Natural Resources 494.5/694.4
History, Philosophy, and Ethics of the Hunt
Spring Semester 2003 (3 credit hours) Jim Tantillo, Instructor
Wednesday 1:25 – 3:50 pm Office: 8-A Fernow Hall
Fernow 304 email: jat4@cornell.edu
Phone: 255-0704
A. OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
The focus of this seminar is on nonsubsistence or recreational sport hunting as it has typically been practiced in the West. Recreational fishing and trapping will also receive significant attention; aboriginal and/or subsistence hunting is not a primary focus but may be discussed as interest arises. Historical sources dating to Greek and Roman cynegetica (hunting manuals) to be examined, with emphasis on trying to understand recreational hunting within a broad cultural context through time. Medieval and early modern sources examined with an eye toward tracing the development of a recognizably modern "sporting code." Philosophical sources relevant to the contemporary hunting/anti-hunting debate examined with a goal of evaluating various philosophical arguments on their merits. Is hunting ethical?
The topic of hunting touches upon a wide range of interesting subjects ranging from animal rights and animal consciousness to the meaning of human existence and humans' confrontation with death. As such there is no prerequisite for the course apart from a keen interest in the topic. Hunters and non- hunters and, anglers and vegans alike are welcome to join in the discussion.
Open to graduate students and upper division undergraduates. Meets once a week, Wednesday afternoons from 1:25 to 3:50. 3 credit hours.
B. EXAMS, PAPERS, AND GRADING
Course requirements: regular attendance and reading/discussion of the materials. Seminar paper on a topic of the student's choosing with instructor's approval. May be taken S/U.
C. COURSE MATERIALS
Required Books to Buy:
The following books have been ordered at the campus store. You are required to buy the following and bring them to class for discussion:
Cartmill, Matt. A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature through History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993.
DeGrazia, David. Taking Animals Seriously: Mental Life and Moral Status. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Kennedy, J. S. (John Stodart). The New Anthropomorphism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Reiger, John F. American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation. 3rd rev. & expanded ed. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2001.
Stange, Mary Zeiss. Woman the Hunter. Boston: Beacon Press, 1997.
Sullivan, Robert. A Whale Hunt: 2 Years on the Olympic Peninsula with the Makah and Their Canoe. New York: Scribner, 2000.
Warren, Louis S. The Hunter's Game: Poachers and Conservationists in Twentieth-Century America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
Xeroxed Materials and Electronic Reserve:
All short readings, book excerpts, articles, etc. will be on electronic reserve via Mann Library. http://catalog.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=rbSearch. Please print a copy of each reading for your own use and bring the appropriate readings to seminar for discussion.
WEEK ONE (Jan. 22) Introductory meeting
WEEK TWO (Jan. 29) Greek hunting
Anderson – chaps 2-3 (electronic reserve)
Chap. 2 “Hunting in the Greek City-State”
Chap. 3 “The Technique of Greek Hunting”
Hull – Greek hunting manuals (electronic reserve)
Xenophon’s Cynegeticus
Arrian’s Cynegeticus
WEEK THREE (Feb. 5) Medieval hunting
Cartmill, chaps 4-6
Manning, chaps. 1,3 (electronic reserve)
Thiebaux, “The Medieval Chase” (1967) http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-7134%28196704%2942%3C260%3ATMC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X
Additional bibliography:
Cummins, The Hound and the Hawk (1988).
Thiebaux, The Stag of Love (1974), print reserve.
Savage “Hunting in the Middle Ages” (1933) http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-7134%28193301%298%3C30%3AHITMA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-%23
WEEK FOUR (Feb. 12) American hunting history part I
Reiger, Sportsmen and the Origins of American Conservation (3rd ed., rev., 2001).
Additional bibliography:
Altherr “Academic Historians and Hunting” (electronic reserve).
Altherr, “The American Hunter-Naturalist and the Development of the Code of Sportsmanship,” (electronic reserve).
Cartmill chap. 7
WEEK FIVE (Feb. 19) American hunting history part II
Warren, The Hunter’s Game (1997).
WEEK SIX (Feb. 26) Bambi
Cartmill chaps 8-9
Lutts, “The Trouble with Bambi,” (electronic reserve).
Kennedy, The New Anthropomorphism
WEEK EIGHT (March 12) The morality of hunting part I
Curnutt – “How to Argue for and Against Hunting”
Causey – “On the Morality of Hunting”
Bekoff and Jamieson – “Sport Hunting as an Instinct: Another Evolutionary ‘Just-So-Story’?”
Vitali – “The Ethics of Killing: Killing as Life-Sustaining” (1987)
– “Sport Hunting: Moral or Immoral?” (1990)
Additional bibliography:
Pluhar – “The Joy of Killing”
Dombrowski – “Response: A Defense of Pluhar”
Spring Break (March 15-23)
WEEK NINE (March 26) The morality of hunting part II
King – “Environmental Ethics and the Case for Hunting”
List – “Is Hunting a Right Thing?”
Loftin – “The Morality of Hunting”
Luke – “A Critical Analysis of Hunters’ Ethics”
Scruton – “From a View to a Death: Culture, Nature and the Huntsman's Art”
Additional bibliography:
Moriarity and Woods – “Hunting ≠ Predation”
Wade – “Animal Liberationism, Ecocentrism, and the Morality of Sport Hunting”
WEEK TEN (April 2) Animal issues part I
Nagel “What is it like to be a bat?” (electronic reserve) and at http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8108%28197410%2983%3C435%3AWIILTB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z )
Singer “Killing Humans and Killing Animals”
Wall, “Defining Pain in Animals”
Additional bibliography:
Degenaar – “Some Philosophical Considerations on Pain”
Carlsson – “Response to Degenaar”
McMahan, “Death and the Value of Life” http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0014-1704%28198810%2999%3C32%3ADATVOL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9
Wall, Pain: The Science of Suffering (2000).
Watson, “Self-consciousness and the rights of nonhuman animals and nature”
WEEK ELEVEN (April 9) Animal issues part II
DeGrazia, Taking Animals Seriously
Additional bibliography:
Carruthers “Brute Experience” (electronic reserve) and at http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-362X%28198905%2986%3C258%3ABE%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0
Carruthers, The Animals Issue (1992).
DeGrazia 1993 “Equal Consideration and Unequal Moral Status” (electronic reserve).
Leahy, Against Liberation: Putting Animals in Perspective (1991).
WEEK TWELVE (April 16) Fishing
Luce, chap. 12, “The Ethics of Angling,” from Fishing and Thinking
De leeuw – “Contemplating the Interests of Fish: The Angler's Challenge”
Chipeniuk and List – “Comment: On Contemplating the Interests of Fish”
De leeuw response to Chipeniuk and List
WEEK THIRTEEN (April 23) Women and hunting
Stange, Woman the Hunter
Additional bibliography:
Kheel – “License to Kill: An Ecofeminist Critique of Hunters' Discourse”
WEEK FOURTEEN (April 30) Makah whaling
Sullivan, The Whale Hunt
Seminar Papers Due: Wednesday April 30, 2003