PHILOSOPHY AND THE ENVIRONMENT 2020-21 PHIL 10064 (MA Honours)
Course Organiser Pauline Phemister Dugald Stewart Building, room 6.04 Tel: 0131 651 3747 Email: [email protected]
Course Secretary Anne-Marie Cowe PPLS Undergraduate Teaching Office Dugald Stewart Building, room G.06 Tel: 0131 650 3961 Email: [email protected]
Times and Locations Semester 2 Information about class timing and format will be on the LEARN page for the course.
Assessment Mid-term essay (30%) to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 25th February 2021. Word limit: 1,500 words
Final essay (65%) to be submitted by 12 noon on Thursday 15th April 2021. Word limit: 3,000 words
Participation (5%) will be assessed by seminar attendance and Learn Discussion Board participation
Course Outline
In this course, we examine the deep ecological philosophy of Arne Naess that takes its inspiration from the monist philosophy of Benedict de Spinoza and will contrast with the ecophilosophy of Phemister inspired by the pluralist philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. We will explore issues of interconnectedness of living and nonliving entities, the relational identities of living beings, Naess’s notions of Self- realisation and Wide-identification, as well as questions concerning intrinsic, instrumental, relational, moral, aesthetic and spiritual values. We will also consider moral and aesthetic issues relating to bio- and onto-egalitarianism, biodiversity and variety, progress and the ideal of perfection.
Lecture/Seminar Content: Provisional Outline
Week 1 Shallow and Deep Ecology Movements, Ecophilosophy and Ecosophy Core Reading Naess, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, pp. 21-47 Naess (1973). ‘The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary’, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 16:1-4, 95-100. Reprinted in Drengson, Selected Works, pp. 2263-2269 Naess (1986). 'The Deep Ecology Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects', Philosophical Inquiry, 8, 10-31. Reprinted in Drengson, Selected Works, pp. 2291-2314 and here: https://openairphilosophy.org/wp- content/uploads/2019/02/OAP_Naess_Deep_Ecology_Movement.pdf Video Arne Naess and the Deep Ecology Movement (short version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJz2zVW9WHM
Week 2 Deep Ecosophies: Naess/Spinoza, Phemister/Leibniz Core Reading Naess, ‘Spinoza and Ecology’, Philosophia, 7:1, 45-54 Naess, ‘Spinoza and the Deep Ecology Movement’. In Selected Works, pp. 2662-2687 Nadler, Steven (2020). ‘Baruch Spinoza, Stanford Encyclopedia, section 1 (biography), section 2 (ethics): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/ Phemister, Leibniz and the Environment, chapters 1 and 2. O’Briant, Walter H. (1980). ‘Leibniz’s Contribution to Environmental Philosophy’, Environmental Ethics, 2:3, 215-220.
Week 3 Naess: Gestalt Ontology, Qualities and Relations Core Reading Naess, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, pp. 47-67 Naess, ‘The World of Concrete Contents’. In Selected Works, pp. 2714-2726 Naess, ‘Gestalt Ontology and Gestalt Thinking’. In Selected Works, pp. 2727-2733
Week 4 Naess: Values and Norms Core Reading Naess, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, pp. 68-86 Naess, ‘Notes on the Methodology of Normative Systems’. In Selected Works, pp. 2751-2766 Naess, ‘The Place of Joy in a World of Fact’. In Selected Works, pp. 2371-2383 Naess, ‘Beautiful Action: Its Function in the Ecological Crisis’. In Selected Works, pp. 2383-2390
Week 5 Naess: Technology, Progress and Lifestyle Core Reading Naess, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, pp. 87-103 Naess, ‘Deep Ecology and Lifestyle’. In Selected Works, pp. 2366-2370 Grey, William (1986). ‘A Critique of Deep Ecology’, Journal of Applied Philosophy, 3(2), 211-216. Naess, ‘An Example of a Place: Tvergastein’. In Selected Works, pp. 2604-2625 Video Jonathan Safran Foer, ‘We are the Weather – What will it take for things to Change?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ao27K8KiU
