PHILOSOPHY 346: ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
FALL 2004

PROFESSOR: John Nolt OFFICE PHONE: 974-7218
OFFICE: 818 McClung Tower HOME PHONE: 573-4135
OFFICE HOURS: 9-10 MWF E-MAIL: nolt@utk.edu
and by appointment WEB PAGE: web.utk.edu/~nolt

REQUIRED TEXTS

John Nolt, et.al., What Have We Done? The Foundation for Global Sustainability’s State of the Bioregion Report for the Upper Tennessee Valley and the Southern Appalachian Mountains, Earth Knows, 1997.
Jospeh R. Des Jardins, Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy, 3rd ed., Wadsworth, 1997.
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation, New Revised Edition, Avon Books, 1990.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden and Other Writings, Joseph Wood Krutch, ed., Bantam Books, 1962.

ABOUT THE COURSE

This course is an introduction to environmental ethics. There are no prerequisites. Environmental ethics is a form of applied ethics. So the course involves both ethical theory and ethical practice. We will try to ground both in engaged philosophical reflection. The course is divided into four parts.

1. Regional Environmental Issues—an assessment of the environmental health of the Upper Tennessee Valley and Southern Appalachian Mountains: environmental science locally applied.

2. Ethical Theory—a survey of contemporary philosophical thought on how we ought to regard future generations, sentient animals and the natural world.

3. Nature, Simplicity and Spirituality—a discussion of Thoreau's transcendental philosophy.

4. Group Projects (Ethical Practice)—hands-on environmental work. Early in the semester, we will divide the class up into small working groups, each of which will study and work toward the solution of some local environmental problem. As part of the class project each of you should spend at least 15 hours during the semester making a hands-on contribution to solving the problem you choose. Some suggestions for group projects are listed below. Once you choose a project, I will help you contact people who can help you do it. At the end of the semester, each group will present a class on its experiences, thoughts and conclusions. No written report is required this semester, since we have the term paper instead. Groups should meet frequently as the semester progresses, and they should also confer with contact people in the local community who are acquainted with their problem.

GRADES

Grades will be determined as follows:

First Test 16%
Second Test 20%
Third Test 12%
Reading quizzes 20% total
Term Paper 15%
Group project 15%
Attendance 2%

Tests will consist of essay and short answer questions. Test dates are listed in the course calendar. I will hand out a list of study questions before each test.

Reading quizzes will be given at the beginning of the period on many days. They will consist of five brief questions on the reading for a particular day. Their main purpose is to motivate you to read the assignment for the day carefully before coming to class, but they also serve as a check on attendance. There will be no makeup quizzes, but a small number of the lowest quiz grades will be dropped (the number will depend on how many quizzes we have).

The term paper should be 10-15 pages long on some particular environmental issue. More detailed instructions will be available from the syllabus for this course on my website.

Group project grades are based on the quality of the individual's contributions to the group's community service and a class presentation near the end of the semester. Individual work within the group will be evaluated both by the group itself and by me.

Though attendance is important at all times, it is crucial when your classmates are giving their presentations. Therefore, attendance will count toward your grade for days when we have group presentations. I do not normally take attendance every day, but if class attendance falls, I may begin recording attendance without advance notice, and this will count toward your grade.

POSSIBLE GROUP PROJECTS

Help Ijams Nature Center to monitor and clean up urban creeks or work on restoration projects at Ijams itself.

Help out at a regional center for sustainable agriculture and sustainable living: Narrow Ridge Center, near Washburn, Tennessee.

Help with activities of the campus group Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville.

Volunteer at the Knoxville zoo, the Appalachian Bear Center or some other organization working to protect animals.

