PHILOSOPHY 318: ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

4 Credits

Montana Bitterroot Mountains/August, 2000

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Dr. James Hatley HOME

Dr. James Hatley
Phone: 677-5072 (O); 443-614-8030 (C)
Office: Philosophy House, 103
Office Hours: 12:30-2:00, 3:30-5:00 on Thursday Afternoons

Information on SU Trees

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

What exactly is nature? Is it the dynamic march of a dizzying array of life forms through the deep reaches of time, a world of trilobites giving way to dinosaurs, even as dinosaurs give way to humans? Or is nature the complexity found in a single ecosystem, where innumerable creatures and elements interact to form a living world? Or is nature the collection of particular living entities, a place where a multitude of beings are given each in its particular value or way of being? Or is nature the life force given from above (or within) that leads ultimately to a G-d or a greater spiritual reality? Or is nature simply the outcome of how our culture categorizes and understands the world in which it inevitably finds itself? Are we part of nature or at odds to it? What is it we encounter when we turn to nature?

And how should we treat nature? Is nature just a valueless thing we humans can use in whatever way we want? Or is nature a complicated machine we need to treat well, if we are to survive? Or is nature a spiritual gift that we have been commanded to respect and nurture? Or is nature an opening into relationships where we find ourselves acting with deference to a variety of living beings, only some of whom are human? Is it the land as a whole that is worthy of our ethical respect or just individual creatures? Do plants matter as much as animals? Have we forgotten to take care of our fellow humans in our rush to help out the grizzly bears and the wolves?

These are among the questions we will touch upon in this course. As the two contrasting paragraphs above suggest, philosophical questions about the environment can generally be divided in into those having to do with ontology (the study of what something is) and ethics (the study of how we should act in regard to human beings and other living (and possibly non-living) entities).

We will begin our course by reflecting upon our current relationship with the world environing us. In doing so, we will read selections from Joan Maloof’s Teaching the Trees, Lessons from the Forest to consider how her encounter of her natural surroundings leads to a deeper and truer understanding of how to live a full, human life. Maloof’s discussion will be supplemented by interviews with Terry Tempest Williams, another author anxious to explore the connections between human existence and the natural world. We will also turn to Anthony Weston's Back to Earth to see how it might be that we have become profoundly disconnected from nature, even as we strive to save the earth from our mistreatment of it. Part of the argument to be made here is that precisely our disconnection from nature, which is in part the outcome of our membership in a highly-adept, supremely-confident, but at times profoundly-destructive technological culture, is a major reason for our neglect of life and living things. In Weston's words, we need to get "back to earth," if we are to become wise enough to save it from ourselves. In reading Williams and Weston we will consider how we might be invited to live more humbly and with greater vulnerability in relationship to both other humans and the more than human world. We will consider whether the earth upon which we tread, the airs in which we breathe, the waters nurturing our bodies, the animals and plants sharing our place under the sun deserve greater attentiveness than we are generally wont to give them. Since there might be many ways in which one can be attentive, we will consider precisely what is meant here by that term.

We will then continue our interrogation of our relationship to a more than human world in an ethical mode by turning to Des Jardins' Environmental Ethics. How should we treat all the other creatures and entities and systems with whom we share our planet? What are some of the particular problems they face due to our treatment of them? How do different ethical approaches, such as biocentrism, holism, deep ecology and social ecology, intend that we resolve the issue of our obligations to the more than human world?

Environmental News: Environmental News Network

Majoring or Minoring in Environmental Issues: Website

Websites Dedicated to Environmental Philosophy:

International Association for Environmental Philosophy

Center for Environmental Philosophy

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REQUIRED TEXTS

Joan Maloof: Teaching the Tress, Lessons from the Forest (TT)
Anthony Weston: Back to Earth (BE)
Joseph Des Jardins: Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy (EE), Chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Michael Pollan, Second Nature (SN)

Bernd Heinrich, “Talk to the Animals”

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CLASS EVALUATION

Reading Questions on Trees (a) 05%

Reading Questions on Trees (b) 05%

Reading Questions on Trees (c) 05%

4 Class Presentations (Q/A) 20%

Response Question I 10%

Response Question II 10%

Response Question III 10%

Final Response Question on Garden 15%

Garden Design Project 15%

Participation 05%

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CLASS REQUIREMENTS

Writing Across the Curriculum Statement: This class emphasizes both discussion and writing as ways of learning. In addition to the assignments listed below, you will be asked to participate in a variety of in-class discussion and writing exercises that will emphasize collaborative and cooperative learning.

