INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS L30 235F Fall 2008

Basic Information

Instructor:Teaching Assistant:Offices:Office Hours:

E-mails:

Clare Palmer.Carrie Vodehnal.Clare Palmer: Wilson 108. Carrie Vodehnal: Wilson 116.Clare Palmer: Thursday 2.30-3.30, and other times by appointmentCarrie Vodehnal: Tuesday, 11.30-1.30.

Carrie Vodehnal: cavodehn@artsci.wustl.eduClass times: 10.00-11.30, Tuesday/Thursday in McDonnell 361Required book: Environmental Ethics: Reading in Theory and Application, 5th Edition

Edited by Louis Pojman and Paul Pojman. (Thompson-Gale 2008).Most of the readings are from this book (some others will be on Telesis).

Readings on Telesis: Some of the course readings I've made available on Telesis. Go to thecourse Telesis page, and click on "Topics" The relevant readings, withdates, are stored there.

Weekly Schedule for the Course

WeeklAugust 28' : Introduction to the course. No reading required.

Part One: Approaches to Environmental Ethics

Week 2:Sept. 2nd:Sept. 4th:

Articulating Values ExerciseSome Key Ideas, and a Very Short Introduction to Ethical Theories!A very short reading too: p.4-7 of Pojman & Pojman.

Week 3: 9/llth SeptemberSept. 9th: Anthropocentrism and Stewardship

Readings: "Perspectives"; (10-11)Lynn White Jr. (14-21)

Sept 11th Future GenerationsReadings: "Introduction" (346-7) Heilbroner (347-350) and Julian Simon "Canthe supply of natural resources really be infinite? Yes!" on Telesis.

Week 4:16718th SeptemberSept. 16th: Extending the Circle 1: What are Animals Like?Sept. 18th: Animal Ethics: Key Theories

Readings: Singer (73-82) Regan (82-89)

Week 5: 23/25 SeptemberSept. 23rd: Animal Ethics: Zoos and Experimentation

Readings: Carl Cohen - on Telesis and athttp://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/phil 1200,Spr07/cohen.pdfJamieson (97-103)

I will be away on Thursday 25th September, and will set a case study test to be tackled inclass.

Week 6: 30th Sept -2nd Oct.3d Sept: Extending the Circle 2: All living things2" Oct: All living things cont.

Readings: Kenneth Goodpaster: (154-163) and Paul Taylor (139-154).Note: The readings are a bit long and difficult, but do your best!

Week 7: 7/9th Oct.7th Oct.: A Different Way of Extending the Circle: The Land Ethic9" Oct.: The Land Ethic and Beyond to the Gaia Hypothesis

"The Land Ethic" (163-172) and James Lovelock "Reflections on Gaia"available on Telesis (the second reading is not ideal, but the only short, relevantLovelock piece I know).

Week 8 14/16,h October14 Oct.: Catch up and review class16" Oct.: Mid-semester class test

Part II: Practical Issues in Environmental Ethics

Week 9: 21/23 Oct21st Oct.: Hunting.

Readings for Tuesday 21st: J. Baird Callicott "Animal Liberation: A TriangularAffair." Roger Scruton "Fox-Hunting: The Modern Case." Both on Telesis.

23rd Oct.: DVD: Varmints!

Week 10: 28/30 Oct28th Oct.: Species Extinction30th Oct.: Species Extinction Continued

Readings: Lily Marlene Russow "Why do Species Matter?" (269-276); HolmesRolston, "Duties to Endangered Species" Bioscience 35/11(1985), pp. 718-726. On Telesis.

Week 11: 4/6 Nov.4th Nov.: Environmental Restoration6th Nov.: Environmental Restoration Cont.

Readings: Elliott: (290-297) and Frodeman "A Sense of the Whole" on Telesis.

Week 12: 11/13 Nov.IT" Nov.

13"' Nov.

