Environmental Ethics

Catalog description

An introduction to ethical issues concerning the human and non-human environment. The course provides a working knowledge of the concepts, theories, and types of argument characteristic of ethics in general. It analyzes and debates a selection of such topics as: ethical implications of continued economic and population growth; designing the infrastructure and architecture of human communities for optimal integration into the natural environment; sustainable agriculture and wilderness management; biodiversity and endangered species; pollution, waste disposal and climate change. Mainstream philosophical approaches will be compared with radical perspectives such as deep ecology and eco-feminism; and responses to ecological hazards ranging from free market strategies, through government regulation, local economic and ecological initiatives, to civil disobedience and eco-sabotage, may be examined.