Course Details in 2024/25 Session

Module Title	LI Climate and Environmental Ethics
School	Phil, Theology and Religion
Department	Philosophy
Module Code	08 38929
Module Lead	Wouter Peeters
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-20 hours Seminar-8 hours Guided independent study-172 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Climate change, plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, disturbance of the geochemical cycles, freshwater depletion and other global environmental challenges are highly complicated challenges which face humankind in the 21st century. They raise fundamental questions about how we should live and what kinds of societies we want, what our relationship is with nature, and how we transition from our current way of life with an unsustainable impact on the environment to a society with minimal environmental impacts (including net-zero-carbon dioxide emissions). This module is an interdisciplinary module, starting from up-to-date scientific knowledge and including insights from economics, political theory, moral psychology to inform ethical and moral analysis of global environmental problems. We will address the political and ethical questions raised by climate change and other global environmental problems, including: - Who should pay the burdens involved in tackling climate change and other global environmental problems? - To what extent can we rely on technological innovations to humanity’s environmental impact? Do we need measures to reduce population (growth)? Do we have to reduce our (material) wellbeing to achieve sustainable lifestyles? - How can the (human and non-human) victims of global environmental problems be compensated? - What should we, as individuals, do to reduce our impact on the global environment? - What are the relationships between various duty-bearers (individuals, corporations, political institutions) in addressing global environmental problems (as paradigmatic examples of collective action problems)? - What motivates duty-bearers and society at large to reduce humanity’s environmental impact? - How do we value non-human animals and the natural environment? - How should we conceptualise our relationship with the natural environment? Students cannot take this module concurrently with LI Sustainable Development: Climate, Culture, Society and Policy (37672). They are, however, allowed take the LH version of the latter module in the following year.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Show basic empirical knowledge of climate change and other global environmental problems Show understanding of the ethical issues regarding the transition to sustainable societies Show understanding of the philosophical views regarding the value of the environment and the relationship between humans and their natural environment Compellingly defend informed views about practical as well as philosophical ethical questions related to climate change and other global environmental problems in actual debates
Assessment	38929-01 : Canvas Online Quiz : Coursework (50%) 38929-02 : 1750 word Essay : Coursework (50%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: - Canvas quiz with open-answer and multiple choice questions (50%) and Essay (1750 words - 50%) Resubmission of failed component(s)
Other
Reading List