Environmental Ethics
Ned Hettinger, Fall 2014

Syllabus

Schedule of Assignments

Presentation list 12:15 class
Presentation list 1:40 class

Explanation of Midterm Quiz Grades
Explanation of Midterm Exam Scores

Paper Assignment and Some Possible Topics
Suggestions for Writing Your Philosophy Paper

Explantion of Final Quiz Scores

CofC Office of Sustainability
Alliance for Planet Earth
Green CofC

Environmental Studies Minor

Spring Philosophy Courses

Students - Evaluate your Courses & Faculty Online through Dec 10

Elements of Style
Amazon

GRE Scores by Major

Date
Reading Assignment
Class Notes

Miscellaneous

Final Exam
(See paper syllabus for date)

**Final Exam Study Questions**

   
Call for Papers
Ethics, Practical Ethics, Animal Ethics
Clemson University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference
28 March 2015
Submission Deadline: 21 January 2015
Nov 25

JUSTICE AND NATURE'S FUTURE

Jamieson, 196-205, (on “Visions of the future”)

Jamieson on Nature's Future
 
Nov 20

Jamieson, pp. 181-196 (on “Travails of the biosphere” and “Questions of justice”)

 

Jamieson on "The rise and fall of America’s climate deniers: How politics hijacked the fight against global warming "

Climate Nexus, via Jamieson, "Climate Deniers Ascend in Senate Leadership"

Nov 18

Oral Presentations (6) on
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION

No Impact Man trailer and Lessons from Low Impact Week

 Derrick Jensen, “Forget Shorter Showers” (if interested, see also: The Story of Change – Video)

Charged With the Crime of Filming a Slaughterhouse,” Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime, Mark Bittman, and “Who Protects the Animals” (cruelty and “ag-gag”)

Wendell Berry, Speech Against the State Government

Peter Singer “Ends and Means

If a Tree Falls (movie trailer and description)

 "Would You Ever Break The Law in Support of an Environmental Goal?"

Questions on Environmental Action

"How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? ... Action from principle. the perception and the performance of right. changes things and relations: ... it divides the individual. separating the diabolical in him from the divine" {Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" 1849}

Hettinger on Ecoterrorism

**Paper due, Friday, Nov 14, 1pm, 14 Glebe, inside mailbox, paper copy

Nov 13

WILDERNESS

William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”

Cronon, Trouble with Wilderness

David Desplaces, "Quality Management Systems or Environment Management Systems for All: Systems Thinking"
Friday, 3pm, Maybank 100
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Saving Wild Places in the Anthropocene
Science Friday (Audio) with William Cronon

Nov 11

Oral Presentation (5) on Wilderness               

 Bill McKibben’s “The End of Nature?”(from Holmes Rolston, Conserving Natural Value), “More on McKibben,” and “Climbers clear trash from Everest” (all in one pdf file)

Timothy Egan, “Searching for Eden; The Definition of Wilderness Is Increasingly Elusive

 Rethinking the Wild: The Wilderness Act Is Facing a Midlife Crisis

 John Perry, “The Nature of Wilderness

Pleistocene rewilding: “Rewilding North America"

"Environmentalists in a clash of goals" (wilderness versus green energy)

Gabriel Escobar, “Rain Forest Gift Raises Suspicions

Questions on Wilderness

 

DAMNATION (trailer)
Wed, Nov 12, 6:30 pm
School of Science and Math Building, 202 Calhoun
Rm 129 (Auditorium on the 1st floor)
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

 

Nov 6:

MEANING & VALUE OF THE NATURAL

Jamieson, pp 162-168 (on “Natural values”)

Jamieson, pp. 175-180 (on “Natives versus exotics”)

Hunting exotic species in Texas as way to protect endangered species? (14 min in class video)

Jamieson on Natural Values

Jamieson on Natives and Exotics

Simon Blackburn, "Moral Knowledge for Sentimentalists"
Fri, Nov 7, 3:15 Alumni Center, 86 Wentworth (corner w/ St. Philip)

Does Hunting Make Us Human?
Friday, Nov 7, 5pm, Simons Center Recital Hall
(Free Quiz Opportunity)
About Jan Dizzard, One, Two

Thur, Nov 6, 7pm, Hettinger at Sierra Club, 284 Calhoun
"Age-of-Man Environmentalism and Respect for an Independent Nature"
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Nov 4: Fall Break (and election day): No Class    

Watermark (a film)
Wed, Nov 5, 7pm, Charleston Music Hall, Cost $5
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Jamieson on "The rise and fall of America’s climate deniers: How politics hijacked the fight against global warming "

Climate Nexus, via Jamieson, "Climate Deniers Ascend in Senate Leadership"

Oct 30

Oral Presentations (4) on
MEANING & VALUE OF THE NATURAL

Do what is natural, you say? (reading begins on bottom of second page)

Niagara Falls: America's Most Unnatural Wonder

De-extinction ( 2 ½ min video)

Natives and Exotics: Don’t Judge Species by their Origin

Saving a Drowning Buffalo or Letting Nature Take its Course?

