Natural Resources 332

Introduction to Ethics and the Environment

Fall Semester 2007 (4 credit hours)

Tues. and Thurs., 10:10-11:00

14 Fernow Hall

Jim Tantillo, Instructor Taza Schaming, Teaching Assistant

Office: 101-A Rice Hall Office: 312-G Fernow Hall

Phone: 254-5479 Phone:

Email: jat4@cornell.edu Email: tds55@cornell.edu

A. OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE

This course is an introduction to ethics, epistemology, aesthetics, and political philosophy as these subjects relate to the environment. The first half of the course will cover normative ethics and theoretical approaches to ethics such as consequentialism and deontology. We will examine in some detail the arguments for “right” and “wrong” in a variety of moral contexts, including the types of moral thought experiments for which philosophers are famous—or infamous, depending on your point of view. (Would it be ethical to throw a person off a lifeboat to save five others? Or is this an absurd question given the low probability of ever being in such a situation?)

While formal ethical theorizing is undoubtedly important for thinking clearly about ethical issues, some philosophers have argued that modern moral theory is limited in its usefulness or applicability to real-life moral contexts. Michael Stocker refers to the “schizophrenia” of modern moral theories, and we will try to understand his complaint about academic ethics as it is ordinarily practiced in the analytic, Anglo-American philosophical tradition. This is our focus in the first half of the semester.

After fall break we will then consider virtue ethics as an alternative to modern moral theorizing and investigate the implications of virtue ethics and human happiness for our treatment of the environment. Should we all live like Thoreau? Or is Michael Pollan’s garden ethic a better example of environmentally sound living?

Furthermore, as Pollan suggests, normative ethics also carries with it political significance. Joseph Sax for example says that our government-run National Parks should make us “better people” and argues that non-motorized recreation is environmentally virtuous. We will consider Mill’s argument in “On Liberty” that the only justification for interfering with peoples’ freedom is to prevent harm, and we will evaluate Sax’s thesis in light of Mill’s “harm principle.” What is the appropriate role of government in affecting and/or changing people’s environmental attitudes and behaviors?

Finally, the course concludes with an example of applied ethics in the form of Elizabeth Telfer’s article on the pleasures of eating and drinking. Telfer questions whether we have any obligations to feed the hungry, if we have obligations to animals not to eat them, and whether we are justified at all in devoting so much of our human energy to the enjoyment of food and to other aesthetic pleasures. What are humans here on this planet to do? What does it all mean? What is a good life? These are some of the questions that will occupy us this semester.

One of the course objectives is to foster in students what Bertrand Russell once referred to as “articulate hesitation.” In An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, Russell wrote:

Here, as usually in philosophy, the first difficulty is to see that the problem is difficult. If you say to a person untrained in philosophy, “How do you know I have two eyes?” he or she will reply, “What a silly question! I can see you have.” It is not to be supposed that, when our inquiry is finished, we shall have arrived at anything radically different from this un-philosophical position. What will have happened will be that we shall have come to see a complicated structure where we thought everything was simple, that we shall have become aware of the penumbra of uncertainty surrounding the situations which inspire no doubt, that we shall find doubt more frequently justified than we supposed, and that even the most plausible premises will have shown themselves capable of yielding implausible conclusions. The net result is to substitute articulate hesitation for inarticulate certainty.

B. EXAMS, PAPERS, AND PARTICIPATION

(1) Exams. We will have an in-class mid-term exam on Thursday October 11. This will be an open notebook exam: you are allowed to have with you your reading outlines from the Kagan book, as well as any lecture notes you might have taken. A final exam will be given during the regular exam period, although I have not decided if it will also be open notebook. Both exams will consist of essay-type questions. Students requiring a make-up exam must speak to the instructor by 8/31/2007.

(2) Short Papers. Students will write three short papers (approx. 1200-1500 words each) on topics assigned by the instructor and/or determined in consultation with the instructor and/or teaching assistant. These papers will be graded by the teaching assistant. Students are encouraged to resubmit a revision of the first paper if appropriate. There will be grade penalties for late papers: 1/3 letter grade off per each day late, no paper accepted after six days late. You are required to submit one hard copy of each paper and also to upload your papers electronically at http://canuck.dnr.cornell.edu/dnr_web/ntres332 .

