NRSM 489E, Conservation & Forestry Ethics
MWF 9:10-10:00 am
Janette Rankin Hall 202
Instructor: Dane Scott
Phone: 243-6632
Email: Dane.scott@mso.umt.edu
Office: Mansfield Center. MLIB 464
Office hours: TR 2:30-3:30
Teaching Assistant: Mikky Helman
Michal.Helman@umontna.edu
Office: Mansfield Center. MLIB 461
Office hours: F 10:30-11:30
SYLLABUS
Course Obectives:
Students will demonstrate:
 An understanding of several approaches to moral reasoning and the basic concepts of important
ethical traditions
 A basic knowledge of influential approaches to environmental ethics and important ethical
concepts that direct environmental policies
 The ability to identify and analyze ethical issues arising from environmental problems
 The ability to write a clearly organized and well supported argumentative essay
Required Texts
Michael Sandel, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
PDFs of selected readings will be posted on the course Moodle page
Requirements
 Mansfield Conference Attendance and Assignment (2 sessions required): 5 pts
 Extra credit will be awarded for attending additional sessions of the conference (1 pt/session, 5 pts
max)
 Attendance and Participation: 15 pts
 Essay #1: 15 pts
 Essay #2: 20 pts
 Test #1: 15 pts
 Test #2: 15 pts
 Test #3: 15 pts
Essays: Students will demonstrate the ability construct an argumentative essay. You will receive handouts
on the requirements, grading and due dates for the two essay assignments.
Tests: The format for exams will be short-answer and essay questions. Exam questions will provide
students with the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of:
 The basic concepts of several influential the ethical traditions
 The basic concepts of several influential approaches to environmental ethics
 Important ethical concepts that direct environmental policies
Policies
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Plagiarism: Blatant plagiarism will result in an automatic F on the assignment and the course.
Make-up Tests: Make-up tests will only be allowed if the instructor is informed prior to the test.
Late papers: Papers will be penalized 2 pts per day after the due date.
Grading Scale: The +/- grading system will be used as follows: 93-100 = A; 90-92 = A-; 88-89 =
B+; 83-87 = B; 80-82 = B-; 78 - 79 = C+; 73 - 77 = C; 65 - 72 = C-; 64 –62 = D+; 61 - 60 = D; 59
- 55 = D-; Below 54 = F
OUTLINE OF TOPICS AND READINGS
Week 1
8/25
Course Introduction
8/27
Sandel, Chapter 1, “Do the Right Thing”
1964 Wilderness Act
Christopher Solomon, “The Wilderness Act is facing a Midlife Crisis”
8/29
Callicott, “A Critique of, and an Alternative to, the Wilderness Idea”
Discussion Group
Week 2
9/1
Labor Day
9/3
Holmes Rolston III “The Wilderness Idea Reaffirmed”
9/5
Ben Minteer, “Move it or Lose It: The Ecological Ethics of Moving Species under Climate Change”
Week 3
9/8
Ron Sandler, “The Value of Species and the Ethical Foundations of Assisted Colonization”
Essay #1 Assigned, Due 9/24
9/10
Mansfield Conference (students attend conference sessions, class does not meet)
Doug Scott, Enduring Wilderness, Chapter 1
9/12
Mansfield Conference (students attend conference sessions, class does not meet)
Week 4
9/15
Discussion Day (Students will summarize and discuss conference sessions)
9/17
Sandel, Chapter 2, “The Greatest Happiness Principle/Utilitarianism”
9/19
Gifford Pinchot, “Principles of Conservation,” “The Use of the National Forest” &
“Congressional Testimony on Hetch Hetchy
Week 5
9/22
Peer Review of Essays Exercise
9/24
Essay 1, Due
John Muir, “The American Forests” & “Hetch Hetchy Valley”
9/26
Leopold, “The Land Ethic”
Week 6
9/29
Leopold, “Farmer as Conservationist”
10/1
Discussion Day
10/3
Test #1
Week 7
10/6
Callicott, “Whither Conservation Ethics?”
10/8
Norton, “The Constancy of Leopold’s Land Ethic”
10/10
Rolston, “The Land Ethics at the Turn of the Millennium”
Week 8
10/13
Sandel, Chapter 4, “”Hired Help / Markets and Morals”
10/15
Stavins & Whitehead, “Market-Based Environmental Policies”
10/17
Mark Sagoff, “At the Shine of Our Lady of Fatima, or Why not all Political Questions are Not Economic”
Week 9
Discussion Day
10/20
Garrett Hardin, “Tragedy of the Commons”
10/22
Ehrlich and Ehrlich, “The Population Bomb Revisited”
10/24
Sagoff, “Do We Consume Too Much?”
Essay #2 Assigned, Due 11/19
Week 10
10/27
Ehrich, et al. “No Middle Way on the Environment”
Sagoff, “Reply to Critics”
10/29
Andrew Feenberg, “Environmentalism and the Politics of Technology”
10/31
Donald Worster, “The Ecology of Order and Chaos”
Week 11
11/3
Minteer and Collins, “From Environmental to Ecological Ethics: Toward a Practical Ethics for Ecologist
and Conservationists”
11/5
Discussion Day
11/7
Test #2
Week 12
11/10
Katz, “The Big Lie: Human Restoration of Nature”
11/12
Light, “Ecological Restoration and the Culture of Nature: A Pragmatic Perspective”
11/14
Rolston, “Duties to Endangered Species”
Week 13
11/17
Peer Review of Essays Exercise
11/19
Singer, “Not for Humans Only: The Place of Nonhumans in Environmental Issues”
Essay #2 Due
11/21
White, “The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis”
Week 14
11/24
Wendell Berry “Christianity and the Survival of Creation
11/26
No Class-Thanksgiving Break
11/28
No Class-Thanksgiving Break
Week 15
12/1
Yuriko Saito, “Appreciating Nature on Its Own Terms”
12/3
Holmes Rolston, “The Aesthetic Experience of Forests”
12/5
Discussion Day
Finals Week
Final, 12/10, 8:00-10:00