Environmental Studies 228 - Environmental Philosophy

(Offered as PHIL 225 and ENST 228) Our impact on the environment has been significant, and in recent decades, the pace of change has clearly accelerated. Many species face extinction, forests are disappearing, and toxic wastes and emissions continue to accumulate. People are being displaced, and even our climate is changing. These are all well-established scientific facts and the prospect of a general environmental calamity seems all too real. This sense of crisis has spurred intense and wide-ranging debate over what our proper relationship to nature should be. This is the focus of the course. Among the questions we shall explore will be:  Do animals have rights we ought to respect? Is nature intrinsically valuable or merely a bundle of utilities for our benefit? Is there even a stable notion of “what is natural” that can be deployed in a workable environmental ethic? What obligations, if any, do we have to future generations? Can there be overpopulation and if so, how many should live on our planet? Do our answers to these questions result in some way from a culturally contingent “image” we have of nature and our place within it? Is there anything special about the way that we go about appreciating nature aesthetically? How might we best go about changing the ways we inhabit the planet? 

Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Salwén. (V)

How to handle overenrollment: Priority will be given first to declared Philosophy and Environmental Studies majors, followed by class seniority.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on readings and written work.