COURSE SYLLABUS
Philosophy 4700 - Environmental Ethics
Regents Professor J. Baird Callicott, Ph. D.
EESAT 310S / Ext. 4846 / callicott@unt.edu
Office Hours: 3:30-5:00 MW and by appointment
Keith Brown, TA
kbrown@unt.edu
OBJECTIVE
To read and discuss some outstanding efforts to formulate an environmental ethic and to develop
an environmental philosophy.
TEXTS
Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (Oxford University Press,
1949)
Michael Zimmerman, editor, Environmental Philosophy, Fourth Edition, (Prentice-Hall, 2005)
REQUIREMENTS
1. A 5-minute, multiple-choice/true-false reading quiz will be announced for each reading
assignment. No late reading quizzes will be accepted, but the worst two grades will be dropped.
The average of the remaining grades will = 1/5 course grade.
2. Three tests will be administered, one after each section of the course, outlined below. Each =
1/5 course grade.
3. Participation in Friday discussion session and associated activities = 1/5 course grade.
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Semester Weeks
Topics
1.
Introduction to environmental ethics.
Read: Lynn White, Jr., “Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” (handout)
2.
Aldo Leopold, seminal thinker
Read: A Sand County Almanac, Forward, Part I, 1/2 Part II, pp. vii-116.
3.
Aldo Leopold, seminal thinker
Read: A Sand County Almanac, 1/2 Part II, Part III, pp. 117-226.
4.
Philosophical call for environmental ethics
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 1-24
5.
Animal Liberation / Animal Rights
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 25-52.
6.
REVIEW / FIRST TEST
7.
Individualistic environmental ethics
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 53-81.
8.
Transition to holistic environmental ethics
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 82-101.
9.
Holistic environmental ethics
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 102-115; 130-138.
10
The problem of “ecofascism”
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 390-408; 116-129.
11.
REVIEW / SECOND TEST
12.
Ecofeminism
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 252-279; 194-207.
13.
Continental environmental philosophy
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 281-310.
14.
Ecophenomenology
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 311-334; 347-359.
15.
Social Ecology
Read: Zimmerman, Environmental Philosophy, pp. 430-449; 462-478.
16.
THIRD TEST
ATTENDANCE AND GRADING POLICIES
Regular attendance is strongly recommended. Because material on tests will draw from
information and interpretation developed in class, absenteeism may affect your grade. All
graded work may be reviewed upon appeal to insure against error.