Fall 2011 Schedule of Courses
PHILOSOPHY 335: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
SECTION 1, 9:30 - 10:45 A.M.
PROFESSOR JASON HANNA
Schmidtz and Willott, Environmental Ethics, (New York: Oxford UP, 2002).
The course will focus on two sets of questions: (1) What is the basis of our moral obligations with respect to the natural environment? Is the natural environmental valuable in itself, and if so, why? To what sorts of things can we have moral obligations? Animals? Ecosystems? (2) In what specific ways should we change our behavior in order to fulfill our obligation with respect to the natural environment? We will approach this question by considering several case studies in environmental ethics.
Classes will be a mixture of lecture and discussion. The course will require two papers, two in-class exams, group presentation of a case study, and several brief take-home assignments.