From Environmental Ethics to Climate Ethics

elementary

FI2_W02 FI2_W10 FI2_W11

FI2_U03 FI2_U06 FI2_U07 FI2_U08 FI2_U13

FI2_K08

Human concern for the environment is a contemporary fact developed from ideas of the late modernity. Also environmental ethics is a young branch of philosophy, “invented” in the second half of the 20th Century. First, the class will examine both the philosophical roots and the scientific roots of environmental ethics. Thinkers like H.D. Thoureau and A. Leopold are important sources for contemporary philosophical discussion about human responsibility towards the environment. On the scientific side, environmental ethics has been made possible by the scientific work of C. Darwin and the subsequent establishment of ecology as a science into the framework of biology after Darwin. Then the class will present the most important approaches of environmental ethics since its birth in the second half of 20th Century from the awareness of the human effects on the environment caused by the “ecological crisis”.

• Course content:

1. The philosophical sources of environmental ethics: H.D. Thoureau and A. Leopold (6 hours)

2. The scientific sources of environmental ethics: from C. Darwin to the birth of ecology (6 hours)

3. The ecological crisis in the 20th Century (6 hours)

4. Environmental ethics in the second half of 20th Century (6 hours)

5. The climate change and climate ethics (6 hours)

- Broome, John. 2012. Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World. New York: W. Norton & Company.

Gardiner, Stephen M. 2011. A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change. New York: Oxford University Press.

- Gardiner, Stephen M. e Allen Thompson, a c. di. 2016. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.

- Hourdequin, Marion. 2015. Environmental Ethics: From theory to practice. London: Bloomsbury.

- Jamieson, Dale. 2010. Reason in a Dark Time: Why the Struggle Against Climate Change Failed — and What It Means for Our Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Students will gain general knowledge on climate change and environmental ethics. First, the class will examine both the philosophical roots and the scientific roots of environmental ethics. Thinkers like H.D. Thoureau and A. Leopold are important sources for contemporary philosophical discussion about human responsibility towards the environment. On the scientific side, environmental ethics has been made possible by the scientific work of C. Darwin and the subsequent establishment of ecology as a science into the framework of biology after Darwin. Then the class will present the most important approaches of environmental ethics since its birth in the second half of 20th Century from the awareness of the human effects on the environment caused by the “ecological crisis”.

• Methods of knowledge verification: Students are obliged to write a philosophical essay. The grade will depend on the student's ability to express and prove his/her point of view on the essay's subject.