PHI 222 - Environmental Ethics

4 credits (Fall or Spring)

What is environmental ethics and why is it necessary? How should the human-nature relationship be understood? Is nature instrumentally valuable or intrinsically valuable? What special ethical challenges do global climate change and the global food system pose? This class aims to introduce students to both anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric perspectives on these questions, and will consider, in particular, the approaches of ‘enlightened anthropocentrism’, the land ethic, deep ecology, ecofeminism, and the environmental justice movement.

Prerequisite: Second-year standing.
Note: Not offered every year.
Instructor: Fennell