Course Listings

ENVR 320 Environmental Ethics (1)

The course focuses upon the historical and philosophical roots of our present environmental and resource dilemmas. The contemporary environmental crisis is considered as a particular manifestation of a cultural crisis which afflicts Western civilization and its imitators. Central issues include: comparison of environmental attitudes in advanced cultures; the environmental significance of Western interpretations of history; evaluation of the idea of progress as the ruling philosophy of history of the modern West; the sociocultural impacts of scientific and technological development; and an account of Western society’s continuing search for the good life and for means of inducing altruistic behavior.

Prerequisite: Junior or Senior standing

• Offering: Spring
• Instructor: LaFreniere