrick Sale Post and Courier interview with Kirkpatrick Sale Descriptions of Books by Kirkpatrick Sale	Student Questions for Kirkpatrick Sale Hettinger questions for and summary of Sale
Thurs, Jan 31	Dan Lyons, "Are Luddites Confused?"	Lyons Defense of Luddism	Dan Lyons' obituary Amish Technology The Riddle of Amish Culture (Ch 8 on Amish Technology)
Tues, Jan 29	Samuel Florman, “In Praise of Technology”	Florman's Defense of Technology	“Technology and the Wilderness Experience" Breaking the Monopoly on Energy Production in SC In China, Beware: A Camera May Be Watching You Florman, "Small Is Dubious" Florman's books on Amazon
Thurs, Jan 24	1. Wendell Berry, “Why I’m Not Going to Buy a Computer" 2. Wendell Berry, "Feminism, the Body, and the Machine”	Berry, Why Not Buy Computer Berry on Feminism, Body, Machine	Wendell Berry, American Hero Wendell Berry Takes Back His Papers Matthew Crawford “The Case for Working With Your Hands” Review of Crawford’s Shop Class as Soul Craft
Tues, Jan 22	Primitivism 1. Paul Shepard, Preface to The Only World We’ve Got 2. Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race"	Shepard's Primitivism Diamond, Worst Mistake	Photo and Bio-Essay on Paul Shepard About Jared Diamond Jared Diamond on "Why Societies Collapse" (video)
Jan 17	Theodore Roszak, “Foreword: In Defense of the Living Earth”	Roszak, In Defense of the Living Earth	About Luddism About Roszak Who Killed Electric Car (in library) Technology Created Unemployment "It’s possible to live well with technology—but only if we continually question the ways it shapes our lives. It’s about small things, like now and then cutting the cord, shutting down the smartphone and going out for a walk. But it needs to be about big things, too, like standing up against technologies that put money or convenience above other human values. If we don’t want to become, as Carlyle warned, “mechanical in head and in heart,” it may help, every now and then, to ask which of our modern machines General and Eliza Ludd would choose to break" Richard Conniff, “What the Luddites Really Fought Against” Smithsonian.com
Jan 15	Langdon Winner, “Technologies as Forms of Life”	Winner, Techs as Forms of Life	About Langdon Winner Book review of Winner's The Whale and the Reactor Israel and Iran: A Love Story
The machine appeared In the distance, singing to itself Of money. Its song was the web They were caught in, men and women Together. The villages were as flies To be sucked empty. God secreted A tear. Enough, enough, He commanded, but the machine Looked at him and went on singing. by R.S. Thomas	78 Reasonable Questions to Ask About Any Technology	Introduction	2012 Breaks U.S. Hottest Record Alternative Rush Hour (video) Coal Cares on Clean Energy Polluter Harmony (humor) Paul Kingsnorth, “Dark Ecology” Orion, 2013















			Restoration
			Allen Thompson, “Responsibility for the End of Nature: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Global Warming"
			Mill: "the doctrine that man ought to follow nature, or, in other words, ought to take the spontaneous course of things the model of his voluntary actions is equally irrational and immoral." Nature, 1884






			Heather Millar, “Pandora’s Boxes: Inside Nanotechnology’s Little Universe of Big Unknowns” Orion 2013 Ron Sandler, “Nanotechnology: The Social and Ethical Issues”




			Information Technology Your Brain on Computers Is Google Making Us Stupid? Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction University Declares Week w/o Social Media about Jaron Lanier, “You Are Not a Gadget” Review of Community in the Digital Age - Philosophy and Practice Decline of Community Involvement: Review of Bowling Alone So Much For Bowling Alone: Research Says Internet Users Are Socially Engaged


			Geoengineering

			Consumption
			CONFERENCE – Sustainable degrowth, an alternative toward a more equitable world?, Montreal, Canada Story of Stuff Stephen on Colbert on Story of Stuff Lessons from a Low Impact Week Jared Diamond, “What’s Your Consumption Factor?” High cost of our throwaway culture Film on Planned Obsolescence Julie Schor on Overspent American 3 Videos talks by Juliet Schor Sam Alexander, "The Sufficiency Economy: Envisioning a Prosperous Way Down." (Australian simplicity advocate) Philip Cafaro, “Gluttony, Arrogance, Greed, and Apathy: An Exploration of Environmental Vice” Peter Wenz, “Personal Choices, Consumerism, and Human Nature”
			Biotechnology

CONFERENCE – Sustainable degrowth, an alternative toward a more equitable world?, Montreal, Canada