| Title: | Environmental Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Course Section Number: | PHI-219-01 |
| Department: | Philosophy |
| Description: | PHI-219-01 = PPE-228-01 = GHL-219-01 : Topics in Ethics and Social Phil: Environmental Philosophy. This course will first introduce some common approaches to environmental ethics by considering the question of the moral status of nonhuman animals. For example, we will examine debates between utilitarian and Kantian moral theorists by asking whether nonhuman animals have moral and legal status, and whether nonhuman animals and ecosystems have intrinsic value or are merely valuable insofar as they are useful to human beings. We will then ask whether these common approaches to environmental ethics are adequate to the task of responding to the challenge of global climate change. Examining the political, economic, and ethical dimensions of climate change reveals at least one basic challenge to standard approaches to moral theory: the massive scale of potential harm-counted not only in terms ofharm to human communities, like displacement, forced migration, poverty, hunger, and deleterious health effects that follow, but also in terms of harms to nonhuman animals like species extinction and ecosystem collapse-confounds standard accounts of moraland legal responsibility. Appreciating the severity of this problem invites us to reconsider how human beings are situated in nature and to explore alternative approaches to environmental ethics and to human dwelling. |
| Credits: | 1.00 |
| Start Date: | August 22, 2019 |
| End Date: | December 15, 2019 |
| Meeting Information: |
08/23/2019-12/06/2019 Lecture Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00AM - 11:50AM, Center Hall, Room 300
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| Faculty: | Gower, Jeff |
Course Status & Cross-Listings
| Cross-list Group Capacity: | 18 |
|---|---|
| Cross-list Group Student Count: | 17 |
| Calculated Course Status: | OPEN |
| Section Name/Title | Status | Dept. | Capacity |
Enrolled/ Available/ Waitlist |
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