Welcome
What responsibilities do humans have toward other members of creation? Answering this question requires that we begin by reflecting on a theological account of creation and the human place therein. After spending the first portion of the semester on these more explicitly theological and theoretical matters, we’ll consider how they shape our responses to particular ethical conundrums.
As we do so, we’ll discuss the ethical challenges that climate change, distributed risk, and long-term harms pose, but we’ll do so through a focus on the ethics of eating. The goal here is to get at these broader questions through particular instances of them–Should humans eat animals? What is the moral significance of our involvement in the suffering endemic to creation? How ought we to balance the need to feed many people now with the need to sustain the soil’s health for future generations? We’ll explore different approaches to these questions (utilitarian and virtue ethics in particular) and test these different answers against competing accounts. A secondary goal is to bracket (at least initially) some of the more superficial questions about climate change that tend to be politically polarized and get at the underlying theological and ethical questions.
Assignments
- Preclass Reflections – 30%
- Practice Paper – 10%
- Class Presentations – 10%
- Grow a Plant – 10%
- Final Project – 30%
- Final Exam – 10%
- Consider applying to be a YECA fellow
Required Texts
- Francis Schaeffer, Pollution and the Death of Man. ISBN: 9780891076865
- Andrew J. Spencer, Hope for God’s Creation. ISBN: 9781087751474
- Robert Farrar Capon, The Suppoer of the Lamb. ISBN: 9780375760563
- Norman Wirzba, From Nature to Creation. ISBN: 9780801095931
- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. ISBN: 9780061233326
- George Monbiot, Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet. ISBN: 9780143135968
- Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America. ISBN: 9781619025998
- Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop. ISBN: 9780679728894
Location
You will need to be adaptable and responsive to a changing environment this semester. In other words, our meeting location will vary. I’ll email and update the calendar below with the day’s location. When we’re inside, we’ll be in SHAL 209, and when we’re outside, we’ll usually gather at the firepit on lower campus, just beyond Rainbow Bridge. If it’s cold, we’ll have a fire. If it’s rainy or snowy, we’ll meet in the nearby gazebo. Meeting outside for this class as much as possible seems appropriate, but it’s also an experiment, and we’ll periodically reassess how it’s going. Let me know any concerns you have as the semester progresses.
Course Calendar
This schedule is subject to change. Our course meets MWF from 1-1:50 in HAL 209.
Week 1
- Monday 1/12: Introduction
- Wednesday 1/14: Lynn White Jr. and Richard Means in Pollution 93-119 (1)
- Friday 1/16: Schaffer, Pollution 9-50 (2)
Week 2
- Monday 1/19: Schaffer, Pollution 51-92 (3)
- Wednesday 1/21: Berry, “Gift of Good Land” and “Christianity and the Survival of Creation” (1)
- Friday 2/23: Spencer, Hope 1-52 (2)
Week 3
- Monday 1/26: Spencer, Hope 53-104 (3)
- Wednesday 1/28: Spencer, Hope 105-144 (1)
- Friday 1/30: Spencer, Hope 145-216 (2)
Week 4
- Monday 2/2: Wirzba, From Nature 1-59 (3)
- Wednesday 2/4: Wirzba, From Nature 60-94 (1)
- Friday 2/6: Wirzba, From Nature 95-157 (2)
Week 5
- Monday 2/9: Dillard, Pilgrim 1-54 (3)
- Wednesday 2/11: Dillard, Pilgrim 55-104 (1)
- Friday 2/13: Dillard, Pilgrim 105-183 (2)
Week 6
- Monday 2/16: Dillard, Pilgrim 184-224 (3)
- Wednesday 2/18: Dillard, Pilgrim 225-282 (1)
- Friday 2/20: Capon, Supper of the Lamb 1-52 (2)
Week 7
- Monday 2/23: Capon, Supper of the Lamb 53-66, 83-97, 109-115, 182-191 (3)
- Wednesday 2/25: No class meeting. Read Singer, Peter, “All Animals Are Equal” and “Becoming a Vegetarian”
- Friday 2/27: no class (Baylor)
Week 8
- Monday 3/9: Nussbaum, Martha 324-366 (1); readings for both days are here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5
- Wednesday 3/11: Nussbaum, Martha 366-415; Scruton, Roger “Eating Our Friends” (2)
- Friday 3/13: Monbiot, Regenesis 1-55 (3)
Week 9
- Monday 3/16: Monbiot, Regenesis 56-128 (1)
- Wednesday 3/18: Monbiot, Regenesis 129-185 (2)
- Friday 3/20: Monbiot, Regenesis 186-234 (3)
Week 10
- Monday 3/23: Smaje, Chris, Energy chapter, “Can Small-Scale Farming Feed…” and “The Hungry Ones” (1)
- “In What Sense Abundant?” A round table on energy abundance, in case anyone’s interested.
- Wednesday 3/25: Berry, Unsettling 5-54 (2)
- Friday 3/27: Berry, Unsettling 55-100 (3)
Week 11
- Monday 3/30: Berry, Unsettling 101-146 (1)
- Wednesday 4/1 Berry, Unsettling 147-234 (2); By today, you need to have met with me to discuss your final project proposal
- Friday 4/3: Easter Break
Week 12
- Monday 4/6: Easter Break
- Wednesday 4/8: Montgomery, Dirt Chapter 8 and Chapter 10 (3)
- Friday 4/10: Berry, “Solving for Pattern,” “The Garden and the Reactor,” “The Pleasures of Eating,” and “For the Hog Killing” (1)
Week 13
- Monday 4/13: Leopold, Aldo, excerpts from Sand County (2)
- Wednesday 4/15: Kimmerer, Robin Wall “Honorable Harvest” and “The Sound of Silverbells” (3)
- Friday 4/17: Kimmerer, Robin Wall “The Sacred and the Superfund” and “Sitting in a Circle” (1); Practice Papers due
Week 14
- Monday 4/20: Cather, Death 1-50 (2)
- Wednesday 4/22: Cather, Death 51-114 (3)
- Friday 4/24: Cather, Death 115-172 (1); Plant journals due
Week 15
- Monday 4/27: Cather, Death 173-234 (2)
- Wednesday 4/29: Cather, Death 235-297 (3)
The final will be on Monday, May 4 from 1-3.