Environmental Philosophy (INTD 425)
Manchester University, Spring 2016 Instructor: Steve Naragon
Reading and Assignment Schedule
Required Texts
• Pojman and Pojman, Environmental Ethics: Readings in Theory and Application, 6th ed. (Thomson/Wadsworth, 2012). [ISBN: 978-0-538-45284-7]
• Additional required readings (available with the links below) from John Locke, Robert Nozick, Chief Seattle, Amartya Sen, and others.
Print these few articles and bring to class!
Various assignment due dates are listed below. Your work should be submitted on D2L, in the appropriate drop box 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 essay (indicated below as: Research Essay 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.)
Thu, Jan 28
Introduction to the class.
DF #1 is due at midnight (see D2L)
Private Property and the Public Good
Tue, Feb 2
Where Does Private Property Come From?
Reading: John Locke, “Of Property” [pdf]; Chief Seattle, “If we sell you our land…” [pdf].
Comments on DF #1 are due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Additional Material
Text: Jerry Clark, “Thus Spoke Chief Seattle: The Story of An Undocumented Speech” Prologue Magazine (Spring 1985) [pdf].
Thu, Feb 4
Is the Privatization of Common Resources the Best Way to Preserve Them?
Reading: Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons” (#28).
Research Essay due date: Please add a brief post (D2L discussion forum) that describes the research topic or topics that you are considering.
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Property Rights” [pdf].
Text: John Tierney, “The Non-Tragedy of the Commons” (The New York Times, 17 Dec 2011) [web].
Tue, Feb 9
Overview of Distributive Justice
Reading: Robert Nozick, “Distributive Justice” (selection from Anarchy, State, and Utopia) [pdf].
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Distributive Justice” [pdf].
Text: Stephen Metcalf, “The Liberty Scam” (Slate, 20 Jun 2011) [web].
Population, Consumption, and
Food Ethics
Thu, Feb 11
Are we Living on a Lifeboat?
Reading: Garrett Hardin, “Lifeboat Ethics” (#30); William Murdoch and Allan Oaten, “Critique of Lifeboat Ethics” (#31).
DF #2 is due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Living on a Lifeboat” [pdf].
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) [pdf].
Graph: Population growth (annual %), prepared by the World Bank [web].
Passage: Malthus on People [text].
Tue, Feb 16
Patterns of Consumption
Reading: Bill McKibben, “A Special Moment in History: The Challenge of Overpopulation and Overconsumption” (#27).
Comments on DF #2 are due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Research Essay due date: Thesis paragraph and preliminary list of sources (D2L drop box).
Additional Material
Article: Gary Gardner, Erik Assadourian, Radhika Sarin, “The State of Consumption Today” (State of the World 2004) [pdf].
Biographical Profile: Nick Paumgarten, “The Scold: Mr. Money Mustache's retirement (sort of) plan” (The New Yorker, 29 February 2016) [pdf]. And here is the official blogsite for Mr. Money Mustache [blog].
Population Clock: Maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau [web]
Wikipedia: World Human Population [web]
Video: Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff (20m) [video]
Video: Andreas Malm, "The Anthropocene Myth" (Jacobin, 30 March 2015) [online]
Video: Annie Leonard interview with Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report, 9 March 2010) [video]
Thu, Feb 18
Population and Vegetarianism
Reading: Michael Allen Fox, “Vegetarianism and Treading Lightly” (#38).
Additional Material
Video: The Future of Food with Vandana Shiva (4m 47s) [video]
Brochure: Jude Capper, “Raising Sustainable Beef: a scientist’s point of view” explorebeef.com [web] — an exercise for critical reading
Video: Four Winds Farm: organic food from a family farm (5m 18s) [video]
Video: Britta Riley, “A Garden in My Apartment” (TED Talk; 7m 445s) [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 23
When our Neighbors Starve
Reading: Mylan Engel, Jr., “Hunger, Duty, and Ecology” (#36); Amartya Sen, “Property and Hunger” [pdf].
Research Essay due date: Two sources, with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography (D2L drop box). [help]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: Amartya Sen, “Property and Hunger” [pdf].
Website: Charity Navigator: Your Guide to Intelligent Giving [website].
Film: The Girl in the Café (2005; Dir.: David Yates; 1h 34m) [trailer]
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, Feb 25
First Exam [study guide]
On The Moral Standing of
Non-Human Animals
Tue, Mar 1
Animal Welfare
Reading: Peter Singer, “Animal Liberation” (#6).
Research Essay due date: Two more sources (3-4), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Animal Rights and Animal Welfare” [pdf].
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]
Thu, Mar 3
Animal Rights
Reading: Tom Regan, “The Radical Egalitarian Case” (#7); Mary Ann Warren, “A Critique of Regan” (#8).
DF #3 is due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Tue, Mar 8
How Wide is our Moral Community?
Reading: Kenneth Goodpaster, “On Being Morally Considerable” [pdf].
Comments on DF #3 are due at midniight (see D2L) [rubric]
Research Essay due date: Two more sources (5-6), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Species, Biodiversity, and
Valuing Nature
Thu, Mar 10
Valuing Species
Reading: Donella Meadow, “Biodiversity” (#20); Lilly-Marlene Russow, “Why Do Species Matter?” (#21).
Research Essay due date: Two more sources (7-8), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: Valuing Species” [pdf].
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]
Tue, Mar 15
Extending Legal Rights
Reading: Christopher Stone, “Should Trees Have Standing?” (#26).
