Environmental Philosophy (INTD 425)
Reading and Assignment Schedule
Required Texts
• Pojman and Pojman, Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 5th ed. (Thomson/Wadsworth, 2008). [ISBN: 0-495-09503-6]
• Additional required readings (available with the links below) from John Locke, Robert Nozick, Chief Seattle, and Amartya Sen.
Print these few articles and bring to class!
Various assignment due dates are listed below. Your work should be submitted on ANGEL, in the appropriate drop-box, blog, or discussion forum. There are six Discussion Forums, and for each you will need to write one post and two comments; due dates for these are listed in the schedule below.
The other due dates are all related to the short research paper (indicated below as: RP due date).
(The “Additional Material” listed with many of the topics, below, is offered for your continued exploration, as time allows. Some of these items are brief and easily assimilated; others are quite lengthy.)
Tue, Jan 31
Introduction to the class.
Discussion Forum #1 is due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Private Property and the Public Good
Thu, Feb 2
Where Does Private Property Come From?
Reading: John Locke, “Of Property” [text]; Chief Seattle, “If we sell you our land…” [text].
Comments on DF #1 are due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Additional Material
Text: Jerry Clark, “Thus Spoke Chief Seattle: The Story of An Undocumented Speech” Prologue Magazine (Spring 1985) [text].
Tue, Feb 7
Is the Privatization of Common Resources the Best Way to Preserve Them?
Reading: Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons” (#45).
RP due date: Please add a brief post (>ANGEL discussion forum) that describes the research topic or topics that you are considering.
Additional Material
Text: John Tierney, “The Non-Tragedy of the Commons” (The New York Times, 17 Dec 2011) [web].
Thu, Feb 9
Overview of Distributive Justice
Reading: Robert Nozick, “Distributive Justice” (selection from Anarchy, State, and Utopia) [text].
Additional Material
Text: Stephen Metcalf, “The Liberty Scam” (Slate, 20 Jun 2011) [web].
Text: Martha Nussbaum, “The Enduring Significance of John Rawls” (The Chronicle Review, 20 Jul 2001) [web].
Population, Consumption, and
Food Ethics
Tue, Feb 14
Are we Living on a Lifeboat?
Reading: Garrett Hardin, “Lifeboat Ethics” (#49); William Murdoch and Allan Oaten, “Critique of Lifeboat Ethics” (#50).
RP due date: Thesis paragraph and preliminary list of sources (>ANGEL drop box).
Additional Material
Website: International Food Policy Research Institute [web].
Video: E. F. Schumacher on Buddhist Economics (3m 11s) [from a lecture on Appropriate Technology at the Great Circle Center, University of Illinois, Chicago, 19 Mar 1977] [video]
Text: Mark Sagoff, “Carrying Capacity and Ecological Economics” (Bioscience, 45 [2009]: 610-20) [text].
Passage: Malthus on People [text].
Thu, Feb 16
[Class does not meet]
Tue, Feb 21
Patterns of Consumption
Discussion Forum #2 is due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Reading: Gary Gardner, et al., “The State of Consumption Today” (#47).
Additional Material
Video: Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff (20m) [video]
Video: Annie Leonard interview with Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report, 9 March 2010) [video]
Thu, Feb 23
Population and Vegetarianism
Reading: Clark Wolf, “Population and the Environment” (#48); Michael Allen Fox, “Vegetarianism and Treading Lightly” (#55).
Comments on DF #2 are due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
RP due date: Two sources, with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog (>ANGEL blog). [help]
Additional Material
Video: The Future of Food with Vandana Shiva (4m 47s) [video]
Video: Four Winds Farm: organic food from a family farm (5m 18s) [video]
News Item: ScienceDaily: “Honeybee Deaths Linked to Seed Insecticide Exposure” (12 Jan 2012) [web]
Blog: Naragon gets blogged! Reveals secrets in culinary tell-all!! [blogsite]
Tue, Feb 28
When our Neighbors Starve
Reading: Mylan Engel, Jr., “Hunger, Duty, and Ecology” (#51); Amartya Sen, “Property and Hunger” [text].
RP due date: Two more sources (3-4), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Additional Material
Film: The Girl in the Café (2005; Dir.: David Yates; 1h 34m) [trailer]
Article: Peter Singer, “America’s Shame” The Chronicle Review (March 13, 2009) [web].
Website: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ODA (official development assistance) data [2010].
Website: Food First [web].
Website: Hungry for Change (watch the Food, Inc. trailer) [web].
Website: Millenium Development Goals Indicators [web].
Thu, Mar 1
First Exam
On The Moral Standing of
Non-Human Animals
Tue, Mar 6
Animal Welfare
Reading: Peter Singer, “Animal Liberation” (#9).
RP due date: Two more sources (5-6), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Additional Material
Website: Farm to Fridge — the transformation of animals into food [web]
Website: Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production [web]
Audio: Jeff McMahan on Vegetarianism (Philosophy Bites) (15m 58s) [audio]
Video: Jonathon Safran Foer on Eating Animals (1h 5m 45s) [FORA.tv]
Video: Paul McCartney, If Slaughterhouses had Glass Walls... (13m 4s) [YouTube]
Thu, Mar 8
Animal Rights
Reading: Tom Regan, “The Radical Egalitarian Case” (#10); Mary Ann Warren, “A Critique of Regan” (#11).
Discussion Forum #3 is due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Tue, Mar 13
How Wide is our Moral Community?
Reading: Kenneth Goodpaster, “On Being Morally Considerable” (#18).
