PHIL 2032 - Environmental Ethics

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture None Lab None
Course Description: This course covers moral aspects of the relationship between human beings and the environment. Environmental Ethics covers ethical theory and applies ethical theory to the question of whether the environment is inherently valuable, or whether it is valuable only because it is useful to human beings? Topics may include whether we have a duty to preserve wild spaces, whether animals have rights, and the ethical implications of modern methods of food production. This course is suitable for all students.
MnTC Goals
6 Humanities/Fine Arts, 10 People/Environment

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1020  with a grade of C or higher OR ENGL 1021  with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: Completion of 12 college-level credits.

Major Content

1. Applied Ethics topics: the course will include some of the following:
   1. Animal Rights
   2. The impact of food production on the environment
   3. The methods used in farming to raise animals for food
   4. Eco-feminism
   5. Access to natural places vs. preservation of wild places
   6. Controversies concerning management of natural areas
   7. Conflicts between development and endangered species
   8. Hunting
   9. Eco-terrorism
   10. The basis for our placing a value on the environment
   11. Alternative energy development and production
2. Ethical Theory
   1. Consequentialism
   2. Deontology
   3. Virtue Ethics
   4. Social Contract Theory
3. Philosophy Skills
   1. Reading original philosophy source material
   2. Writing philosophy papers

1. apply ethical theory to environmental ethics topics.
2. critically evaluate applied ethics issues concerning the environment.
3. demonstrate college-level writing on philosophical topics.
4. research environmental ethics topics.
5. explain ethical theories.
6. analyze original philosophical sources.
7. evaluate ethical theories.

06. 03. Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.

06. 05. Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and humanities.
Competency 2 (7-10)
10. 03. Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges.

10. 04. Evaluate critically environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems, and institutions.

10. 05. Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems.

10. 06. Articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues.

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