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ENVS203: Environmental Ethics, Justice, and World Views

Get an introduction to environmental ethics, a philosophy that extends the ethical concepts traditionally applied to human behavior to address the entire natural world.

Category: Philosophy
Course Introduction:

In this course, we introduce the concept of environmental ethics, a philosophy that extends the ethical concepts we traditionally apply to human behavior to the natural world. We will study the history of environmental ethics and the concept of environmental justice and explore how our views of the natural world have changed over time. Philosophers have debated the concept of environmental ethics since the 1800s, although many consider it to be a relatively new discipline. In this course, we identify key pioneers and events that have helped shape the global effort to help preserve our planet for future generations and species. We explore the notion of environmental justice and witness how a disregard for the environment can negatively impact entire communities. Finally, we explore political efforts that have promoted environmental sustainability in the United States and Europe. We see how our ethical beliefs and moral worldview can help shape the laws and regulations we create in terms of our sense of ethical responsibility, social justice, and environmental sustainability.
Course Units:
  • Unit 1: Ethics and the Environment
  • Unit 2: Environmental Ethics Approaches and World Views
  • Unit 3: Environmental Ethics History and Its Pioneers
  • Unit 4: Environmental Justice
  • Unit 5: Environmental Law
Course Learning Objectives:
  • Define environmental ethics and describe the key concepts on which it is based;
  • List the main environmental ethics approaches and viewpoints;
  • Relate concepts in environmental ethics to various religious teachings and beliefs throughout the world;
  • Explain how moral attitudes towards the natural world have changed over time;
  • Identify key events in the history of the environmental ethics movement;
  • Identify important pioneers in the environmental ethics movement;
  • Discuss environmental justice and explain why certain social groups are at greater risk of experiencing the effects of environmental injustice; and
  • Identify and evaluate the major environmental laws passed throughout the world, in particular those implemented in the United States and the European Union.
Continuing Education Units: 5.5

PHIL103: Moral and Political Philosophy

Learn how to develop your moral reasoning skills and apply them to contemporary social and political issues. Topics include philosophical investigations of justice, the value of human life, the moral standing of the free market, fundamental human rights, and the conditions for a moral community.

Category: Philosophy
Course Introduction:

This course introduces the basic concepts and methods of moral and political philosophy. Its primary focus is on the development of moral reasoning skills and the application of those skills to contemporary social and political issues. Although the course is organized around the central concept of justice, it uses this notion as a point of departure for discussing a wide range of philosophical topics and perspectives. 

Topics range from the value of human life, the moral standing of the free market, and the notion of fundamental human rights, to equality of opportunity and the conditions for a moral community. You will study a number of important moral and political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Paul Sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche, and John Rawls. 

This course will also examine contemporary thinkers such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, as well as news articles and primary source texts regarding important legal decisions. By the end of the course, you will have gained a detailed understanding of the philosophical issues involved in many contemporary debates in the public sphere, as well as a refined sense of your own moral and political positions and intuitions.
Course Units:
  • Unit 1: Murder, Morality, and the Value of a Human Life
  • Unit 2: Rights, the State, and the Free Market
  • Unit 3: Morality, Markets, and Immanuel Kant
  • Unit 4: John Rawls' Theory of Justice
  • Unit 5: Ethics and the Politics of Virtue
Course Learning Objectives:
  • Identify and describe the major areas of moral and political theory;
  • Explain how the major areas of moral and political philosophy differ from and relate to one another;
  • Situate the arguments of major philosophical figures within the context of moral and political philosophy;
  • Use the terminology of ethics and moral and political philosophy correctly and consistently;
  • Apply critical thinking and reasoning skills to ethical issues in a variety of real-world contexts;
  • Identify and describe major theories of justice and morality, including utilitarianism, libertarianism, social contract theory, deontology, natural law, and the ethics/politics of virtue;
  • Analyze how moral and political dilemmas are handled differently by each set of theoretical principles;
  • Analyze the consequences of various moral principles and interpret how these principles relate to concepts of justice;
  • Discuss the relationship between morality and politics;
  • Identify and describe the origins of western democratic politics and constitutional government; and
  • Analyze a range of difficult and controversial moral and political issues.
Continuing Education Units: 5.0