(3) Weekly outlines. Students are required to submit typed outlines with notes on selected readings each week, for example on each chapter of Kagan’s Normative Ethics as assigned. These outlines will be collected in discussion sections and returned to you the following week with the T.A.’s comments, and they will contribute to your overall discussion participation grade. These outlines will also be your resource for the open-notebook exams, so work diligently on them!

(4) Discussion participation. Weekly discussion sections are required. Please bring the appropriate week’s reading to section each week.

(5) Short in-class writing exercises may be assigned as well. These are designed to help you develop the writing skills you will need to do well on the essay exams.

(6) Class weblog: I have set up a weblog at http://ntres332.blogspot.com/ . Participation on the blog is not required but certainly encouraged. Particularly active participation on the blog will be noted and will contribute to your final class participation grade.

C. GRADING

(1) Mid-term exam: 25%

(2) Final exam: 25%

(3) Short papers: 25%

(4) Section discussion participation and reading outlines: 25%

This is a four credit course and may be taken on an S/U basis.

D. COURSE MATERIALS

Required Books to Buy:

Kagan, Shelly. Normative Ethics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998.

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty and Other Essays. Ed. John Gray. NY: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Pollan, Michael. Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education. NY: Grove Press, 1991.

Sax, Joseph. Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on Our National Parks. Ann Arbor: Univ. Michigan Press, 1980.

Thoreau, Henry D. Walden and Civil Disobedience. Ed. Michael Meyer. NY: Penguin Classics, 1985.

Suggested, optional books to buy:

Seech, Zachary. Writing Philosophy Papers, 4^th ed. Wadsworth. A copy of this book will be on course reserve.

Required Course Packet:

There will be a required course packet available for purchase at the Cornell Campus Store.

You are expected to bring a copy of each required reading to discussion section as assigned.

E. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

You are expected to be familiar with University regulations regarding plagiarism and other violations of the academic integrity code: see http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html. For example, when writing papers you may consult with other students and help each other refine ideas, style, grammar, etc., but the basic ideas and writing of your paper must be your own. Remember that academic integrity is fundamental to the entire university enterprise, and penalties for violating academic integrity can be severe.

F. SCHEDULE OF READINGS

Introduction: What Is Philosophy?

Week One: Introduction

First day of classes, Thursday 8/23

Reading: In lieu of Week One discussion period, required showing of the film The Truman Show, Friday afternoon 8/24 at 2:30 pm, Fernow 14

Suggested: Stanley Cavell, “The Thought of Movies”

Week Two: Preliminaries

August 27 – 31

Readings: Sober, “Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism” (handout in class)

Kagan, Normative Ethics, chap. 1, “Introduction”

Part One: Normative Ethics

Week Three: The Good / Consequentialism /Hedonism

Sept. 3 – 7

Readings: Kagan, Normative Ethics, chap. 2, “The Good”

Mill, Utilitarianism, Chap. 2, “What Utilitarianism Is”

Suggested: Griffin, Well-Being

Week Four: Doing Harm / Deontology

Sept. 10 – 14

Readings: Kagan, Normative Ethics, chap. 3 “Doing Harm”

Thomson, “Killing, Letting Die, and the Trolley Problem” (course packet)

Foot, “The Problem of Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect” (course packet)

Suggested: Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Feinberg, Harm: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law

Paper assignment #1: Question to be assigned on “harm,” due Tuesday September 25

Week Five: Other Constraints : Lying

Sept. 17 – 21

Readings: Kagan, Normative Ethics, chap. 4 “Other Constraints”

Kant, “On a Supposed Right to Lie From Benevolent Motives” (course packet)

Wood, “Relativism” (course packet)

Harry Frankfurt, “On Bullshit” (course packet)

Week Six: Further Factors: Charity, Rights

Sept. 24 – 28

Readings: Kagan, Normative Ethics, chap. 5 “Further Factors”