Ethics and Climate ChangeReadings: Section 11: Pew Center (568-569) and Stephen Gardiner "Ethics andGlobal Climate Change" ( 573-597)Workshop: Ethics and Biofuels/ Ethics and Carbon OffsettingReadings: You should look out for news stories and information on biofuels andcarbon offsetting for this workshop

Week 13: 18/20tn Nov.18th Nov.: Wilderness20"' Nov.: Wilderness 2

Readings: for Thursday: Michael Nelson (200-207) and Guha (521-528)

Week 14: 25 Nov (27th Nov = Thanksgiving!)25" Nov.: Environmental Beliefs, Practices - and Civil Disobedience.

Readings: Martin (742-754) Foreman (756-759 ).

Week 15: 2/4 Dec2" Dec: Catch up and Review Class4th Dec: Final Class Test

THERE IS NO LATER EXAMINATION FOR THIS CLASS: THIS CLASS TEST ENDSCLASS ASSESSMENT.

2. Format of classesThere will be a mixture of discussion and lecturing on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. Generallywe'll discuss readings on Thursdays, but there are a couple of weeks where it's important to havethe reading done for Tuesday, so check the syllabus above. I will expect you to have done thereadings each week, and I'll have 4 Quickie Random Reading tests in the course of the semester(worth 10% of the final grade for the course). These tests should be straightforward if you'vedone the reading and have shown up for class!

3. AssessmentThe course has a number of forms of assessment:

1. 4 Quickie Random Reading tests, to encourage you to attend class and do the reading(10%)

2. One case study test in September to take an initial reading of how things are going (10%)3. A hand-in critical review of one of the readings (10%)4. A mid semester test with (a) gobbets (b) a case study and (c) an essay (20%)5. A longer essay (30%)6. A final class test with (a) gobbets (b) a case study and (c) an essay (20%)

This should test a number of different skills: recall, clear summarizing, researching,understanding texts, analyzing, criticizing and developing arguments; relating theory to practice.

In general:Length of coursework: Keep to the assigned length. Work that is more than 1 page over length,unless permission has been obtained, will be penalized 1/3 of a grade (e.g. a B+ will become a B).Late work: Late work means extra time, and gives an advantage over other students. Thereforework will be penalized by 1 /3 of a grade for every 2 days or part of two days it is late.(So, up to 2days late an A will become A-; 2- 4 days, B+ and 4-6 days, B). If you need an extension formedical or other personal reasons, please contact Clare or Carrie before the deadline.Taking the course on a Pass/Fail basis: You need to get an average of C+ overall to Pass.

Grading: Good grades are gained by papers that display a combination of the following:

a. A demonstration that you understand material you've read, that you have given ita charitable hearing, and that you can accurately summarize key points from it.

b. Where relevant, a concise and accurate account of empirical material (This,though, should only constitute a small proportion of your paper).

c. The skills of reconstructing, analyzing and critically evaluating authors'arguments; and (where relevant) reformulating them more successfully.

d. An ability to argue persuasively for your own view, which involves: marshallingrelevant empirical information, explaining how it is relevant and supports yourcase, providing grounds for any claims that are made, considering counterarguments to your own argument and showing why the counter-arguments do notsucceed; making sure that your conclusions follow from premises.

e. Clear and concise writing, so that the reader can see immediately what you aretrying to say; an introduction that sets up the essay, signposts so that the readerknows where the essay is going, & paragraphs that follow on from one another,so that the essay has a sense of flow and structure.

ToAvoidl Unsubstantiated claims; discussions of feelings/opinions where these are not backedup by evidence or argument; inaccurate or carpingly uncharitable reporting of other positions;generalizations (such as "People think that"); discussions that have no reference to the work ofthose who have already written in the field.

taking to get a good grade. Your work is judged on the basis of the strength of the arguments youpresent, not the position you adopt.

Referencing: You should reference all sources used, including web sites and materials from thetext book, in your paper, and to provide a bibliography. The bibliography does not count towardsyour page total.

