PHIL 3340 - ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS - TTh 4:20-5:45 pm, Honors Building 116
Fall 2024-under construction
The online syllabus is a perpetual work-in-progress, always check under "NEXT" in the top right on our main page for late revisions and updates. It's best not to rely on a version printed early in the semester, changes are inevitable.
Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu. 300 James Union Building (JUB).
Office hours 2024: T/Th 11-1 & by appointment & via Zoom (link available on request)... (615) 898-2050, (615) 525-7865 only during office hours please
We'll use this site, NOT D2L, for online discussion and support.
Eventually we'll all become "authors" on this site, to post reports etc. Meanwhile, post your thoughts, research discoveries, and questions in the "comments" spaces (which appear below each post).
Philosophy, whatever else it is, is an open-ended conversation among ourselves and with philosophers of the past, and anticipating those of the future. Please participate in the conversation (far more than a grade is at stake).
TEXTS
REQUIRED for Fall 2024:
Erle C. Ellis, Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction (EE)
Paul Hawken, Regeneration (PH)
William MacAskill, What We Owe the Future (MacA)
Bill McKibben, ed. American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (McK)
Greta Thunberg, The Climate Book (GT)
David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth (WW)
Bill McKibben, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened
Wendell Berry, The World-Ending Fire
Kim Stanley Robinson, Ministry for the Future (KSR)
Sunrise Movement, tba
William James (WJ)
Feel free to use etexts and audiobooks, when available.
IMPORTANT DATES Fall 2024
August 27 – Classes Begin
September 2 – Labor Day Holiday - No Classes/University Closed
Sep 5 - assign midterm report topics
Sep 19 - midterm report presentations begin
Oct 10 - Exam 1
October 14-15 – Fall Break - No Classes
Oct 31 - Select/assign final report topics
Nov 5 - final report presentations begin
November 27-29 – Thanksgiving Holidays - No Classes/University Closed November 24-26
Dec 3- Last class, Exam 2
Dec 6 - Final blogpost (final draft) due (post earlier for constructive feedback). See note below on * Deadlines.
* Deadlines. Due dates are firm. Extensions are possible in the event of illness or some other unavoidable or extraordinary circumstance, but must first be authorized by me. jpo
==A note on the texts. My pedagogical goal is always to encourage students to stretch and reach further, and never be in a position to say "I'm bored, there's nothing to read." So...
This is an ambitious reading schedule. Read what you can, prioritizing the texts in descending order: first-listed assignment for each class gets top priority, second gets 2d, and so on. (If you don't get to all the McKibben texts in American Earth this semester, I hope you'll put them on your reading bucket list. They're classics you should want to read.)
I'll provide pre-exam audio reviews indicating which texts to review most attentively. Your requested/assigned report presentation date/topic* should coincide with one of your reporting date's scheduled topics.
AUG
27 Introductions. Post your response to these questions, interpreted any way you like: Who are you? Why are you here? What do you consider to be your environment? How does that relate to nature, the climate, and society? Do you think most college-age students are concerned about the present and future condition of the environment? Are you optimistic about the future?
29 EE preface, 1-2 (Origins, Earth System). GT 1.1--1.4 (thru Civilization and Extinction). WW I (Cascades).
SEP
3 EE 3-4 (Geologic time, Great Acceleration). GT 1.5--1.9 (thru biggest story). WW 41-64 (Heat Death, Hunger). McK Introduction, Thoreau.
5 EE 5-6 (Anthropos, Oikos). GT 2.1--2.7 (thru Dangerous Weather). WW 65-84 (Drowning, Wildfire). McK thru Walt Whitman. Select/assign midterm report presentation topics/dates
10 EE 7-8 (Politikos, Prometheus). GT 2.8--2.14 (thru Fresh Water). WW 85-102 (Disasters, Drain). McK thru John Muir. Select Midterm report presentation topics/dates.
12 GT 2.15--2.19 (thru Biodiversity). WW 103-125 (thru Plagues...). McK thru John Burroughs.
17 GT 2.20--2.24 (thru What Happens...). WW 126-154 (thru Systems). McK thru Henry Beston.
19 GT 3.1--3.7 (thru Food & Nutrition). WW 157-188 (thru Crisis Capitalism). McK thru Donald Culross Peattie. Midterm report presentations begin.
24 GT 3.8--3.14 (thru Winter...). WW 189-225 (thru History After Progress). McK thru Aldo Leopold.
26 PH -33 Foreword... Oceans. GT 3.15--3.20 (thru True Cost...). WW 226-265. McK thru E.B. White.
OCT
1 PH -61 Forests. GT 4.1--4.5 (thru Persistence of Fossil Fuels). McK thru Rachel Carson. Midterm report presentations continue.