... or invent your own project (but check with me). Some other projects in past semesters have included: working with the UT Wildlife Society in a bottomlands hardwood restoration project; helping with inner city gardening projects with the Knoxville/Knox County Community Action Committee; promoting recycling on or near campus; helping with a community-based health survey in low income neighborhoods near a nuclear and chemical waste site; helping to capture, spay and neuter feral cats; restoring the Cumberland Trail or trails in the Great Smoky Mountains; helping TVA with reservoir cleanups; documenting declines in the spruce/fir ecosystem; working with Greenpeace to organize a demonstration against the opening of the Watts Bar nuclear plant; doing environmental presentations in Cocke County elementary schools; volunteering at the Humane Society; helping with a hazardous waste roundup; collecting and donating bikes to a homeless shelter; and doing research for the book What Have We Done?.

COURSE CALENDAR

Abbreviations used in the calendar are as follows:

EE Des Jardins, Environmental Ethics
SINGER Peter Singer, Animal Liberation
W Thoreau, Walden
WEBSITE Click on this word to obtain the reading.
WHWD Nolt, et. al., What Have We Done?

Date	Topic	Assignment
8/18	Introduction	—
I. REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
8/20	Value and description	WHWD Introduction
8/23	Water	WHWD ch 1
8/25	Air	WHWD ch 2
8/27	Biodiversity	WHWD ch 3
8/30	Food and agriculture	WHWD ch 4
9/1	Energy	WHWD ch 5
9/3	Waste	WHWD ch 6
9/6	NO CLASS—LABOR DAY
9/8	Transportation	WHWD ch 7
9/10	Population and urbanization	WHWD ch 8
9/13	Sustainable living	WHWD ch 10
9/15	FIRST TEST	Click here for study guide
9/17	Organization of Group Projects	WEBSITE
II. ETHICAL THEORY
9/20	Ethical theory and the environment	EE, ch. 2
9/22	Fundamentals of logic, prescriptive reasoning	WEBSITE 1 WEBSITE 2
9/24	Cost-benefit analysis	WEBSITE
9/27	Value assumptions of contemporary economics	EE pp. 48-63; WHWD ch. 9
9/29	Responsibilities to future generations	EE ch. 4; WEBSITE
10/1	The principle of equality	SINGER, Prefaces and ch. 1
10/4	Factory farming	SINGER, ch. 3, Guest Speakers Gary Yourofsky & Kate Timko
10/6	Vegetarianism	SINGER, ch. 4
10/8	Ethics and animals	EE ch. 6
10/11	Ethics and the natural world	EE ch. 5
10/13	Biocentric ethics	EE ch. 7
10/15	NO CLASS—FALL BREAK
10/18	Ecology and ethics	EE ch. 8
10/20	The land ethic	EE ch. 9
10/22	Deep ecology	EE ch. 10
10/25	Social justice and social ecology	EE pp. 232-249
10/27	Ecofeminism	EE pp. 249-261
10/29	Pluralism and Pragmatism	EE Epilogue
III. NATURE, SIMPLICITY AND SPIRITUALITY
11/1	Transcendentalism and nature	W, pp. 105-135
11/3	Review and Discussion	—
11/5	SECOND TEST	Click here for study guide
11/8	Transcendentalism and nature	W, pp. 135-165
11/10	Simplicity and spirituality	W, pp. 165-200
11/12	Simplicity and spirituality	W, pp. 200-233 (skip 234-339)
11/15	Simplicity and spirituality, Environmental action	W, pp. 340-51, and pp. 85-104
11/17	THIRD TEST	Click here for study guide
IV. GROUP PROJECTS
11/19	Group Presentation	—
11/22	Group Presentation	Term Paper Due: Click here for instructions
11/24	Group Presentation	—
11/26	NO CLASS—THANKSGIVING
11/29	Group Presentation	—
12/1	NO CLASS—STUDY PERIOD	—
12/9	Group Presentation(s) 8-10 a.m.	—

DISABILITIES: Students who have a disability that requires accommodation should make an appointment with the Office of Disability Services (974-6087) to discuss their specific needs and schedule an appointment with me during my office hours.

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