Hope in the Age of Man (The Anthropocene)

To What Extent Should Humans Manage Nature If At All?

Study Questions on the Natural

The use of terms like 'natural' is “one of the most copious sources of false taste, false philosophy, false morality and even bad law” (J.S. Mill)

David Ehrenfeld, "Extinction reversal? Don't count on it"

Michael Klare, "The Race for What's Left": Fighting Over the World's Last Resources
Wed, Oct 29, 7pm, SSMB Room 129
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Oct 28

VALUING NATURE

Jamieson, pp. 68-75 ( on “Intrinsic value”)

Jamieson, pp. 153-162 (on “Valuing reconsidered,” “The plurality of values,” and “Aesthetic values”)

Jamieson on Intrisic Value

Jamieson on Ways of Valuing Nature

What's a Good Major?

What College Graduates Regret (Humor)
Liberal Arts Grads Win Long-Term

Why Major in Philosophy?
Is Philosophy the Most Practical Major?
GRE scores by Major
Discussion of above


**Paper Proposal Due, Friday, Oct 24 by email (hettingern@cofc.edu)

Oct 23:

 ECOCENTRISM

Aldo Leopold, “Preface to Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold “The Land Ethic”              

Jamieson, pp. 149-153 (on “Ecocentrism”)

 

Leopold's Land Ethics

Jamieson on Ecocentrism

 

LEOPOLD
About Aldo Leopold

Rights for Nature and Species?
Sued by the Forest: Should Nature Be Able to Take You To Court?
Equador Constitution Rights for Nature 2008
Cafaro, Species Rights to Exist

Oct 21:

 

Oral Presentations (3) on Ecocentric Holism vs. Individualism

Roger Caras, “There are Two Ways of Looking at it”                                  

 “The American Hunting Myth”

Kill the Cat That Kills the Bird?” (Full article to the right)

Breeding Endangered Species” and “Species and Individuals

Delisting of Wolves Raises Hackles

 “States Seek Ok to Kill Sea Lions”

 Jamieson, pp. 172-175 (on “Feral goats versus endemic plants”)    

 

Kill the cat that Kills the Bird (Full article)

 

Oct 16

BIOCENTRISM

Paul Taylor, “Priority Principles
Jamieson, pp. 145-149 (on “Biocentrism”)

Taylor's Priority Principles

Bike Fair Today (Oct 15) 4:30-6:30, St Philip and George

Charleston wasn’t designed for bike-loving college kids

Plant communication

Michael Pollan, The Intelligent Plant

Oct 14

Paul Taylor, “The Ethics of Respect for Nature” (long article)   

Taylor's Biocentric Individualism

Do Plants Value Things?

Colbert humor: Meatless Mondays and Plant Communication Research

Exam: Thurs, Oct 9

Midterm Study Questions

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND ANIMALS (SENTIOCENTRISM)
 
Oct 7

Mark Sagoff, “Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics: Bad Marriage, Quick Divorce” 

Sagoff, Animal Liberation and Environmental Ethics

Predation
Predation: Lion eating buffalo alive
Jeffrey McMahan, “The Meat Eaters”
Discussion of the Meat Eaters--scroll down after article

Fair is fair, Larry

Women in Philosophy Meeting about "MadMen"
Monday Oct 6 5pm 14 Glebe

Oct 2

Michael Pollan, “An Animal’s Place

Jamieson, pp. 131-144 (on “The conscientious omnivore, vegetarians and vegans, and animals and other values”)

Pollan on An Animal's Place

Jamieson on Conscientious Omnivore

“Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and
Minds About Animals and Food”

Thurs, Oct 2, 7 p.m., 227 Addlestone Library
(Free Quiz Opportunity)

Shimmering Presences: Frog, Toad, and Toxic
Interdependencies
Thursday, 10/2/14 at 6:30pm, EHHP Alumni Center (86 Wentworth)

(Free Quiz Opportunity)
Summary of above talk

 

Sept 30

Class meets back in Ed. Ctr. 111

Carl Cohen, “The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research
Cohen on Animal Rights and Animal Research
Where Some See "Smart Growth," Other See U.N. Plot

Sept 25

Last day meeting Lightsey Conference Center B08

Tom Regan, “The Case for Animal Rights

Jamieson, pp. 116-120 (on “Regan’s rights theory”)

Jamieson pp. 120-131 (on “Using animals” and “Killing versus causing pain”)

Regan on Animal Rights

Jamieson on Regan

Jamieson on Using Animals

Jamieson on Killing vs Causing Pain

Hettinger on Why/When Wrong to Kill

Downer Cow Video

Headless Chickens?

