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Course Name: Environmental Philosophy
Course Code: PHI 2108
Credit Units: 3
Course Description
The course examines the human relation to the natural world from different perspectives and
explores human duty with regard to nature, as well as environmental problems. It examines
environmental issues and policies regarding concerns such as economic impact, population,
biodiversity, sustainability, climate and consumption. It covers a wide range of issues in this
area, focusing on such topics as climate change, the value of wilderness and biodiversity, animal
rights, obligations to future humans and nonhumans, the ethics of species extinction and the
limits to growth. The major themes include anthropocentrism versus nonanthropocentrism,
intrinsic value versus instrumental value, and various approaches to environmental ethics,
including environmental theocentrism, biocentric ethics, land ethic, deep ecology ,and
ecofeminism.
Course Objectives
To help students develop skills in thinking and knowledge including:
• an appreciation of philosophical, social and political issues raised by human
environmental impacts
• an understanding of ethical and social issues concerning environmental practice
• enriched social, political and historical understanding of environmental problems
• an appreciation of diverse disciplinary perspectives in dealing with environmental
problems
Learning Outcomes
After successfully completing this course students should be able to:
• Explain human duties toward nature, as described in various approaches;
• Define important concepts such as anthropocentrism, intrinsic and instrumental value,
biodiversity and climate change.
• Understand ethical and social issues concerning environmental practice
• Understand social, political and historical aspects of environmental problems
• Appreciate the diverse disciplinary perspectives which deal with environmental problems
• Intellectual, Communication and Transferable Skills
• Students shall be able to
• better and more precisely analyse and articulate environmental problems
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better analyse and evaluate complex environmental ethical dilemmas
think critically, systemically and carefully in analysing complex problems
COURSE CONTENT
1. Environmental Philosophical Problems
- Roots of the environmental problems
- Attitudes towards nature
- Boundaries of moral community
2. Anthropocentric Environmental Ethics
- Utilitarian Ethics
- Deontological Ethics
3. Non-anthropocentric Environmental Ethics
- Biocentric Ethics
- Land Ethic
- Deep Ecology
- Ecofeminism
4. Obligations to Future Generations
- Moral Justification
- The Futurity Problem
5. The Population Problem
- Population as Cause of Ecological Problem
- Population and World Hunger
- Social Ecology and Justice
6. Economics and the Environment
- Environmental Principles of Sustainable Development
- Requirements for a Sustainable Society
7. Duties to Endangered Species
- Principle of Biodiversity
- Duties to Persons Concerning Species
- Individual and Species
- Species and Ecosystems
TEACHING METHODS
• Lecture
• Discussion
• Small Group Activities and Projects
Assessment Method
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Progressive assessment through attendance, group and individual written and oral
presentations will constitute 30%
End of course examination will constitute 70%
REFERENCES
1. Attfield R, The Ethics of Environmental Concern, Athens, University of Georgia Press,
1991.
2. Barry B and Sikora R I (eds.), Obligations to Future Generations, Philadelphia, Temple
University Press, 1978.
3. Blackstone W T (ed.), Philosophy and Environmental Crisis, Athens, University Press of
Georgia, 1974.
4. Gottlieb R S (ed.), The Ecological Community, London, Routledge, 1997.
5. Rolston H. III, Environmental Ethics: Duties to and Values in the Natural World,
Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1988.
6. Taylor P, Respect for Nature: A Theory of Environmental Ethics, Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1986.
7. Wenz P S, Environmental Justice, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1988.