Index for PHIL-3640

Environmental Philosophy

Dr. Ari Santas

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies

Valdosta State University

 

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Study Abroad this Summer in

Italy, Greece & the Mediterranean

-Maymester Program, 6 credit hours in PHIL/REL

-Available to all VSU and USG Students

-See PowerPoint Presentation

-Download Application

-Pay Online

 

Course Syllabus

Syllabus 3640 Fall 2011

 

Class Schedules

Unit I Schedule (the forerunners)

Unit II Schedule (environmental ethics)

Unit III Schedule (the critiques)

Unit IV Schedule (reimagination)

 

Final Projects

Unit V Schedule (finals conferences and presentations)

 

Option I: Individual Term Paper Option

Final Paper Requirements

Term Paper Abstract form

Sample Student Papers

Rethinking Our Diet Paper

Us vs. Them: Animal Testing

OR

 

Option II: Small Group Option

A.      Short Film

Final Project Assign: Short Film

Final Project form: short film

Sample Student Videos

The Beast (final project from 2010 class with environmental theme)

The Epic Adventures of Gang Green (stealthy ninjas making things green)

Some Helpful Hints on Video Editing

B.      Community Outreach

Final Project Assign: Outreach

Final Project Form: Outreach

 

 

Project and Presentation Assignments

See Santas Philosophy Guidelines (suggestions for reading, writing, oral reports, and group work)

 

Short Paper Assignments

Into the Wild response

180 South response

Summaries #1

Summaries #2

Summaries #3

Summaries #4

 

Online Readings (assigned readings not in the texts)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82)

Nature (1836)

H.D. Thoreau (1817-62)

Walden (1854) see especially:

Chapter 1: Economy

Chapter 2: Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

Chapter 11: Higher Laws

Walking (1862)

John Muir (1838-1914)

Wind-Storm in the Forest (on wilderness)

American Forests (on preserving wilderness)

Gifford Pinchot (18-65-1946)

The Fight for Conservation (on conserving forests)

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)

A Sand County Almanac (1949) (like a Bible for environmentalists)

The Land Ethic (an environmental categorical imperative)

Thinking Like a Mountain (loss of forests and wolves)

Rachel Carson (1907-64)

Silent Spring (1962)

Paul Ehrlich (1932-)

Population Bomb (1968)

Lynn White, Jr. (1907-87)

The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis (1967)

Carolyn Merchant (1936- )

Dominion Over Nature

Robert Bullard (1946-)

Overcoming Racism in Environmental Decision-making (landmark article)

Confronting Environmental Racism (Google book)

J. Baird Callicott (1941-)

The Search for an Environmental Ethic

Sandy Marie Anglas Grande

Beyond the Ecologically Noble Savage: Deconstructing White Man’s Indian

M. Elise Marubbio

Killing the Indian Maiden

 

Supplementary Notes and Papers

 

Study Notes and Questions

Environmentalism

Santas Notes on 4th Wave Environmentalism

 

Ethics Notes

Ethics 1: Key Concepts

Ethics 5: Pragmatism

Ethics 2: Relativism & Egoism

Ethics 6: Environmentalism

Ethics 3 Deontology

Ethics Principles

Ethics 4: Utilitarianism

Ethics as Problem Solving

 

Questions for Videos

11th Hour

180 South

Affluenza

Avatar (coming soon)

Into the Wild

Mindwalk (coming soon)

Trinkets and Beads

 

Santas Published Essays on Environmental Philosophy

Taking Care of Things (on mechanism, ownership, and the desacralization of nature)

Dualism and Degradation (on separation from nature as an intellectual construct of the early moderns)

Mead’s Cosmology (on a contemporary pragmatist cosmology that reestablished connection to nature)

Pragmatic Intrinsic Value (on intrinsic value of nature as multi-functionality of eco-systems)

 

Videos and Other Online Materials

General

11th Hour feature film at freedocumentaries.org

11th Hour Action Network

Daniel Quinn Ishmael Community website

Climate Change

Acid Test (NRDC video on Ocean Acidification; 21.5 min)

Global Climate Change Denial Industry (Guardian UK story, 2006)

Global Warming (see the Earth blow up—shock therapy for the deniers; 3.5 min)

Genetic Modification

The Corporation, 16: Advancing the Front (2005 documentary film, patenting life; 5.5 min)

Bad Seed (Fritjof Capra, Paul Hawken, et al speak against GM foods; 6.5 min)

Genetic engineering: The world's greatest scam? (Greenpeace video; 3.5 min)

GM Foods and You (overview of concerns about GM foods and differing standards; 5.5 min)

Onion News Giant Crab Report (Satirical treatment of the GMO debate; 2.5 min)

Toxins and Pollution

Oil Interests in the Amazon (video links and companion notes to Trinkets and Beads)

Video on PVC Poison Plastic (pvcfree.org, 2006; 3.5 min)

Food Production

The Meatrix (take-off on the Matrix that discusses factory farming; 3.5 min)

Mark Bittman Video (What’s Wrong with What We Eat; 20 min)

Consumption and Stuff

Affluenza Video (PBS show on consumerism; 56 min)          

Story of Stuff Video (Allegheny College sponsored video; 20 min)

Eco Activism and Environmental Justice

Vandana Shiva clips (on GMF’s, organic farming, and deep democracy)

If a Tree Falls (PBS show on the Earth Liberation Front)

Robert Bullard on Genesis of Environmental Justice Movement (interview from Fierce Green Fire; 3 min)

Chester Environmental Justice (community organizers against environmental racism and classism; 9 min)

Robert Bullard on Environmental Justice (2009 UCSB lecture; 58 min)

 

 

Online Student Evaluations

Instructions for Online Student Evaluations