Week 6 Naess: Self-Realisation and Wide Identification Core Reading Naess, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle, pp. 84-86, 163-196 Naess, Arne. ‘Self-Realization: An Ecological Approach to Being in the World’, The Trumpeter: journal of ecosophy 4(3) (1987), pp. 35-42: http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/view/623 Reprinted in Selected Works, pp. 2781-2797. Naess, ‘The Connection of “Self-Realization!” with Diversity, Complexity, and Symbiosis. In Selected Works, pp. 2798-2802
Week 7 Phemister: Natural World, Activity and Beauty Core Reading Phemister, Leibniz and the Environment, chapter 4 Phemister & L. Strickland (2015). ‘Leibniz’s Monadological Positive Aesthetics’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 23(6), 1214-1234 Video Bennett, Jane (2011). ‘Artistry and Agency in a Word of Vibrant Matter’ (The New School, NY) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607Ni23QjA Podcast ‘Were my atoms once your atoms?’, CrowdScience, BBC World Service https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cszv5r
Week 8 Phemister: Relational Values Core Reading Phemister, Leibniz and the Environment, chapter 5 O’Neill, John (1992). ‘The Varieties of Intrinsic Value’, The Monist, 75:2, 119-138
Week 9 Phemister: Space and Place Core Reading Phemister, Leibniz and the Environment, chapter 6 Brook, Isis (2011). ‘Make, Do, and Mend: Solving Placelessness Through Embodied Environmental Engagement’. In E. Brady & P. Phemister, eds. Human- Environment Relations: Transformative Values in Theory and Practice (Springer), pp. 109-120
Week 10 Phemister: Communication and Empathy Core Reading Phemister, Leibniz and the Environment, chapter 7 Phemister (2017), ‘Substance and Power: Why it Matters What We Think’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 25(3), pp. 526-546
Week 11 Phemister: Temporality Core Reading Phemister, Leibniz and the Environment, chapter 8 Phemister (2017) ‘Leibniz’s Mirrors: Reflecting the Past’, in Für Unser Gluck oder Das Gluck Anderer, Vortrage des X. Internationalen Leibniz-Kongresses Hannover 18-23 Juli 2016 Edited by Wenchao Li, Ute Beckmann, Sven Erdner, et. al. (Hildesheim, Zurich, New York: Georg Olms Verlag), 6 vols. volume 6, pp. 93-108 Video Alastair McIntosh (2012). ‘The Importance of Hope’, DO Lectures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ue-lAtEygo
Readings
Essential Set Texts Arne Naess (1989). Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. Translated and edited by David Rothenberg (Cambridge University Press) Pauline Phemister (2016). Leibniz and the Environment (Routledge)
You will also at points be required to read papers from: Drengson, Alan, ed. (2005). The Selected Works of Arne Naess (Springer) These papers and other essential readings are listed as ‘core readings’ in the Lecture schedule.
(Optional) Primary texts of Spinoza and Leibniz are not required reading for this course, but if you do wish to follow up references in the literature, you can access many of their writings here:
Spinoza: The Collected Works of Spinoza, tr. and ed. by E. M. Curley, vol. 1 Princeton University Press). Available online via University Library Databases, ‘Past Masters’ (‘Continental Rationalists’) Leibniz: G. W. Leibniz: Philosophical Essays, tr. and ed. by D. Garber and R. Ariew (Hackett).Available online via University Library Databases, ‘Past Masters’ (‘Continental Rationalists’) Leibniz: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: Philosophical Papers and Letters, tr. And ed. by Leroy E. Loemker (Reidel). Online version edited by S. Knuuttila et. al. (Springer, 1975) available via University library.
