Philosophy of Philosophy of NatureNature

Kelly InglisOffice: Philosophy Department MB 306Office hours: by appointmentEmail: kellyinglis@yahoo.com

About the course

Mondays and Wednesdays 2:00-2:50Classroom: MB151

For schedule, readings, announcements, etc., see course blog:

kellyinglis.wordpress.com

Course contentTwo major topics:

January 16-Feb. 6 Humanity’s Place in Nature

February 13-April 23 Environmental Ethics

Class Structure

Part lecture, part seminar

Class participation is very important!

Ask questions, make comments, have ideas!

Presentation and paper

You will choose a topic involving environmental ethics as applied to a particular issue and give a presentation to the class on your project in April.

You will further develop your topic into a 1500-2000 word paper due at the end of the course.

We will hold group seminars at the end of April to discuss drafts of your final paper.

Assessment

20% Midterm quiz (February 28th)

30% In-class presentation on project

30% Final paper 1500-2000 words

20% Participation: in class, in individual tutorial and group tutorial

Tutorials

Required tutorials:

One individual tutorial to discuss chosen topic in March

One group tutorial to discuss drafts of final papers in April

Optional tutorial:

One optional tutorial in February to prepare for midterm quiz.

ReadingsBasic text:

Environmental Ethics: An Introduction to Environmental Philosophy, 3rd edition (2001), by Des Jardins will be the sources of many of our readings. It is available in the school bookshop and is on reserve in the main library.

Other readings will be available either on-line or on reserve in the Philosophy Department library.

Every week I will assign required readings, and sometimes suggested readings.

Important: Required readings must be finished before class, so that we can discuss them in class.

Readings for this week

Required:

Des Jardins, Environmental Ethics (2001), Chapter 5, pgs. 94-99 (up to 5.3)

Genesis, The Bible (King James Version), Chapters 1-3, available at: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201&version=9;Other versions of the Bible are also acceptable.

White, Lynn, Jr., (1967) “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis,” in Science 155: 1203-1207, available at: aeoe.org/resources/spiritual/rootsofcrisis.pdf

Task for next classBring in one example of controversial environmental issue. It

may be local, regional and global. Explain why your chosen issues are important or have interesting philosophical implications.

e.g. Local: Is government culling of water buffalo in Lantau justifed?

Regional: The three gorges dam in China: do the benefits outweigh the costs?

Global: Nuclear power: environmental problem or environmental solution?

What is Philosophy of Nature?

“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most people take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and it is this task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”

--Peter Singer, “A Utilitarian Defense of Animal Liberation”

Philosophy is enquiry

Some questions we will enquire into:

What is nature?

Is natural inherently better than unnatural? If so, why?

Is nature good or bad? Both or neither?

What is the relationship between people and nature?

Are people a part of nature or apart from nature?

Are people animals or something else?

If people are animals, are they special? If so, why?

Do people have a special responsibility towards the rest of nature? Or do we have only a responsibility towards other people?

How are these responsibilities connected with the preservation and conservation of nature?

Do people have a responsibility towards future people?

Is evolution progress?

Do animals have interests? Do they have rights?

Do plants have interests or rights?

Which is more important to protect: individuals, species, or biosystems?

What are the philosophical bases underlying debates on specific environmental issues?

In examining these questions, we will come to understand various historical, religious and scientific perspectives, such as that of Aristotle, Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism and evolutionary theory, and later we will learn about modern ethical approaches to the environment.

What is Nature?What “philosophy of nature” is depends on what

“nature” is.

Nature (definition):

1. The material world – i.e. the universe and everything in it

2. The world as it exists without human interference (or interference of other conscious beings) – “natural” as the opposite of “artificial”

Two definitions of “philosophy of nature”1) “Philosophy of nature”, according to def. 1 of “nature” is

the study of the natural world, both physics and biology. Philosophical questions include: is the material world real? Are we part of the material world? How do we know about the material world?

2) “Philosophy of nature” according to def. 2 of “nature” is the exploration of questions concerning people’s relationship to the natural world and the environment. Questions include how we conceive the relationship between human beings and the rest of nature, and how we should act in relation to the environment.

This course is about “philosophy of nature” in the second sense, but some questions from the former definition of philosophy of nature are still relevant to our study, particularly “are we part of the material world or are we separate from it?”

In other words, is dualism or materialism true?

Dualism vs. MaterialismDualism: the belief that there are two types of stuff in

the world: physical stuff and spiritual stuff. Our minds or souls are made of spiritual stuff, everything else is physical stuff. We are “ghosts in the machine.”

Materialism (physicalism): the belief that there exists only one type of stuff – everything is material (physical).

A dualist outlook is obviously a radically different view of the relationship of people to the rest of the natural world than a materialist outlook.

We will see how dualism and materialism underlie different views of nature and people’s place in nature in different cultures and different religions.