Assignments:

/. Quickie Random Reading Tests (10%)There will be four of these randomly scattered through the semester. Each will have 10 questions,either with answers of a sentence or less, or they will be multiple choice questions. We'll collectthese in and hand them back in the next class.

2. September Case Study Test (10%) - 26' SeptemberIt's always useful to take the temperature of a class early on. For this test, I'll provide a casestudy relevant to the animal material we will have been looking at. You will be asked a series ofquestions about the case study, which will draw on your understanding of the material we'vecovered, and give you an opportunity to develop some of your own arguments in an appliedcontext.

3. Critical Review (10% ) - 9th OctoberCritically review one of these articles set as a reading: Lynn White Jr., Julian Simon, PeterSinger, Tom Regan, Kenneth Goodpaster, Paul Taylor, Aldo Leopold. I'll provide more detailsabout this critical review nearer the date. But some basic guidance - you should:

• Pick out central arguments and summarize them clearly;• Point out difficulties, problems and weaknesses in these arguments;• Consider possible criticisms of the arguments;• Evaluate the strength of these criticisms;• Offer revisions of the arguments in the article, if you think you can, that in your view

would strengthen it;

• Offer comment on the overall success of the article's arguments, and whether it makes asignificant contribution to thinking about environmental ethics.

A critical review is not just a summary of the article you have read. If you write just a summary,however accurate, you will not get above B-. The aim of this assessment is for you to thinkcritically about what is being argued, not only to present the argument, important though this is.This critical review should be 4 double-spaced sides long. Reviews are always concise: keep tothe page length.

4. Mid-term class test (20%) - 17th OctoberThis 1.5 hour class test will contain gobbets, a case study and an essay. More information will beprovided nearer the time.

5. Environmental Ethics Essay (30%) - 25'1' NovemberThis longer essay should discuss one of the problems we will be considering in the second half ofthe semester: hunting, species extinction, environmental restoration, wilderness and climatechange (including carbon offsetting and biofuels). You should identify either a clear question(for example: "Is carbon offsetting an ethical way for individuals or businesses to counteract theirGHG emissions?") or choose a case study about one of these problems (e.g. a case where anintroduced non-native species is driving a native species to extinction, or a disputed restorationcase) where you can explore the ethical issues involved. Whether you go for the question or thecase study, you must provide ethical arguments that lead to a particular recommendation(either in policy terms, or for what individuals should do). You should use a minimum of 4academic sources, though these need not all be set readings for the course. Newspaper clippings,popular journalism etc should be in addition to the academic sources. This essay should be 6double spaced sides long. More details nearer the time.

6. Final Class Test (20%) - 4'' DecemberThis 1.5 hour class test will contain gobbets, a case study, and an essay question. Although thefinal class test will be oriented around the issues we've looked at in the second part of thesemester, you will need to know material from the whole course, not just the second half of thesemester, in order to answer the questions well.

4. The Participation GradeA small participation grade will be awarded to students who contribute (a) regularly and (b)helpfully to class discussion. This grade will take the form of a one third additional grade onthe second essay. No student should be disadvantaged by this grade (since nothing is lost by notgetting it) but it rewards students who have done the reading and help to keep the classdiscussions alive. There is a long tradition of verbal debate in Philosophy, and we want toencourage you to contribute to it!

5. Dissatisfaction with GradesOccasionally a student is unhappy with a grade. If this is you, please do not knock on my door,brandishing your paper or test, expecting an instant judgment; thinking about grades is a processthat takes time and reflection! Write a brief account explaining why you think the grade is unfair.Submit this account, with the contested piece of work, to Mindy Danner in the Philosophy officefor the attention of Clare Palmer. Either Carrie or I, or both of us (depending on who marked it)will re-read the piece of work concerned and will provide feedback and a view on the grade. Ifyou are still unhappy, I will give the contested paper to another colleague in Philosophy toevaluate. If you wish to do this, you must agree to abide by the decision of the colleague: grades

can go down as well as up by taking this route. Note: we will not enter into discussions aboutthe award of the participation grade.

