Spring 2023  |  PHIL 3301 Section 001: Environmental Ethics (65494)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Discussion
Credits:
4 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/17/2023 - 05/01/2023
Tue, Thu 11:15AM - 12:55PM
UMTC, West Bank
Hubert H Humphrey Center 15
Enrollment Status:
Open (34 of 35 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
Philosophical basis for membership in moral community. Theories applied to specific problems (e.g., vegetarianism, wilderness preservation). Students defend their own reasoned views about moral relations between humans, animals, and nature.
Class Description:
This is an introductory course in environmental ethics. We will use critical philosophical methodology to examine contemporary problems related to the environment, such as the treatment of animals, the value of ecosystems, climate change, conservation, and how philosophical analysis can help address environmental problems. The course begins with a question of value: What (if anything) makes nature independently valuable? How should we treat animals? Are other natural objects, like ecosystems morally valuable? A variety of answers have been put forward, and we will critically examine them. The second part of the course focuses on how we should respond to nature on issues of restoration, preservation, and conservation. And the final portion of the course deals with applied problems: population ethics, biotechnology, and the most pressing environmental issue of our day, climate change. This course will familiarize students with philosophical methodology, especially critical analysis, and cover a wide range of questions related to how people understand, use, and live in the environment.
Grading:
16% Reading Response, 32% Short Written Assignments, 12% In-class work, 20% Paper, 20% Final Exam
Exam Format:
Multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions
Class Format:
Lecture with discussion
Workload:
30+ pages of reading per week, approximately 1.25 pages written work per week, final examination
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/65494/1233
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
8 September 2015

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