ALL CLASSWORK TO BE TURNED IN FOR GRADING IS TO BE TYPED. TO SAVE PAPER YOU MAY SINGLE-SPACE OR USE BOTH SIDES OF THE PAPER.

Reading Questions: You have 3 sets of reading questions to turn in on Joan Maloof’s Teaching the Trees, along with two interviews with Terry Tempest Williams. Please answer the questions in short essay form—a full paragraph of five sentences or so for each question. These assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Late papers for this particular set assignments will be downgraded two full letter grades.

Class Presentation: Class presentations will be assigned on a weekly basis during the semester. You will be required to have completed four presentations before the end of the semester. A class presentation requires that you prepare to help lead a discussion of the assigned reading. You will bring to class one question with a fully developed answer which you are prepared to share with the class. After the discussion you will come up with two additional questions relevant to the subject for which you will provide thoughtful answers at least a paragraph in length. Being absent when your reading is to be discussed means you receive an F for that assignment.

Response Papers: Four times during the semester, you will be given a question to respond to for at least three pages. Your response should refer to the texts or lectures in question.

Designing and Planting a Garden: You are to work with your assigned group to come up with a vision for a garden, as well as a plan for carrying out that vision. The only parameter is that your design must be environmentally sensitive—that the garden not require excessive watering, that it attract butterflies or other denizens of the wilds, that it express a love of nature, etc. Your group will give a power-point presentation on your plan to the class at mid-semester. That presentation should include at least five books or articles and an additional three or more websites that helped you in coming up with your particular design. The design should give an indication of the plants that would make up this garden, the various animals that might be attracted to this garden, the artwork and other human artifacts that might also make a contribution to the garden. A statement of your gardening philosophy will also be given—the criteria operating behind the choices you made to design your garden in a certain way. The class will then deliberate to put together a final plan that will then be planted by the class over the remainder of the semester. Finally, the class will divide itself into work groups, each with a task to be accomplished in planting the garden, which is located in the back of the Philosophy House on Camden Avenue. YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO PUT IN A MINIMUM OF 6 HOURS CONTRIBUTING YOUR LABOR TO THE GARDEN SITE. These are to be classified as studio hours for the course. In some cases arrangements can be made to work on an alternative garden project with my approval. At the end of the semester you will incorporate what you have learned from this project into your final response paper. Helpful websites: Garden as Wildlife Sanctuary ; Paington Zoo and Environmental Garden New York City Environmental Garden; Nature in the Garden; University of Texas Environmental Gardens; The Garden Club of America; National Gardening Association; National Gardening Clubs; Chinese Gardens and Environmental Aesthetics; Blake Garden/UC Berkeley; Collecting Seeds from Native Plants; Maryland Native Plant Society; Adkins Arboretum; Audubon Society on Planting Native Plants

Honor Code: Your written work should reflect your own thinking and should not be plagiarized. Please write and sign a statement at the bottom of each assignment that you have completed your work honorably.

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READINGS, ASSIGNMENTS AND THEMES

Information on Salisbury University Arboretum

1^st Week/January 26:  How Trees Might Become Our Teachers 4 Class Hours

Introduction: Introduction to Class Requirements; Raising the Issue of "Damage"  Power Point Presentation

Reading: TT, pp. 1-47

ASSIGNMENT: READING QUESTIONS I for TEACHING TREES

2^nd Week/February 2:  Living with Desolation 4 Class Hours

Reading: BE, Chapter 1 (“Has Environmentalism Forgotten the Earth?”),

Chapter 5 (“Desolation”), Joan Maloof’s Ungreening the Earth

First Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with A-H (Chapter 1); with J-L (Chapter 5)

Brief on Species Extinction Chris Jordan's Artwork: Putting into Question our Techno-Materialism

Eating Well and Eating Badly: Food Nation Eating Real Food

3^rd Week/February 9:  Living Deeply in Time and Place 4 Class Hours

Reading: TT, pp. 48-104; Terry Tempest Williams Interview

ASSIGNMENT: READING QUESTIONS II for TEACHING TREES

First Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with M-R (TT Interview!)