3 PH -93 Wilding. GT 4.6--4.9 (thru Drawdown Technologies). McK thru Lynn White Jr.
8 PH -115 Land. GT 4.10--4.14 (thru Mapping Emissions). McK thru Garrett Hardin.
10 Exam 1.
17 PH -147 People. GT 4.15--4.17 (thru Future Electric). McK thru Joseph Lelyveld.
22 PH -169 The City. GT 4.18--4.22 (thru Myth of Recycling). McK thru Wendell Berry.
24 PH -191 Food. GT 4.23--4.27 (thru Perception Gap). McK thru Amory Lovins.
29 PH -213 Energy. GT 5.1--5.5 (thru Changing Diets).GT 5.6--5.9 (thru Practical Utopias). McK thru Wes Jackson.
31 PH -255 Industry, Action + Connection, Afterword. GT 5.10--5.14 (thru Lessons from the Pandemic). McK thru William Cronon. Midterm report presentations conclude.
Select/assign final report presentation topics/dates
NOV
5 GT 5.15--5.21 (thru Mending...Earth). McK thru Terry Tempest Williams. Final report presentations begin
7 GT 5.22 (Hope... What Next?). McK thru Ellen Meloy.
12 MacA Part I-The Long View. McK thru Jack Turner.
14 MacA Part II-Trajectory Changes. McK thru David Quammen.
19 MacA Part III-Safeguarding Civilisation. McK thru Sandra Steingraber.
21 MacA Part IV-Assessing the End of the World. McK Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan.
26 MacA Part V-Taking Action. McK Paul Hawken, Rebecca Solnit.
THANKSGIVING BREAK
DEC
3 Last class. Exam 2 (NOTE: Exam 2 is not a "final exam," it is the exam covering material since the first exam.)
6 Final blogpost (final draft) due (post earlier for constructive feedback).
See note above on * Deadlines.
==
EXAMS. Two objective-format exams based on daily questions, each worth up to 25 points.
*REPORTS. Midterm presentation (10 minute presentation + two discussion questions), final presentation & blog post (10 min, 1,000+ word post. Worth up to 25 points each. Your requested/assigned report presentation topic should be related to one of the class topics on your presentation date.
PARTICIPATION. Participation includes attendance, your full and attentive presence in class, and posts, comments (etc.) to our site prior to each class. No points formally allotted, but steady participation earns strong consideration for a higher final grade. (Hypothetically, for instance: say you earned a total of 88 points (of a possible 100) on the exams and reports. If you did not participate consistently and well, your course grade would be B+. If you did, it would be A.)
SCORECARDS. Because your professor is a baseball fan, we'll track participation with baseball scorecards adapted to the purpose. Come to class to get on 1st base. Post pertinent comments and questions for discussion prior to class to advance to 2d & 3d base.To come home and "score" post a pertinent research discovery, something we wouldn't have known from the day's assigned reading. Good places for quick online philosophical research include the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Philosophical Dictionary, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy… For environmental research, let us know what you’ve found to be useful.
Keep a detailed and dated log of your posts and comments, so you can document your participation if need be. Always include your section # with your posts.
==
"Solvitur ambulando"... the art of walking
A NOTE ON THE BLOG POST FORMAT: Midterm & final report blog posts should include appropriately-bloggish content: not just words, but also images, links, videos where relevant, etc.
A NOTE ON WORD COUNTS.1,000 is a minimum. Write more, if you've got more to say. Write a tome, if you've got one in you. But your main goal in writing for our course is always to be clear, to say what you mean, and to say things your classmates (and I) will want to respond to. Think of your weekly blog posts not as "papers" but as contributions to a conversation. And again, do think of them as blog posts, with links, graphics, videos. etc.
==
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Writing Center
The Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center serves all MTSU students, from freshmen to PhD candidates, on writing from any discipline, and in any genre. [website...] We have a brand new digital class visit, a brief introduction to the UWC, which can be embedded in any D2L shell for your students.
Tutoring sessions begin August 24th, and this semester, students will have two choices for online writing support:
Live Chat: students to use their mic and camera and meet tutors in real time to work on a shared document;
Document Drop: students upload their text and assignment sheet, identify specific feedback needs, and receive tutor feedback through email.
We also support writers through course-specific or assignment-specific workshops. The UWC administrative team has worked closely with faculty in diverse programs and departments, such as Biology, Anthropology, and Professional Studies, to create workshops and writing support for students in those courses. Please email Erica Cirillo-McCarthy, Director of the UWC, at erica.cirillo-mccarthy@mtsu.edu if you are interested in talking about ways the UWC can support writers in your class.
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