Meat from a Test Tube?

James McWilliams, author of "The Modern Savage: Our Unthinking Decision to Eat Animals," will be speaking at 7 PM, Thursday September 25 in Addlestone 227.
(Free quiz opportunity)

Cowspiracy showings
Saturday, September 27 at 4:30 PM, both showings in Addlestone 227. Description
(Free quiz opportunity)

Sept 23

 

Peter Singer, All Animals are Equal

Jamieson, pp. 112-116 (on “Singer’s animal liberation”)

Singer on Animal Equality

Jamieson on Singer

 

 

Virginia Beach, "The Second Northern Invasion and A New Conservation Ethos"
Tuesday, Sept 23, 6pm, Avery Research Center (125 Bull)
(Free quiz opportunity)

An Alternative to Animal Testing

Useless Creatures

(Humor: Peter Singer with Steven Colbert)

 
Sept 18:

Oral Presentations (2) on Human Uses of Animals

Nicholas Kristoff, “Can We See Our Hypocrisy to Animals?

Give Thanks for Meat (Pro eating meat essay contest winner; if interested see also other finalists essays)

Should Green Mountain College eat an ox that worked on its farm? See also

Sierra, "Can You Eat Meat and Consider Yourself an Environmentalist?" (for oral presenter, I recommend reading ahead – Jamieson 121-125)

Animal Experimentation: LD-50: “In U.S., Few Alternatives to Testing on Animals

Pets: “Animal Rights Uncompromised: ‘Pets’

Zoos: Marc Bekoff, “Thick skins, tender hearts and broken spirits” and Susan Freinkel, “Why I Still Believe in the Zoo

Study Questions on Oral Presentation Articles on Animal Uses

Composting at CofC (Flier)

Charleston Climate March on Sunday, Sept 21

Greenbag lunch: Redefining American Urbanism
12pm Wed Sept 17, Noon, Tate, Room 202
(Free quiz opportunity)

Americans Do Not Walk And That's A Growing Problem

Fed Up (movie trailer)

 

Tues, Sept 16:
NEW CLASS LOCATION!
Lightsey Conference Center B08 (for 2 weeks only)

If you are coming from St. Philip Street take a left at the CofC Bookstore and a right through the SECOND set of double doors. There will be another set of double doors immediately to your left. Take them down to the basement and then go through the doors at your left, not the doors in front of you. Once you enter those doors, LCTR B08 is directly in front of you at the end of the hall.

Campus Map

Jamieson, pp. 102-112 (on “Speciesism”)

Jamieson on Speciesism

 

Oceana On Sceismic Blasting Off SC coast (Tues, Sept 16)
(Free quiz opportunity)

Post and Courier editorial on dangers of SC offshore oil drilling

Moral Behavior of Animals?
Animal Social Behavior: Orangutan and Hound Dog
Goose/Human friendship
Do monkeys have a sense of fairness?
Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals
Marc Bekoff, Animals can tell right from wrong

 

Sept 11:
Video: “The Witness” (no new reading assignment)
Witness Notes and Questions
Constitution Day Today
Sep 9:

Property and Environment 

Who Owns the Moon?

Tragedy of the commons” and “Whales for Sale"

"Law is costing landowners" and “Woodpecker clouds state forest’s future,” and “Biologists to move endangered birds

“‘Takings’ and Property Rights” and “Property Rights and ‘Takings’ Legislation

The Lucas Case: Supreme Court Decisions

“Beaches Are an American Right and Environmental Necessity”

“Allow the Free Market to Protect the Environment”

Study Questions on Property and Environment

Notes on Takings, Property Rights and Respect for Nature

Sand Bags Debris on Isle of Palms

North Carolina Sea Level Rises Despite State Senators

Humor: Colbert on Climate Science Denial

Hettinger talk on Age of Man Environmentalism, Tues, Sept 9th, 3:15, Jewish Studies Bldg., 1st floor

Sept 4:

Environmental Justice

Peter Wenz, “Just Garbage

Wenz, Just Garbage

Toxic child

Times story about shipping toxics to Africa

Study indicating Environmental Injustice in Charleston

 
Sept 2:

Anti-Environmentalism, Anthropocentrism, and an Economic Approach to Environment

Ron Arnold, "Wise Use

William Baxter, “The Case for Optimal Pollution

Arnold's Critique of Environmentalism

Baxter on Anthropocentrism and Optimal Pollution

 

Peter Kareiva, Environmentalist critique of environmentalism (7 minute in class video)

Opposition to Environmentalism
Kansas bill would ban sustainable development spending
Green Projects are a U.N. Plot?