FURTHER READING AND USEFUL RESOURCES

Websites: GeneralLawrence Hinman's Ethics Updates: http://ethics.sandiego.edu/ This site is good for ethics ingeneral, but has special sections, including videos etc, on animal and environmental ethics.Two on-line encyclopedias of philosophy:Stanford http://plato.stanford.edu/ (This is an excellent resource and has a pretty good

entry on environmental ethics in it, but entries are quite high-level)IEP http:/ /www.utm.edu/research/ienThe Philosopher's Index is a useful resource to search for topics/authors in journal articles andedited book collections. It can only be accessed from university computers, and only supportsfour users at a time: http://library.wustl.edu/databases/about/phil.html

Websites: On environmental ethicsThe Center for Environmental Philosophy website at University of North Texas is the gatekeeperto a number of useful resources, including the International Society of Environmental Ethics online bibliography. See http://www.cep.unt.edu. The ISEE Bibliography can also be found directlyon httD://www.ceD.unt.edu/bib/

The Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) has been an importantorganization in the US; this site could provide useful case studies: http://www.fseee.org/

Possibly the leading figure in environmental ethics, Holmes Rolston, has put much of his workonline. His website is at httn://lamar.colostate.edu/~rolston/

The journal Ethics and the Environment is online here:http://www.phil.uga.edu/eande/ You should have access to this journal on university computers.

Useful further reading in environmental ethicsThis is inevitably a very brief bibliography: please contact me if you want to look at anyparticular area in more detail. The journal Environmental Ethics is the leading journal in thefield. It is only available in paper copy. The library has a full run of it. Many of the articles havebeen reproduced elsewhere, and there's a complete index online athttp://www.cep.unt.edu/indexl7.html This journal should be your first port of call on anyparticular subject in which you're interested.

General:Benson, John (2000) Environmental Ethics: An Introduction with Readings (London: Routledge)Somewhat eclectic, but has an interesting and unusual range of readings. Benson was well knownin British analytic philosophy in the 1970s.Callicott, J.Baird. (1994) Earth's Insights: A Multicultural Survey of Ecological Ethics from theMediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback. (Berkeley: University of California Press). Amaddening but sometimes useful work for those interested in exploring different religious andcultural approaches to environmental ethics.Elliot, R. & Gare, A.(1983) Environmental Philosophy (Milton Keynes: Open UP) An early, butstill useful collection.

Light, A and Rolston H (2001) Environmental Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell). A slightly higher-level reader, with an excellent overview essay (I'm kidding!) and sections on environmentalpragmatism, restoration etc not covered in some other collections.

AnimalsAllen, C. & Bekoff, M. (1997). Species of Mind: The Philosophy and Biology of CognitiveEthology. MIT Press (as background; not advocating any particular ethical approach).Bernstein, Mark On Moral Considerability (Oxford: OUP)De Grazia, David (1996) Taking Animals Seriously (Oxford: OUP)Feinberg, Joel 'The Rights of Animals and Unborn Generations," in William T. Blackstone(editor), Philosophy & Environmental Crisis (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1974): 43-68(26pp).Frey, R.F. (1983) Rights, Killing and Suffering (Oxford: Blackwell) (against vegetarianism)Harrison, P (1991). Do animals feel pain? Philosophy 66:25-40Jamieson, Dale. (1990). "Rights, Justice, and Duties to Provide Assistance: A Critique ofRegan's Theory of Rights", Ethics 100Regan, Tom (1983) The Case for Animal Rights (Cambridge: CUP).Singer, Peter (1976: 1883 ed.) Animal Liberation (London: Thorsons)Journal special editions: The Monist 70 1987; Philosophy 53 1978