Susan Wolf, “Moral Saints,” Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-362X%28198208%2979%3A8%3C419%3AMS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0

Week Seven: The Limits of Ethical Theory

Oct. 1 – 5

Readings: Murdoch, “The Sovereignty of Good Over Other Concepts” (course packet)

Nagel, “Fragmentation of Value” (course packet)

Michael Stocker, “The Schizophrenia of Modern Moral Theories,” Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-362X%2819760812%2973%3A14%3C453%3ATSOMET%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G

Strongly Suggested: Kagan, Normative Ethics, chap. 6-7, “Teleological Foundations” and “Deontological Foundations”

Suggested: Stanley Rosen, The Limits of Analysis

Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

Fall Break Oct 8 – 9

Mid-term exam in class, Thursday October 11 (open notebook)

Part Two: Perfectionism and The Virtues

Week Eight: Visions of Virtue

Oct. 10 – 12 (shortened week—one class: mid-term exam) In lieu of discussion section this week: required film showing, 2:30 pm Friday October 12, Groundhog Day , location TBA

Readings: Kupfer, Joseph H. “Virtue and Happiness in Groundhog Day,” pp. 35-60 in Visions of Virtue in Popular Film (course packet)

Aristotle, excerpt from Nichomachean Ethics (course packet)

Suggested: Jewett, Robert. "The Deadly Deception of the Flesh in Groundhog Day." Chapter 6 in Saint Paul Returns to the Movies: Triumph over Shame, pp. 88-103.

Paper assignment #2: Topic to be assigned, due Tuesday October 23

Week Nine: How Should I Live? Thoreau and Perfectionism

Oct. 15 – 19

Readings: Thoreau, Walden, editor’s introduction, chaps. 1-4

Philippa Foot, “Virtues and Vices” (course packet)

Suggested: Cunningham, “Reading for Life,” chap. 3 of The Heart of What Matters: The Role for Literature in Moral Philosophy

Week Ten: Thoreau and Perfectionism continued

Oct. 22 – 26

Readings: Thoreau, Walden, remainder of book

Suggested: Hurka, Perfectionism

Kekes, Moral Wisdom and Good Lives

Iris Murdoch, “The Idea of Perfection”

Part Three: Environment: Ethics and Tensions

Week Eleven: Humans in Nature—Hands On or Hands Off?

Oct. 29 – Nov. 2

Reading: Michael Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education

Suggested: Evernden, The Social Creation of Nature

Week Twelve: John Stuart Mill, Individualism and Liberty

Nov. 5 – 9

Readings: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

Himmelfarb, “Editor’s Introduction” to On Liberty, Penguin edition (course packet)

Coglianese, “Implications of Liberal Neutrality for Environmental Policy” (course packet)

Suggested: Cahn, Environmental Deceptions

Sher, Beyond Neutrality: Perfectionism and Politics

Week Thirteen: Joseph Sax, Mountains Without Handrails

Nov. 12 – 16

Reading: Joseph Sax, Mountains Without Handrails

Suggested: Sagoff, “Can Environmentalists be Liberals?”

Paper assignment #3: Contrast and compare Mill’s On Liberty and Sax’s Mountains Without Handrails, due Tuesday November 27.

Week Fourteen: Thanksgiving Week

Nov. 19 – 21 (shortened) one class

Reading: Telfer, Elizabeth, "The Pleasures of Eating and Drinking." (course packet)

Suggested: Telfer, Food for Thought: Philosophy and Food

Thanksgiving Break Nov. 21 – 23

Part Four: Conclusion

Week Fifteen: Conclusion

Nov. 26 – Nov. 30

Readings: Watson, “The Identity Crisis in Environmental Philosophy” (course packet)

Reread: Sober, “Philosophical Problems for Environmentalism” (handout)

Suggested: Weston, Toward Better Problems

Kirkman, Skeptical Environmentalism

Final Exam: Exam Period U, Friday, December 14, 2:00 – 4:30 pm. Students requiring a make-up exam must speak to the instructor by 8/31/2007.

Last day of exams: Dec. 14