DF #4 is due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Research Essay due date: Two more sources (9-10), with annotations, should be added to your Annotated Bibliography blog. [help]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: Valuing Nature” [pdf].
Economics and the Environment
Thu, Mar 17 [cancelled]
Spring Break
[Revised material to make up for the cancelled class on Thur, Mar 17: I am moving all the material back one day, so that the essay from Thu, Mar 17, will now be discussed on Tue, Mar 29, etc. The 2nd exam has also been moved back one day. I have corrected the dates/readings on this schedule.]
Tue, Mar 29
Optimal Pollution
Reading: William Baxter, “People or Penguins” (#34).
Comments on DF #4 are due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Economics and the Environment” [pdf].
Economics Summary Sheet (you might want to print this out and bring to class): “Economics and the Environment (summary)” [pdf].
Text: Lisa Heinzerling and Frank Ackerman, Pricing the Priceless: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Environmental Protection (Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute, 2002) [pdf].
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) [pdf].
Thu, Mar 31
Citizens and Consumers
Reading: Mark Sagoff, “At the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima (#67).
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Citizens and Consumers” [pdf].
Text: Mark Sagoff, “Carrying Capacity and Ecological Economics” (Bioscience, 45 [2009]: 610-20) [pdf].
Text: Brian Czech, “Ecological Economics” (Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, 2009) [pdf].
Text: Herman Daly, “A Steady-State Economy” (Sustainable Development Commission, UK, 2008) [pdf].
Text: Tim Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth? The Transition to a Sustainable Economy (2009) [pdf].
Tue, Apr 5
Can We Value Anything?
Reading: Martin Krieger, “What’s Wrong with Plastic Trees?” [pdf].
Research Essay due date: first draft of research essay (D2L drop box) [rubric]
Powerpoint Slides: “What’s Wrong with Plastic Trees?” [pdf].
Thu, Apr 7
Second Exam [study guide]
The Land Ethic and Beyond
Tue, Apr 12
Leopold’s Land Ethic
Reading: Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic” (#24); J. Baird Callicott, “Conceptual Foundations” (#25).
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “The Land Ethics” [pdf].
Web Resource: The Land Institute [web]
TED talks: George Monbiot, “For More Wonder, Rewild the World” (15m 06] [YouTube]. For the brief section on trophic cascade from wolves to rivers, with imagery from Yellowstone, see this [YouTube] clip.
Thu, Apr 14
Deep Ecology
Reading: Arne Naess, “Shallow and Deep Ecology” (#13); Arne Naess, “Ecosophy T” (#14); Bill Devall and George Sessions (#15).
DF #5 is due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Deep Ecology” [pdf].
Article: Stephan Harding, “What is Deep Ecology?” Ecological Buddhism: A Buddhist Response to Global Warming [web]
Text: Interview with Michael Zimmerman (In Context, Summer 1989) [web]
Tue, Apr 19
Social Ecology
Reading: Murray Bookchin, “Social Ecology vs Deep Ecology” (#18).
Comments on DF #5 are due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Social Ecology” [pdf].
Website: Murray Bookchin’s Collected Works (online) [web]
Environmental Justice
Thu, Apr 21
Environmental Racism
Reading: Robert Bullard, “Overcoming Racism” (#50); Peter Wenz, “Just Garbage” (#51).
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Environmental Racism” [pdf].
Website: Environmental Justice/Environmental Racism [resources] [web].
News Item: Chris Mooney, “It’s not just Flint: Poor communities across the country live with ‘extreme’ polluters” The Washington Post (January 27, 2016) [web].
Film: Erin Brokovich (2000; Dir.: Steve Soderbergh; 2h 11m) [trailer]
Tue, Apr 26
Third World Critiques
Reading: Ramachandra Guha, “Radical Environmentalism” (#19); Maria Mies, “Deceiving the Third World” (#52).
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Third World Critiques” [pdf].
Text: Maria Mies, “The Subsistence Perspective” (transcript of a 2005 interview) [pdf].
Website: Reconnecting Farmers, Society and the Earth (Vandana Shiva’s website) [web].
Getting There ...
Thu, Apr 28
Getting in the Way
Reading: Dave Foreman, “Strategic Monkeywrenching” (#73); Michael Martin, “Ecosabotage” (#74).
DF #6 is due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Additional Material
Powerpoint Slides: “Activism” [pdf].
News Item: Democracy Now!: “Honduran Indigenous Leader Berta Cáceres Assassinated, Won Goldman Environmental Prize” (3 March 2016) [web]
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].
Biographical Profile: Nick Paumgarten, “The Scold: Mr. Money Mustache's retirement (sort of) plan” (The New Yorker, 29 February 2016) [pdf]. And here is the official blogsite for Mr. Money Mustache [blog].
Report: “The First Bioenergy Village in Jühnde/Germany” [pdf].
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]
Video: Britta Riley, “A Garden in My Apartment” (TED Talk; 7m 445s) [video]
Mon, May 2
Research Essay due date: final draft of research essay (D2L drop box) [rubric] + summary sheet of research (D2L drop box) [rubric]
Tue, May 3 - Thu, May 5
Student Research Presentations [rubric]
Comments on DF #6 are due at midnight (see D2L) [rubric]
Finals Week
Third Exam [study guide]
Tuesday, May 10, 10:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Manchester University // Registrar // Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies // Last updated: 3 May 2016