01:30 PM to 02:45 PM TR
Buchanan Hall D003
Section Information for Spring 2018
Has the history of philosophy, especially ethics, contributed to the creation of our current global environmental problems? If so, how can philosophical tools of analysis be used to mitigate or resolve those problems?
This class will offer a foundation for discussion of these issues with a focus on the contemporary field of environmental ethics. In the first part of the class we will discuss a variety of philosophical debates that have evolved over the past thirty years (primarily in North America, Australia, and Europe) among philosophers answering the call to develop a new, environmental, ethic. In the second part of the class we will examine critiques of the dominant schools of thought in environmental ethics, including ecofeminism and environmental pragmatism.
Finally, we will look at several specific environmental issues and examine what various environmental ethicists have to offer to debates regarding environmental policy, including the questions of whether we should try to restore the nature we have damaged, whether it makes sense any more to attempt to preserve areas as “wilderness,” and how we can best respond to concerns over humanly caused climate change.
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Credits: 3
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