Introduction to Environmental Ethics

Do animals have rights? Do ecosystems have interests? Are humans separate from the environment? How have the answers to these questions been shaped by scientific understanding and religious belief? How should they be? The development of environmental philosophies and ethics, and how they have interacted with controversial environmental issues, will be explored. Reading assignments include canonical and contemporary philosophers as well as environmentalists. In addition to theory, we will discuss the applications of these ideas in local to global environmental problems. The course will focus on ethical philosophies from the western world, but non-western philosophies might also be discussed.