Climate change and environmental ethics

For anyone who cares about climate change and the environment, it is valuable to be familiar with the canonical ethical questions at stake, to be able to describe key existing positions on those questions, and to be able to articulate and defend one’s own view on them. In this course, students will practice formulating positions and arguments for positions, identifying weaknesses in arguments, and diagnosing sources of disagreement. Along the way, lectures and readings will introduce students to a number of useful philosophical concepts and distinctions, such as intrinsic vs instrumental value; intended vs foreseen harms; moral agent vs. moral patient; anthropocentrism, biocentrism, and speciesism; land community; long-termism and intergenerational justice, among others. In addition, we will think critically about key concepts and ideas commonly used in discussions about climate change and the environment, such as sustainability, conservation, resilience, degrowth, mitigation vs adaptation, etc.

Students will demonstrate their mastery of learning objectives 1 and 2 on the individual assignments and on the final written exam. Students will demonstrate their mastery of objectives 3, 4, and 5 on the individual and group assignments and on the final written exam. At the end of this course, students will have strengthened their ability to develop well-supported positions on the ethical questions relating to climate change and the environment that interest them.

After this course, students are able to:

• characterize canonical questions and positions related to climate change and environmental ethics.
• explain and apply key concepts and distinctions related to climate change and environmental ethics.
• construct and evaluate arguments, including by identifying implicit assumptions and distinguishing between empirical, normative, and other types of claims.
• diagnose sources of disagreement on questions about climate change and the environment.
• articulate and defend their own view on questions relating to climate change and the environment, as well as to articulate weak points and uncertainties in their own arguments.

You must meet the following requirements

• Registered for a degree programme other than
• HBO-TOP Applied Physics, Pre-Master

• Articles and other materials will be available via Canvas