Environmental Ethics
Fall 2008 - ENVSC 11

NOTE : THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

Peter Blakemore
Office: 134 Creative Arts
Office Hrs: M 2-4, TTh 9-10
and by appointment
Phone: 476-4314
email: peter-blakemore@redwoods.edu
http:// www.redwoods.edu/instruct/pblakemore

Course Texts:


  • Leopold, Aldo A Sand County Almanac Ballantine
  • Wilson, Edward O. The Future of Life Knopf
  • Course Packet for ENVSC 11 - Fall 2008

Course Learning Outcomes:


    Students who successfully complete the course should be able to:
  • Analyze ethical situations relevant to environmental issues
  • Identify practical and theoretical distinctions for such situations
  • Describe the relevance of these distinctions for current society
  • Connect various aspects of environmental choices with outcomes
  • Apply methods of inquiry to hypothetical and real issues
  • Discover their own logical process and beliefs regarding the environment
  • Demonstrate knowledge of other people's and cultures' perspectives
  • Define the key terms and apply them in critical, analytical writing
  • Trace the rise of modern environmental thinking

    Course Description

    This course will focus on the issues and problems arising out of ethical considerations related to the general environment and specific ecosystems and individual species, animals, plants and places. During the term we will explore the foundations for beliefs and worldviews regarding nature and the human relationship to it, and examine the questions people ask and the judgments people have made historically, are making currently, and might make in the future. We will also examine the variety of philosophical perspectives and pragmatic choices and actions people take related to the environmental ethics.

    The Reading, Critical Thinking, Questions, & Writing


    In this course we will be reading from a wide variety of texts. Because we will be reading tales and legends, early modern natural history, journalism, a work of short fiction, two works of ecological science, radical environmentalist manifestos, and numerous philosophical and belletristic essays, you will need to adapt your expectations to shifting patterns of subtlety, complexity, and even, on occasion, jargon (sorry, but we can never escape it). At times I suspect the reading load will seem too easy but most of the time I suspect you will feel challenged. If you approach the challenges of our reading with the notion that you are gaining something through the challenge, you will benefit most greatly. Education needs to be about intellectual challenge (in my humble opinion) and there is no more important or complex issue that our current need for ethical responses to environmental issues. Anyone who even glances at serious newspapers sees this daily. However you pursue the reading, please be aware that you need to come to our classroom prepared to discuss the readings assigned for that day-in other words, readings listed in the course schedule should be done before coming to class. My advice is that you complete all of the reading for the week before Monday's class and take reading notes to yourself (it will be especially useful for coming up with the 2 questions I ask you to bring to each class). You will also be asked to provide one significant question at the beginning of each class, as I call the role-these questions should be based on our readings for that day. We will discuss what I think you should strive for in composing your questions-suffice it to say here that a good question is one that leads us deeper into the heart of an issue; a good question should both help to define the matter at hand and lead us into a more productive inquiry into our topic. Since we will be taking on some of the most complex questions of our time - or any time, for that matter-you should be prepared to wrestle with ideas and issues during every classs.


Journal Entries:

Apart from the daily questions and the two take-home exams you will write in the middle and end of the term, I also require three assigned journal entries. I am not going to require you to keep a single bound journal (but I do recommend this as the best way to work through a class like ours; a reading and course observation journal is an excellent way to keep it all together and prepare for the take-home exams). The assigned journal entries will be typed responses that are not essays but more than just woolgathering or rambling. The due dates for the entries are listed in the Course Schedule. I am providing specific instructions here for the Assigned Entries-please read these instructions carefully and make sure you understand them. (If you need clarification, we should discuss them during class-don't be shy. Ask!) Although I prefer that you post the entries electronically to our Blackboardsite-primarily, so that we can look at them during class time, but also to save paper-I will accept hard copies of them earlier in the week. I will also accept one late journal entry but no more; a late entry will lower your participation grade by a third of a grade level. For instance, if your total participation level is at a B-, the late entry will drop you down to a C+. I will not accept any journal entries more than a week late. (Note: if you have already posted or handed me a late entry, please don't ask me if you can do another; better to bear in mind why the first one was late and plan or structure your life so that it doesn't happen again-or better yet, get all of them done on time). Here are my criteria for grading these entries: If you fulfill the assignment by putting a minimum of necessary time into it, I will give you a C; if you clearly put some effort and careful thought into the entry and craft the sentences and ideas in such a way that you obviously considered the value of your work to yourself and the rest of us, I will give you a B- or B; if you use the entry to move yourself and the rest of us to something valuable and meaningful, and if you put it together in such a way that your ideas and thoughts have a powerful, meaningful effect, I will give you a B+, A-, or A.