Biocentric and Ecocentric ApproachesAttfield, Robin (1983) The Ethics of Environmental Concern (Oxford: Blackwell; revised editionAthens: University of Georgia Press). Attfield's book explores Judeo-Christian ideas of stewardshipand domination, as well as considering human obligations to future generations of humans, and tothe nonhuman natural world.J. Baird Callicott, "The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic" (in our textbook)Carlson, Allen (1979) "Appreciation of the Natural Environment," Journal of Aesthetics and ArtCriticism 37: 357-376Johnson, Lawrence. (1991) A Morally Deep World: An essay on moral significance andenvironmental ethics. (New York: Cambridge University Press). ALeopold, Aldo A Sand County Almanac (Oxford: Oxford University Press)Rolston, Holmes (1979) "Can We and Ought We to Follow Nature?," Environmental Ethics 1: 7-30Rolston, Holmes. (1988). Environmental Ethics: Duties To and Values In the Natural World.(Philadelphia: Temple University Press). This is Holmes Rolston's major systematic work inenvironmental ethics. He examines a range of questions in environmental ethics, developing his ownview on the nature of environmental value throughout.Routley, R & V (1979)"Against the Inevitability of Human Chauvinism," in K. E. Goodpasterand K. E. Sayer, Ethics and the Problems of the 21st Century (Notre Dame, Ind.: University ofNotre Dame Press): 36-59 .Stone, Christopher (1973) "Should Trees Have Standing?" Southern California Law Review 45(1972): 450-501 (An early argument for legal rights, an abbreviated version is in our textbook)Taylor, Paul (1986) Respect for Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press)Varner, Gary (1998) In Nature's Interests (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

The Triangular AffairHargrove, E. (ed.) (1993) The Animal Liberation/Environmental Ethics Debate (New York:SUNY Press) This anthology contains many of the key articles in the animal rights/environmental ethics debate, including 'Animal Liberation: A Triangular Affair.' It's aconvenient way of accessing a range of papers and also has a helpful historical introduction.O'Neil, Rick (2000) "Animal Liberation versus Environmentalism" Environmental Ethics 22/2

p.183-190.

HuntingBekoff and Jamieson 'Sport hunting as instinct - another evolutionary just-so story'Environmental Ethics 1991 vol. 13 no.4 pp. 375-378Causey, Anne (1989) On the Morality of Hunting Environmental Ethics 11 327-343Countryside Alliance (1999) Hunting the Facts (http://www.countryside-alliance.org)Curnutt, J. (1996) "How to argue for and against sport hunting" Journal of Social Philosophy27(2) 65-89Dizard, Jan (1994) Going Wild: Hunting, Animal Rights and the Contested meaning of Nature(Amhurst: University of Massachusetts Press)Gunn , Alistair "Environmental Ethics and Trophy Hunting Ethics and the Environment 6 68-95Kerasote (1993) Bloodties: Nature, Culture and the Hunt (New York: Kodansha)King, R. J. H. 'Environmental ethics and the case for hunting' Environmental Ethics 1991 vol.13no.lpp.59-85List, Charles (1997) "Is Hunting a Right Thing?" Environmental Ethics 19/4 1997 p. 405-416;List, Charles (1998) 'On the Moral Significance of a Hunting Ethic' Ethics and the Environmentvol. 3 no.2 pp. 157-175Luke, Brian (1997) "A Critical Analysis of Hunter's Ethics" Environmental Ethics 19/1 1997 p.25-44Moriarty, P.V. and Woods, M. (1997) 'Hunting does not equal predation' Environmental Ethics1997 vol. 19 no. 4 pp.391-404Rolston, Holmes (1991) Environmental Ethics p 88-93.Vitali, T. (1990) 'Sport hunting - moral or immoral' Environmental Ethics vol. 12 no.l 69-82.