4^th Week/February 16: Singing the Earth 4 Class Hours

Reading: BE Chapter 4 (“The Land Sings”); TT, pp. 105-143 Terry Tempest Williams on Cancer caused by Atomic Bomb Testing

ASSIGNMENT: READING QUESTIONS III for TEACHING TREES

First Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with S-T (Chapter 4, TT Essay)

Link to Wicomico Environmental Trust

5^th Week/February 23: Living beyond Desolation 4 Class Hours

Reading: BE Chapter 6 (“Coming to our Senses”)

First Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name Begins with W-Z

Case Study: Pine Snakes in a Pine Forest

Martin Buber: “I can look on [a tree] as a picture: stiff column in a shock of light, or splash of light, or splash of green shot with the delicate blue and silver of the background.  I can perceive of it as movement: flowing veins on clinging, pressing pith, suck of the roots, breathing of the leaves, ceaseless commerce with earth and air -- and the obscure growth itself. I can classify it in a species and study it as a type in its structure and mode of life. I become bound up in relation to it. The tree is no longer It. I have been seized by the power of exclusiveness. Nothing is lost. The tree is no impression, no play of my imagination, no value depending on my mood, but it is bodied over against me and has to do with me, as I with it -- only in a different way.”

ASSIGNMENT: First Response Paper DUE: Using Maloof’s Teaching the Trees, find examples of and discuss what Weston means by "desolation" and "coming to our senses.” Then apply the thoughts you’ve developed to moments of your own environmental engagement.

ASSIGNMENT: Form Student Groups to Work on Designs for an Environmentally Aware Garden

6^th Week/March 2:  The Place of the Sciences in Environmental Responsibility 4 Class Hours

Reading: EE Chapter 1 “(Science, Ethics and the Environment”), Chapter 3 (“Ethics and Economics: Managing Public Lands”)

Compost I Compost II

ASSIGNMENT: First Class Presentation Questions Due

Second Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with A-H (Chapter 1); with J-M (Chapter 3)

Websites on Hypoxia:  Hypoxia Defined Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

7^th Week/March 9:  Current Economies and Future Generations 4 Class Hours

Reading: EE Chapter 3 (“Ethics and Economics: Managing Public Lands”), Chapter 4 (“Responsibilities to Future Generations: Population and Consumption”)

Second Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with N-Z (Chapter 4)

!!SPRING BREAK:3/14-3/22!!

8^th Week/March 23: Designing a Garden 4 Class Hours

Reading: BE Chapter 7 (“Transhuman Etiquette); Selections from SN, 176-204

Native Gardening: An Example Powerpoint of Early Spring Garden

ASSIGNMENT: Group Power Point Presentation on an environmentally aware garden/ Provide Copy to Teacher.

Third Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with A-G (Chapter 7), with H-M (SN, 176-204)

9^th Week/March 30:  Class Evaluation and Decision on a Final Design/Coming Up with a Plan of Action 4 Class Hours

Reading: Selections from SN, 37-53, 98-116.

ASSIGNMENT: Second Class Presentation Questions Due

Third Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with N-Z (SN, 37-53, 98-116).)

10th Week/April 6:  The Gaze of Animals 4 Class Hours

Reading: BE Chapters 2 (“Animals Next to Us”) and 3 (“Animals on the Borderline”); EE, Chapter 5 (“The Case for Animals”); Bernd Heinrich’s “Talk to the Animals”

ASSIGNMENT 2^nd Response Paper DUE: In the chapter titled “The Idea of Garden” in Second Nature, Michael Pollan describes decisions that his local community was called upon to make in the wake of a hurricane that struck the Cathedral Pines Forest. With reference to the chapters we have read in our textbook, consider the roles science, economics and civic discourse about the ethical and political good played in these decisions. Do you think the outcome was a good one? Why or why not? If not, what would have been a better outcome in your mind and why was it not achieved in this case? Three pages typewritten.