Journal Entry Format: Journal entries must be typed in size 12 font and be double-spaced with a standard one inch margin; your name, the Journal Entry number, the entry name, the date and our course number should appear in the upper left corner of each entry, with your creative, descriptive title centered over the text,

  • Journal Entry #1 - Mapping My Environment
    Your first Journal Entry should describe what you see as "My Environment"-by which I mean Your Environment. It is up to you to decide what the term "environment" means as it relates to you and your life. And to map this concept means that you'll need to offer some level of detail and clarity. Obviously, the simplest way to do this would be to simply write out the longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates and describe where you live on a regular map (e.g., "I live 15 miles east of Blue Lake," or "My house is 2000 yards from the Pacific Ocean in the Samoa Dunes"), but the point of this entry is for you to try your best to conceptualize at least some of what exists in the place you would identify as your "environment." I am not requiring that you draw an image of your personal place, but I am asking you to describe what matters to you about your place. These should be interesting, enlightening and fun to read and consider, and these written maps should also helps us see more deeply into our larger society and culture and how we relate these things to our physical, natural, topographical, oceanic day-to-day existence. Posting due on Blackboardby Sunday 9/21 at 2 pm (hardcopy submissions due Wednesday 9/17 in class).

  • Journal Entry #2 - Perceptions of Natural and Artificial Environments
    Obviously in this area there are plenty of places you might choose to focus on for your descriptions of environments, but I want you to decide for yourself what constitutes either a Natural or an Artificial Environment. The most important thing I want you to get out of this entry is a sense of what these two terms mean to you. Since this entry is not due until after the middle of the term, you should take the time to work things out fairly clearly-take notes, jot down ideas over the next several weeks, consider a variety of places before you make your two choices, and visit them more than once, if possible, in order to get strong, accurate details that will help you make your comparison. If you think carefully about these two labels, you will see that each functions to define the other-they are in dialectical opposition. As you take notes and write up this entry, be sure that you offer plenty of the kinds of physical, concrete sensory details and enough description of your mental and intellectual response to the places that the rest of us who will read your Perceptions will understand why you chose these places to compare. And pay special attention to how you came to distinguish the natural from the artificial and tell us all something about the significance of the comparison. Finally, please do not put yourself in danger in order to write this (e.g., please don't snorkel in kelp beds near the most recent great white attack in Mendocino, stalk a mountain lion through a blizzard in the Marbles, or climb a crumbly outcrop at Patrick's Point to "get away from the crowds"). We are blessed to live in an area rich with beautiful and interesting natural and artificial settings of all kinds-experience and explore them safely! Posting due on Blackboard by Sunday 11/2 at 2 pm (hardcopy submission due in class Wednesday 10/29).

  • Journal Entry #3 - A Case for Environmental Ethics
    Select some issue from the news or something you've viewed or read or otherwise know about that you believe makes a good subject for exploring the ethical concerns in ways we've worked on during the semester. There are plenty of local, regional, or state issues to focus on, but you might want to look further in your search. Whatever you do, make sure that you use some of the aspects of our course and the terms we have worked with during the semester to examine the ethics of the situation. What attracted you to this specific case? What are the best questions regarding your chosen case? What do we need to know in order to answer these questions? How might different people view the case differently? What are the specifics? What are the ramifications? What has examining this case done for you? How has your personal perspective affected your thinking? Will you alter your actions because of your examination of this case? What should the rest of us know about it? What should the rest of us do about it? We will be looking at all of these together so please bear that in mind as you think about your specific case. Posting due to Blackboard by Friday 11/28 at 5 pm (hardcopy submission due in class Wednesday 11/25).
    Course Work and Grades Grades will be determined on this basis:
    • Journal Entries (3 x 15%) 45%
    • Take-home Exams (2 x 20%) 40%
    • Participation (questions, attendance, electronic & class discussion) 15%
    • Total 100%

    Grades will be assigned on the basis of this scale: 92-100=A / 90-91=A- / 87-89=B+ / 83-86=B / 80-82=B- / 77 - 79=C+ / 70 - 76=C / 60 - 69=D / 59 and below=F.


    Plagiarism, which is the act of claiming another writer's words or ideas as your own without citing them as a source, is a serious breech of academic conduct and will result in failure of the assignment and possible failure for the course. We will discuss it in detail during the term. If you aren't sure whether you're about to plagiarize or not, ask me about it.


    Attendance & Participation

    Regular attendance is essential to passing this class. Stimulating, useful discussions arise out of prepared people engaging in inquiry about interesting, significant questions. If you are not here, that cannot happen. If you consistently walk into class 5 or10 minutes late, you will disrupt our discussion. To make sure this does not happen, I have decided on the following policies: I will pass around an attendance roster at the start of each class. More than three absences will lower your participation portion one full grade (from an A to a B, for instance). I will also be asking each of you to bring two questions based on that day's reading to each class. At the beginning of class, I'll pass out 3 x 5 notecards to selected class members and you will have to write your 2 questions on the card and pass them back to me. If we focus on your questions, this should stimulate participation and ensure that everyone will stay up with the reading and be prepared for our discussion.


    Learning Disabilities
    Students who have special needs due to physical or learning disabilities should let me know at the very beginning of the course so that we can arrange appropriate accommodations. Please see me immediately to discuss such arrangements in order to ensure your success in the course.