Environmental RestorationElliott, Robert (1997) Faking Nature (London: Routledge)Higgs, Eric (1997) "What is good ecological restoration?" Conservation Biology 11 (2), 338-348.Katz, Eric (1992) "The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature" Research in Philosophy andTechnology 12: 231-241Light, Andrew and Eric S. Higgs.(1996) "The politics of ecological restoration". EnvironmentalEthics 18 /3 p 227-247. Andrew Light's webpage has a number of further articles on restoration.Throop, W. (2000). Environmental Restoration: Ethics, Theory and Practice. (Humanity Books:Prometheus)

Biodiversity and Species ExtinctionEhrlich, Anne and Ehrlich, Paul, (1981) Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of theDisappearance of Species (NY: Random House)Norton, Bryan (1986)(ed.) The Preservation of Species (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress) 110-137Norton, Bryan (ed)(1987) Why Preserve Natural Variety? (Princeton: Princeton Uni. Press)Sarkar, Sahotra (2005) Biodiversity and Environmental Philosophy: An Introduction.Cambridge: Cambridge University PressSokal, Robert (1995) 'The Continuing Search for Order' in Sober (ed.) Conceptual Issues inEvolutionary Biology (2nd ed.)(MIT)Sokal, Robert and Crevello, Theodore (1992) 'The Biological Species Concept: A CriticalEvaluation", in Ereshevsky, Marc (ed.) The Units of Evolution: Essays on the Nature of Species(Massachusetts: MIT Press) pp.27Wiley, E.O. (1992) 'The Evolutionary Species Concept Reconsidered" in Ereshevsky, Marc (ed.)The Units of Evolution pp. 79-92

Climate ChangeBeckerman, Wilfred, and Joanna Pasek (2001) Justice, Posterity and the Environment.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Brown, Donald. (2002) American Heat: Ethical Problems with the United States' Response toGlobal Warming. Lanham, MD: Rowman & LittlefieldFrancis, Leslie Pickering (2003) "Global Systemic Problems and Interconnected Duties."Environmental Ethics, 25: 115-28Gardiner, Stephen (2004) The Global Warming Tragedy and the Dangerous Illusion of theKyoto Protocol', Ethics and International Affairs, Vol. 18, No. 1 23-39Hood, Robert (2003) "Global Warming." Companion to Applied Ethics, eds. R. G. Frey andChristopher Wellman, pp. 674-84. Oxford: BlackwellLomborg, Bjorn (2001) "Global Warming." The Sceptical Environmentalist. Cambridge:Cambridge University PressShue, Henry (2001) "Climate" in A Companion to Environmental Philosophy, ed. DaleJamieson, 449-59. (Oxford: Blackwell)There's a website on The Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change at Penn State University's RockEthics Institute, with some interesting information and links: http://rockethics.psu.edu/climate/

Wilderness and the UrbanBirch, Tom (1990) "The Incarceration of Wilderness: Wilderness Areas as Prisons,"Environmental Ethics 12 : 3-26Callicott and Nelson (eds.) (\998)The Great New Wilderness Debate (Athens: University ofGeorgia Press). A really useful collection of extracts from the classics, and key essays onwilderness. A second volume's about to come out, but isn't out yet.Gunn, Alistair (1998) "Rethinking Communities: Environmental Ethics in an Urbanised World"Environmental Ethics 201A p.341-360.Light, Andrew "The Urban Blind Spot in Environmental Ethics" Environmental Politics 10(2001): 7-35Nash, Roderick. (1983). Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale UniversityPress.Nash, Roderick (1977) "The Value of Wilderness," Environmental Review 3: 14-25Oelschlaeger, Max (1991). The Idea of Wilderness. New Haven: Yale University PressRolston, Holmes (1996) Feeding People versus Saving Nature available athttnV/www.ecosDherics.net/naees/RolstonPeoDleVSNature.html

Environment and ActivismCallicott, J. Baird. (1996) "How Environmental Ethical Theory May Be Put Into Practice"Ethics and the Environment 1: 3-14.Rawles, Kate. (2002) "The Missing Shade of Green," in Schmidtz and Willot (eds)Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works (Oxford: OUP) pp. 535-46.Callicott, J. Baird. (2002) "Environmental Philosophy Is Environmental Activism: The MostRadical and Effective Kind," in Schmidtz and Willot (eds) (as above) pp.546-56.