Philosophy 245: Environmental Philosophy
Schedule of Assignments, Fall 2011
1. Introduction
Environmental Virtue Ethics
2. Philip Cafaro, “Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson: Toward an Environmental Virtue Ethics” Environmental Ethics 22 (Spring, 2001), pp. 3-17, on class web page
3. Rosalind Hursthouse, “Environmental Virtue Ethics,” in Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems (2007) pp. 155-171, on class web page
Ethics and Climate Change
4. 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
5. Stephen Gardner, “A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate Change, Intergenerational Ethics, and the Problem of Moral Corruption” in Gardner, pp. 87-98.
6. Derek Parfit, “Energy Policy and the Further Future: The Identity Problem,” in Gardner, pp. 112-121
7. Henry Shue, “Deadly Delays, Saving Opportunities: Creating a More Dangerous World?” in Gardner, pp. 146-162.
8. Simon Carey, “Climate Change, Human Rights, and Moral Thresholds,” in Gardner, pp. 163-177
9. Peter Singer “One Atmosphere,” in Gardner, pp. 181-199.
10. 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
11. Dale Jamieson, “When Utilitarians Should be Virtue Theorists” in Gardner, pp 315-331.
12. Walter Sinnott-Armstong, “It’s Not My Fault,”in Gardner, pp. 332-346.
13. R Sandler, 2010 “Ethical Theory and the Problem of Inconsequentilism: Why Environmental Ethicists Should be Virtue-Oriented Ethicists, Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 23: 167-183, on class web page
14. Midterm Exam (Thursday, Oct 6)
Anthropocentrism, Non-Anthropocentrism and The Convergence Hypothesis
15. Ben Minteer, Introduction to Nature in Common? pp. 1-13, on class web page
16. Holmes Rolston, “Converging versus Reconstituting Environmental Ethics” in Nature in Common, pp. 97-117, on
class web page
FALL BREAK
17. Katie McShane, “Anthropocentrism vs Nonanthopocentrism: Why Should we Care?” Environmental Values 2007, pp 169-185,on class web page
18. Clare Palmer, “Does Nature Matter? The Place of the Nonhuman in the Ethics of Climate Change,” in Denis Arnold, ed., The Ethics of Global Climate Change (Cambridge 2011), pp. 272-291, on class web page
19. Video: Andy Goldsworthy, Rivers and Tides
Paper proposal due, Friday, Oct 28
20. Dale Jamieson, “Climate Change, Responsibility, and Justice,” Science and Engineering Ethics (2010) 16: 431–445, on class web page
Aesthetics and Nature
21. Glenn Parsons, Aesthetics and Nature (Continuum, 2008) (hereafter “Parsons”), Ch 1: Approaching the Philosophy of Natural Beauty (1-17)
22. Parsons, Ch 2: Imagination, Belief, and the Aesthetics of Nature (18-33)
23. Parsons, Ch 3: Formalism (34-48)
24. Parsons, Ch 4: Science and Nature Aesthetics (49-65)
25. Parsons, Ch 5: Pluralism (66-80)
Friday, Nov 18, Paper Due (unless paper on env aesthetics, which is due Tuesday, Dec 6th)
26. Parsons, Ch 6: Nature and the Disembodied Aesthetic (81-94)
27. Parsons, Ch 7: Aesthetics and the Preservation of Nature (95-113)
28. Parsons, Ch 8: Nature in the Garden (114-127) and Parsons, Ch 9: Art in Nature (128-140)
Final exam, Tuesday, Dec 13, 8am