ENVSC 11/ Spring Term 2008

Tentative Reading Schedule

We may alter this schedule if it becomes necessary to do so

Note: Clicking on underlined items in the course schedule will send you to relevant pages I have produced for some of our readings.

    Week 1 / August 25 & 27
  • M - Introduction, syllabus, course guidelines. What are Ethics? What is Environment? What is inquiry?
  • W - Current topics in the news: Course Packet pp. 1 - 47; questions and issues of ethics and environment; be prepared to explain which one of the news stories most interested you.

    • Week 2 / September 1 & 3
  • M - No class - Labor day
  • W - E.O. Wilson's The Future of Life pp.xi-41 ("Prologue" and Chapters 1 & 2..

    • Week 3 / September 8 & 10
  • M- ) Ethics of poetry & creation narratives: CP pp. 48-94. How did we get here? Why is there something rather than nothing?
  • W - Creation narratives continued: CP pp. 95-124. How is our sense of origination related to our relationship to otherness?

    • Week 4 / September 15 & 17
  • M- American ideas of Nature (Emerson & Thoreau) CP pp. 125-130, & 142-156 (supplemental reading CP pp. 131-141).
  • W - American environmental thought continued CP pp. 157-185 & Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac (SCA) pp. xvii-xix (Foreword) & pp 3-43. What is the meaning or value of a landscape? What can The Land tell us? [Journal Entry #1-"Mapping My Environment" due on Blackboard by Sunday 9/21 at 2 pm (hardcopy submissions due Wednesday 9/17 in class).] )

    • Week 5 / September 22 & 24
  • M - Animals in human stories (European Early Modern, Hopi Coyote stories, Nunamiut events) CP pp. 187-215.
  • W - Animal stories continued: Sarah Orne Jewett's "A White Heron," CP pp. 216-222 & Leopold's SCA pp. 130-163.

    • Week 6 / September 29 & October 1
  • M - A new conception of land and environment: Leopold SCA 177-264.
  • W - Modern ideas: Rolston "Challenges in Environmental Ethics," CP pp. 223-242. How do we build an ethic? Where do ethics come from?

    • Week 7 / October 6 & 8
  • M - Deep Ecology: (Naess, et al.) CP pp. 243-263. Are you shallow or deep?
  • W - The human self as part of the world or center? What is the difference? (Watts & Hargrove) CP pp. 264-283. Can humans be non-anthropocentric? How would/does this affect our search for environmental ethics?

    • Week 8 / October 13 & 15
  • M - Take-home mid-term Exam due: be prepared to read from and discuss these in class.
  • W - Biocentrism: Wilson The Future of Life Chapters 3 & 4. How bad is it? What do we stand to lose?

    • Week 9 / October 20 & 22
  • M - Valuing life and the more-than-human beings: (Kellert & Singer) CP pp 284-304.
  • W - - Animal rights versus the environment? (Varner) CP pp. 316-334. How do animals fit into our ethics? Are all animals equal? How do we decide?

    • Week 10 / October 27 & 29
  • M - Wilderness, wildness and preservation: (Turner, Berry & Leopold) CP pp. 306-315 & 335-343; Leopold SCA pp. 264-279. What is The Wild? Was Thoreau right? What is the value of wilderness?
  • W - Radical preservation and the figure of wilderness: (Abbey, Foreman, & Earth First!) CP pp. 344-371. [Journal Entry #2- "Perceptions of Natural & Artificial Environments" due on Blackboard by Sunday11/2 at 2 pm (hardcopy submission due in class Wednesday 10/29).].

    • Week 11 / November 3 & 5
  • M - Responses to early arguments: (Guha, Callicot & Zimmerman) CP pp. 372-409.
  • W - The social basis for ecological thought and ethics: (Bookchin) CP pp. 410-426.

    • Week 12 / November 10 & 12
  • M - No class - Veterans Day.
  • W - The "material" value of life: E.O. Wilson The Future of Life Chapter 5 & Leopold SCA pp. 280-95.

    • Week 13 / November 17 & 19
  • M - Other social aspects: (Gaard & Gruen) Ecofeminism, CP pp. 427-461. What role does gender play in questions of environmental ethics? How do we bring gender into the larger questions?
  • W - New philosophical perspectives: phenomenology of the environment and other ways of being in place: (Frodeman & Basso) CP pp. 462-499. What does a place mean? How does a place mean?

    • Week 14 / November 24 & 25
  • M - The future of Environmental Ethics? (Roslton, et al) CP pp. 500-527. [Journal Entry #3 - "A Case for Environmental Ethics" due to Blackboard by Friday 11/28 at 2 pm (hardcopy submission due in class Wednesday 4/23).]
  • W - Problem and solutions: E.O. Wilson The Future of Life Chapters 6 & 7.

    • Week 15 / December 1 & 3
  • M - Case discussions for future ethics.
  • W - Case discussions for future ethics.

    • Finals Week / December 8-12