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PHIL 447-001: Environmental Ethics
This course is a study of mainstream and alternative moral theories regarding the environment, including the application of these theories towards contemporary environmental problems, such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, species extinction and land use. In this course, the advanced student of philosophy consolidates and synthesizes philosophical scholarship and community-focused, practical application through a service learning assignment. As this is a seminar, students will be expected to provide course content in the way of in-class/online discussion. The instructor will serve as a facilitator of those discussions, but will rarely stand before the class and lecture. Working collaboratively, instructor and students will consider two basic philosophical questions, one ontological: “What is our place in the world?” and one ethical: “How should we act?” Environmental Ethics is interested in the place where ontology and ethics intersect. As such, the course will address 1) our ontological commitments and how they frame our moral concerns, 2) the relevance of traditional moral theories to the environment, and 3) the philosophical writings that have shaped the discipline of environmental ethics.