 

Aug 28:

Are Humans Natural?

Paul Veach Moriarty, “Nature Naturalized: A Darwinian Defense of the Nature/Culture Distinction"

Moriarty on Nature/Culture

Table of criticisms and replies

Rudy Mancke on humans part of nature, preserve/conserve and nature's resilience

Sierra Club Meeting with Candidates for S.C. House

Aug 26:

Religion and Environment

Lynn White, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis

White, Historical Roots of Ecological Crisis

Wendell Berry, Christianity and the Survival of Creation

Spiritual Leader of Orthodox Christians is an Environmentalist

Pope Francis's Radical Environmentalism

Thursday, Aug 21:

Jamieson, pp. 1-25        

Jamieson, Ch 1

George Monbiot, How Wolves Change Rivers (4 ½ min in class video)

Some Env Problems

Graphs of Environmental Degradation and Human Expansion

China starts televising the sunrise on giant TV screens because Beijing is so clouded in smog

Algae Toxins Prompt Toledo To Ban Its Drinking Water

Aug 19: Introduction
   

Wild nature's value as shown by its beauty
(National Geographic video 5 min)

Dale_Jamieson

Dale Jamieson webpage

Jamieson in the New York Times

   

 

 

   
 
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
      Plant Intelligence
      Book Review of "The Human Age," by Diane Ackerman
      The Wilderness Paradox
     


 

     

Documentation of Environmental Problems

 

Tortoises with Ipads

Maya Lin's What is Missing?

     

 

     

Animals


Animal Social Behavior: Orangutan and Hound Dog

Goose/Human friendship

Animals can tell right from wrong

Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals

Do Monkeys have a sense of fairness?

Debate about animal rights (Gary Francione's web page)

Mark Bekoff, Going to Slaughter: Should Animals Hope to Meet Temple Grandin?

Headless Chickens?


Meat from a Test Tube?

Iowa's "Ag Gag" Bill

Selections from Pew Commission report on “Industrial Farm Animal Welfare” (full report available at https://www.ncifap.org/)

Farmers Lean to Truce on Animals’ Close Quarters”

Zoos: “Who Killed Knut?”

Roger Gottlieb, "Can we Talk (about Animal Rights)?"

Bill McKibben, "The Only Way to Have a Cow"

Arsenic in our Chicken?

 

Predation

Jeffrey McMahan, “The Meat Eaters”
Discussion of the Meat Eaters--scroll down after article

Predation: Lion eating buffalo alive

      Leopold Preface to Sand County Almanac
      George Monbiot on Rewilding
      George Monbiot, How Wolves Change Rivers (video)
       
      Speciesism the Movie (trailer)
     

Does Hunting Make Us Human?

Douglas Chadwick, “The American Hunting Myth”

       
      Pleistocene Rewilding
      Holmes Rolston, “Managing The Planet
      DamNation (movie trailer)
      Interpretations of Endangered Species Act
     

The Value of Natural Things (from O'Neill, Holland, & Light, Env. Values 134-38)

      Species extinction
     

Environmental Humor

 

Dana Lyons' "Cows with Guns" (audio, humor)

Humor: Paper or Plastic?

Humor: The Majestic Plastic Bag

Political Humor aimed at Global Warming Deniers (video)

Humor: Conservative Lorax

 

Fair is fair, Larry

(Humor: Peter Singer with Steven Colbert)

Colbert humor: Meatless Mondays and Plant Communication Research

 

 

      Hunting exotic species in Texas as way to protect endangered species? (video)
     

Exotic Species: Asian Carp (see video)

Natives and Exotics: Don’t Judge Species by their Origin

      Wendell Berry quotes
       
      If a Tree Falls (movie trailer and description)
     

Lesson Plan for Role of Protest in Democracy (To go with If a Tree Falls video)

As eco-terrorism wanes, governments still target activist groups seen as threat

Environmental Leaders Call for Civil Disobedience to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

Foie Gras Fracas: Haute Cuisine Meets the Duck Liberators

       
     

Consumption

Story of Stuff

I'm a Mac and I've Got a Dirty Secret

A Global Graveyard for Dead Computers in Ghana

Growthbusters

 

     

 

       
     

Debate on fossil fuels

Advertisement for the debate

       
       
       
      Brand on Deextinction (Ted Talk)
      What is Fracking?
       
      New Zealand grants river the rights of Personhood
       
     
       
     

Population

Population growth explained (video)

Dave Foreman, The Human Population Explosion

       
     

Ecological footprint

Critique of ecological footprint

       
       
       

 

 

A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop

What College Graduates Regret

Why Major in Philosophy?

GRE Scores by Major

Liberal Arts Grads Win Long-Term

Is Philosophy the Most Practical Major?