PHIL 250

Environmental Ethics

Please note: this is archived course information from 2012 for PHIL 250.

Description

How on earth ought we to live? This course deals with ethical issues concerning our relations to the environment and all its inhabitants. Key issues that are discussed include: moral responsibilities to nonhuman creatures; the value of life forms and ecosystems; what our attitude to the natual world should be; the preservation of species and biodiversity; global catastrophe and responsibility; population pressures on the environment and the ethics of population control programmes; responsibilities to future generations; market solutions to environmental problems; corporate responsibility and the limitations of cost-benefit analysis; property rights in natural resources.