Further recommended (optional) secondary (and some primary) texts Agar, Nicholas (2001). Life’s Intrinsic Value: Science, Ethics and Nature. New York: Columbia University Press. Baard, Patrik (2015). ‘Managing climate change: a view from deep ecology’, Ethics and the Environment, 20(1), 23-44. Brady, Emily and Pauline Phemister, eds. (2012). Human-Environment Relations: Transformative Values in Theory and Practice. Dordrecht: Springer. Curry, Patrick (2011). Ecological Ethics: An Introduction. 2nd Ed. London: Polity. De Jonge, Ecce (2004). Spinoza and Deep Ecology: Challenging Traditional Approaches to Environmentalism. Aldershot: Ashgate. Devall, William, and George Sessions, eds. (1985). Deep Ecology: Living as If Nature Mattered. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith. Drengson, Alan and Yuichi Inoue, eds. (1995). The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. Fellows, Andrew (2019). Gaia, psyche and deep ecology: navigating climate change in the Anthropocene. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Fox, Warwick (1990). Toward a Transpersonal Ecology. Boston: Shambala Fox, Warwick (1984). ‘Deep Ecology: A New Philosophy of our Time’, The Ecologist, 14. Reprinted in Environmental Ethics: An Anthology (2003). Edited by Andrew Light and Holmes Rolston III. Oxford: Blackwell, 252-261. Glasser, Harold (1997). ‘On Warwick Fox’s Assessment of Deep Ecology’, Environmental Ethics, 19(1), 69-85. Glasser, Harold (2011). ‘Naess’s Deep Ecology: Implications for the Human Prospect and Challenges for the Future’, Inquiry, 54(1), 52-77 Grey, William (1993). ‘Anthropocentrism and deep ecology’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 71(4), 463-475. Hampe, Michael (2013). ‘Explaining and Describing: Panpsychism and Deep Ecology’. In Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern Philosophy: Nature and Norms of Thought. Edited by Martin Lenz and Anik Waldow. Dordrecht: Springer, 179-202. Humphrey, Mathew (1999). ‘Deep Ecology and the Irrelevance of Morality: A Response [to Eric H. Reitan]’, Environmental Ethics, 21(1), 75-79. Katz, Eric, Andrew Light ad David Rothenberg, eds. (2000). Beneath the Surface: critical essays in the philosophy of deep ecology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Kober, Gal (2013). ‘For They Do Not Agree in Nature: Spinoza and Deep Ecology’, Ethics and the Environment, 18(1), 43-65. Keller, David R. (1997). ‘Gleaning Lessons from Deep Ecology’, Ethics and the Environment, 2(2), 139-148. Lovelock, James E. (1979). Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mathews, Freya (1991). The Ecological Self. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Mathews, Freya (2003). For Love of Matter: A Contemporary Panpsychism. Albany: State University of New York Press. Mathews, Freya (2005). Reinhabiting Reality: Towards a Recovery of Culture. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Merchant, Carolyn (2005). Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World. London: Routledge. Chapter 4 (‘Deep Ecology’). Naess, Arne (1969). ‘Freedom, Emotion, and Self-subsistence: the structure of a small, central part of Spinoza’s Ethics’, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, 12:1-4, 66-104. Naess, Arne and Sessions, George (1984). ‘Basic Principles of Deep Ecology’, Ecophilosophy VI, 3-7. http://environmentalethics.info/ecophilosophynewsletters/ecophilosophy6.pdf Naess, Arne (1984). ‘Identification as a Source of Deep Ecological Attitudes’. In Michael Tobias, ed. Deep Ecology, 256–270. Naess, Arne (2016). Ecology of Wisdom. Edited by Alan Drengson and Bill Devall. Penguin Modern Classics. Phemister, Pauline (2001). ‘Leibniz and Ecology’, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 18:3, 236-258. Reitan, Eric H. (1996). ‘Deep Ecology and the Irrelevance of Morality’, Environmental Ethics 18(4), 411-424. Sessions, George, ed. (1995). Deep Ecology for the Twenty-First Century. Shambhala Tobias, Michael, ed. (1984). Deep Ecology. San Diego, CA: Avant Books. Varner, Gary (1998). In Nature’s Interests? Interests, Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press Witoszek, Nina and Andrew Brennan, eds. (1999). Philosophical Dialogues: Arne Naess and the Progress of Eco-philosophy. New York: Rowan and Littlefield. Zimmerman, Michael, et. al, eds. (2004). Environmental Philosophy. 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. [Part Two: Deep Ecology]