Environmental Philosophy (INTD 425)

Welcome!

Welcome to these online materials for the Spring 2020 course on Environmental Philosophy (INTD 425, Manchester University).

We will meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-1:45 p.m. in Academic Center 238.

This course fulfills the Core-5CC (“Critical Connections”) requirements, and is open to students with Junior and Senior standing only.

The semester will be spent exploring environmental issues from a philosophical perspective. In general, we will examine a number of competing perspectives on how we should distribute benefits (e.g., land, shelter, clean air and water, food, healthcare) and burdens (e.g., polluting factories, incinerators, dump sites) among all those who enjoy moral standing. Doing this involves examining two fundamental questions: “How should we determine this distribution of benefits and burdens?” and “How should we determine moral standing?”

Almost every issue in environmental philosophy turns on these questions of distributive justice and the limits of our moral community. Closely related to the latter are questions surrounding value: What is it? What has it? What causes it? Where is it located?

The Reading Schedule provides a closer account of the specific topics that we will discuss as a class.

The photos appearing on these pages are either of environmentalists we will be encountering or authors whose writings we will be reading. To learn their name, hold your cursor over the image.

Contacting Me

Click on my name (above) to reach my home page with contact information and a link for my spring schedule for 2020.

I will try to keep the office hours indicated on the weekly schedule, but I’m happy to meet at other times as well; just see me before or after class to arrange something. Otherwise, I am best reached by email or voice-mail left at my office (982-5041). [Questionaire]

Manchester University // Registrar // Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies // Last updated: 23 Jan 2020