Comments on DF #3 are due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
RP due date: Two more sources (7-8), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Species, Biodiversity, and
Valuing Nature
Thu, Mar 15
What is the Source of Value?
Reading: Donella Meadow, “Biodiversity” (#30); Lilly-Marlene Russow, “Why Do Species Matter?” (#31).
Additional Material
Web Resource: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Endangered Species Program [web].
Web Resource: International Union for Conservation of Nature: Red List of Threatened Species [web].
TED talk: Pavan Sukhdev on putting an economic value on nature (16m 31s) [web video]
Spring Break
Tue, Mar 27
Extending Legal Rights
Reading: Christopher Stone, “Should Trees Have Standing?” (#34).
Discussion Forum #4 is due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
RP due date: Two more sources (9-10), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Economics and the Environment
Thu, Mar 29
Optimal Pollution
Reading: William Baxter, “People or Penguins” (#58).
Comments on DF #4 are due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Additional Material
Text: Lisa Heinzerling and Frank Ackerman, Pricing the Priceless: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Environmental Protection (Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute, 2002) [text].
Text: Mark Dowie, “Pinto Madness” (Mother Jones, Sep/Oct 1977) [web].
Text: E. S. Grush and C. S. Saunby, “Fatalities Associated with Crash Induced Fuel Leakage and Fires” (the Ford Pinto Memo) [text].
Tue, Apr 3
Citizens and Consumers
Reading: Mark Sagoff, “At the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima (#68).
Additional Material
Text: Mark Sagoff, “Carrying Capacity and Ecological Economics” (Bioscience, 45 [2009]: 610-20) [text].
Text: Brian Czech, “Ecological Economics” (Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, 2009) [text].
Text: Herman Daly, “A Steady-State Economy” (Sustainable Development Commission, UK, 2008) [text].
Text: Tim Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth? The Transition to a Sustainable Economy (2009) [text].
Thu, Apr 5
Can We Value Anything?
Reading: Martin Krieger, “What’s Wrong with Plastic Trees?” (#32).
RP due date: first draft of research paper (>ANGEL drop box) [rubric]
Tue, Apr 10
Second Exam
The Land Ethic and Beyond
Thu, Apr 12
Leopold’s Land Ethic
Reading: Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic” (#19); J. Baird Callicott, “Conceptual Foundations” (#20).
Additional Material
Web Resource: The Land Institute [web]
Tue, Apr 17
Deep Ecology
Reading: Arne Naess, “Shallow and Deep Ecology” (#24); Arne Naess, “Ecosophy T” (#25); Bill Devall and George Sessions (#26).
Discussion Forum #5 is due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Additional Material
Website: Deep Ecology Hub [web]
Text: Interview with Michael Zimmerman (In Context, Summer 1989) [web]
Thu, Apr 19
Social Ecology
Reading: Murray Bookchin, “Social Ecology vs Deep Ecology” (#28).
Comments on DF #5 are due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Additional Material
Website: Murray Bookchin’s Collected Works (online) [web]
Environmental Justice
Tue, Apr 24
Environmental Racism
Reading: Robert Bullard, “Overcoming Racism” (#70); Peter Wenz, “Just Garbage” (#72).
Additional Material
Website: Environmental Justice/Environmental Racism [resources] [web].
Website: Environmental Justice Resource Center (Clark Atlanta University) [web].
Film: Erin Brokovich (2000; Dir.: Steve Soderbergh; 2h 11m) [trailer]
Thu, Apr 26
Third World Critiques
Reading: Ramachandra Guha, “Radical Environmentalism” (#39); Maria Mies, “Deceiving the Third World” (#73).
Additional Material
Text: Maria Mies, “The Subsistence Perspective” (transcript of a 2005 interview) [text].
Website: Reconnecting Farmers, Society and the Earth (Vandana Shiva’s website) [web].
Getting There ...
Tue, May 1
Getting in the Way
Reading: Dave Foreman, “Strategic Monkeywrenching” (#81); Michael Martin, “Ecosabotage” (#80).
Discussion Forum #6 is due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Additional Material
Website: Earth First! [web].
Website: Greenpeace [web].
Website: Sea Shepherd [web].
Article: Tim DeChristopher, “I do not want mercy, I want you to join me,” Common Dreams [web].
Thu, May 3
What We Need
Reading: Todd Saunders, “Community Design” (#78); Lester Brown, et al., “Sustainable World” (#82).
Comments on DF #6 are due (see ANGEL) [rubric]
Additional Material
Report: “The First Bioenergy Village in Jühnde/Germany” [web].
Interview: Jaime Lerner on Green Cities in Brazil [pdf].
Website: The Vertical Farm Project [web].
Report: LED lighting for those Vertical Farms [web].
News Item: “Biodiversity in a Housing Project in Malmö” The Guardian [web].
Video: Las Gaviotas: How to Plant a Rainforest (15m 22s) [video]
Video: E. F. Schumacher on Buddhist Economics (3m 11s) [from a lecture on Appropriate Technology at the Great Circle Center, University of Illinois, Chicago, 19 Mar 1977] [video]
TED talk: William McDonough on cradle to cradle design (20m 3s) [web video]
TED talk: Alex Steffen sees a sustainable future (17m 31s) [web video] [www.worldchanging.com]
Tue, May 8 - Thu, May 10
Student Research Presentations [rubric]
RP due date: final draft of research paper (>ANGEL drop box) [rubric] + summary sheet of research (>ANGEL drop box) [rubric]
Finals Week
Third Exam
Manchester College // Registrar // Department of Religion and Philosophy // Last updated: 22 Feb 2012