Short Course on Environmental Ethics
Lecturer: Dr Ho Hua Chew
Environmental values is concerned with the basis and justification of environmental policy
and actions It aims to bring together contributions from philosophy, law, economics and
other disciplines, which relate to the present and future environment of humans and other
species; and to clarify the relationship between practical policy issues and more fundamental
underlying principles or assumptions. In many universities and colleges today, interest in
environmental philosophy is growing, and courses are being offered and books published on
the subject.
The M.Sc (Environmental Management) Programme of NUS runs a short course on
Environmental Ethics every academic year. It aims to expose students on the MEM
programme and external participants to the complex nature of the subject to provide a
sound understanding of ethical and value-related issues as an underpinning to the subjects
such as Environmental Law, Economics and Planning and Assessment that are taught on the
Programme, as well as to overall sound environmental decision-making In addition, the
course hopes to provide a platform to engender intellectual discourse on environmental
values from an ethical perspective.
Course Description
The environmental crisis in the 20th Century has generated an impetus for a benign and
harmonious relationship to the non-human world. This is intensified by the global scope of
the crisis in the late 20th Century --- with the mounting scientific evidence for the
greenhouse effect, the ozone depletion, etc. Many people believe or feel that humans can no
longer continue to treat the non-human world in the way that robber barons or
conquistadors of old has done to the land or the world that was newly discovered. The use
of natural resources has to be accompanied by an obligation to use wisely and sustainably
such that the resources will not be willfully or inadvertently degraded or depleted for future
generations.
The result is the urgent search for an ethic that would be relevant for the age of the
environmental crisis insofar as such an ethic should and could provide a guide to our
behavior and conduct in relation to the non-human world. A new approach that transcends
the anthropocentric orientation of traditional (humanistic) ethics and worldview appears to
be urgently needed for the salvation of our planet that has become increasingly unfit or
uncongenial for human life as well as for many of its other denizens. Environmentalists,
ecologists, conservationists and people who are concerned have debated for decades on this
issue. The debate is still going on. Is there a need to go beyond our anthropocentric
orientation in the way we treat or deal with the non-human world? Do we need to relate to
the non-human world ethically in the same way as we treat our fellow humans --- conferring
it moral consideration? If we need to, on what basis can such an ethical relation be justified?
This short course will introduce participants to several major approaches that have been put
forward by contemporary environmental thinkers to promote a benign and harmonious
relationship to the non-human world. The fundamental concepts, underlying assumptions
and major limitations of these approaches will be reviewed so that students will have a
critical understanding of them and will be enabled to make their own judgments on the
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various relevant issues involved. The ultimate aim of the course is to promote a intellectually
sophisticated understanding of the environmental crisis.
Topics
Session 1: Introduction – the Ethical Dimension
Session 2: Transcending Anthropocentrism
Session 3: Taylor’s Respect-for-Nature Ethics
Session 4: The Land Ethic
Readings
Leopold, A. ‘The Land Ethic’ (in Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to
Radical Ecology, edited by Michael E. Zimmerman. Prentice Hall)
Primack, R. B. ‘Ethical Values’ (Chapter 6) (in Essentials of Conservation Biology.
Sinauer Associates)
Sylvan, R. ‘Is There a Need for a New, an Environmental Ethic?’ (in Environmental
Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology, edited by Michael E.
Zimmerman. Prentice Hall.)
Taylor, P. ‘The Ethics of Respect for Nature’. (in Environmental Philosophy: From
Animal Rights to Radical Ecology, edited by Michael E. Zimmerman. Prentice Hall.)
White Jr., L. ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’ ( in The Environmental
Ethics and Policy Book, edited by Donald VanDeveer & Christine Pierce. Wadsworth
Publishing Company)
Recommended
Desjardins, J.R., Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental
Philosophy.
Course Instructor: Dr Ho Hua Chew
Dr Ho has an MSc. in Landscape Ecology, Design & Management (Imperial College) as well
as an MSc. in Applied Ecology & Conservation (University of East Anglia). He obtained a Ph.D
in Philosophy from the University of Washington and had for many years taught a course on
environmental ethics in the Philosophy Department of the National University of Singapore.
He has published papers on philosophical and conservation issues in local as well as
international journals. Dr Ho is currently the Chairman of the Conservation Committee of the
Nature Society (Singapore). He has been involved with the Nature Society for many years,
and has contributed immensely to the Society’s efforts in formulating conservation proposals
for nature areas in Singapore, and in giving feedback to government on land-use plans and
policies.
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