Fourth Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with A-C (Chapter 2); with D (Chapter 3); with E-G (Chapter 5)

Ducks Unlimited

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy

11th Week/April 13: Biocentrism as an Ethical Perspective 3 Class Hours/2 Hours Studio

Reading: EE Chapter 6 (“Biocentric Ethics and the Inherent Value of Life”)

Fourth Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with H-I (Chapter 6)

12th Week/April 20:  Wilderness and Restoration Ecology 3 Class Hours/2 Hours Studio

Reading: EE Chapter 7 (“Ecology Wilderness and Ethics”)

Fourth Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with J-M (Chapter 7)

ASSIGNMENT: 3^rd Response Paper: Thinking of a particular animal with whom you have a relationship (this could be your pet, a sparrow in your back yard, a frog you have been assigned to dissect or a chicken someone is serving you for dinner), discuss how Singer, Regan and Weston would respectively characterize that relationship and its moral or social quality. Discuss which approach you would prefer and why? (Or why you prefer none of the approaches!) 1-2 pages typewritten.

Cole's Mountain
Wilderness Society
The Wildlands Project
Wilderness Activist Sites for the Rocky Mountains

Predators Lick Creek and Forest Fires

13th Week/April 27:  Land as the Good and Deep Ecology 3 Class Hours/2 Hours Studio

Reading: EE Chapters 8 (“The Land Ethic”) and 9 (“Deep Ecology”)

ASSIGNMENT: Third Set of Class Presentations (Q/A)

Fourth Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with N-R (Chapter 8); with S-T (Chapter 9)

Aldo Leopold Foundation

Northwest Earth Institute
Interview with Arne Naess

14^th Week/May 4:  Ecofeminism and Social Ecology 4 Class Hours

Reading: EE Chapter 10, 11 (“Social Ecology and Ecofeminism”)

Fourth Class Presentation Assignment: Last Name begins with U-Z (Chapter 10, 11)

Ecofeminism
Environmental Feminism
Institute for Social Ecology

Finals Week/May 14: 2 Studio Hours

ASSIGNMENT: Environmentally Aware Garden Site Visit:

ASSIGNMENT: Garden Response Paper: Through the lens of a particular tree, plant or

animal (see below) that is involved in our Environmentally Aware Garden,

discuss how you have participated in what Weston would call a

trans-human etiquette and a shared community. In doing so, make

reference to one of the five eco-ethical theories we have discussed this

semester (deep ecology, holism, ecofeminism, social ecology or

biocentrism). Also include insights gained from reading Michael

Pollan’s Second Nature. Finally, discuss how successful working on

the garden was in making you personally aware of your environmental

responsibilities. 4 pages typewritten.

Animals:

Catbird

Robin

Cardinal

Blue Jay

Sparrow

Squirrel

Opossum

Rabbit

Plants:

Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

Bluebells (Mertensia viginica)

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia carinalis)

Cattails (Typha angustifolia)

Christmas Fern (Polystichium acrostichoides)

Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea)

Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia)

Foam Flower (Tarella cordifolia)

Forget Me Not (Myosotis sylvatica)

Garden Basil Ocimum basilicum)

Garden Fennel Foeniculum vulgare)

Garden Oregano Origanum vulgare)

Garden Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)

Heal-All (Prunella vulgaris)

Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium dubium)

Pickrel Weed (Pontederia cordata)

Rough Leaf Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa)

Waterlilly (Nymphaea)

Whorled Coreopsis (Coreopsis vericillata)

Wild Bergamont (Monorda fistulosa)

Wild Iris (Iris versicolor)

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis)

Trees

Water Oak (Quercus nigra)

Dogwood (Comus)

Aborvitae (Cupressaceae)

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ASSIGNMENT: Fourth Set of Class Presentations (Q/A)