Introduction to Ethics and Environment

Real-Life Trolley Experiment

2011-12-13T10:55:00.001-05:00

http://www.livescience.com/17303-kill-1-save-morality-study.html

9/10 people apparently have consequentialist tendencies.

Pretty cool that this experiment was actually done!

Crying Wolf Over Elephants

2011-09-20T20:01:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to the 1993 NY Times Magazine article by Raymond Bonner, "Crying Wolf Over Elephants." Would be interested to hear what anyone thinks about Bonner's assessment of the issue.

The Sorites Paradox and Continents

2011-09-16T21:38:00.002-04:00

Yellowstone Snowmobile Controversy

2011-09-15T14:23:00.007-04:00

Lots of interesting stuff out there about the Yellowstone snowmobile issue--and a GREAT topic for an optional third paper in the class if you are so inclined.

Here's a 9-minute video on YouTube that reviews the arguments on both sides of the issue. The description of the video reads:

Winters have heated up in Yellowstone as the controversy over snowmobiling has reached the national stage. Park ranger Mike Yochim offers a summary of the arguments, while two residents of West Yellowstone, opponents on the issue, speak out. Produced by Elliott Kennerson, 2008.

Great issue. Michael Yochim, the NPS ranger who put the video together, later wrote a book about the issue, Yellowstone and the Snowmobile: Locking Horns Over National Park Use (Univ. Kansas Pr., 2009).

The Trolley Problem: A Short Film

2011-09-13T15:13:00.000-04:00

this is great--who would have thought that there was this much philosophy on YouTube!!

my thanks to Jesse D (former TA) for the heads up.

A look at Shelly Kagan

2011-09-10T23:07:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone,

Below is the link to the videos of Professor Shelly Kagan's Philosophy class on "Death" at Yale. I thought it was interesting to "meet" our textbook's (Normative Ethics) author, because it helped me to make connections while I do the readings.

http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy

Best,

Douglas

The Truman Show and philosophy

2011-08-30T15:24:00.000-04:00

There are any number of sites with philosophical discussion of The Truman Show on the web. Sam Vaknin's "Seahaven: A Moral Deliberation" focuses on the ethical side of things and is a pretty decent essay. I'm sure there are more--if you find any worth mentioning, please post a link here.

thanks.
Jim

Welcome!!

2011-08-24T13:52:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone,
welcome to the Fall 2011 edition of "Intro to Ethics and Environment"!

Jim

"Mountains Without Handrails"

2010-11-20T15:35:00.002-05:00

Gee, you think the National Park Service likes Sax's book? They've posted it in its entirety on their Web site: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/sax/contents.htm

Why Environmentalism is a Conservative Concern

2010-11-11T14:46:00.002-05:00

As luck would have it, from today's Guardian at http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/nov/11/environmentalism-conservative .

An excerpt:

Why Environmentalism is a Conservative Concern

Conservative thinking provides a deep well of arguments for protecting the environment and tackling climate change.
Paul Foote
Thursday 11 November 2010 13.47 GMT

The Tea Party movement struck its first electoral blow in the recent US elections. But consider this: 30% of tea party supporters think, wrongly, that President Obama was born outside the US and therefore is not a legitimate president, while just 12% think global warming is a serious problem now.

In the US, anti-environmental beliefs have gained traction on the right, which views action on climate change as "big government". Indeed, such views are considered "conservative". But they are not conservative beliefs.

The reality is that conservative thinking provides a deep well of arguments for protecting the environment and tackling climate change. I would argue the long political and philosophical heritage of environmentalism is in essence, conservative rather than radical. If the action needed to enhance the security of our own and future generations seems radical, that is merely a reflection of the extent to which we have collectively lost touch with the conservative tradition.

The right in the US has abandoned this tradition. But it is a tradition to which the leadership of Conservative party here in the UK seems to have returned. Being the "greenest government ever" is consistent with a conservative creed. But, crucially, the case for looking after the planet is rarely put in terms that appeal to the right or centre right.
Good government has always been concerned with improving people's quality of life and protecting their futures. This responsibility to safeguard the resources we have inherited is a feature of conservatism that has been more often associated with the preservation of political and religious institutions, finances and culture. Yet the same principles apply to the environment.

As the grandfather of modern conservative political thinking, Edmund Burke, put it: we are "temporary possessors or life renters" of this world and have a moral obligation not to squander our natural inheritance, lest we "leave to those who come after … a ruin instead of a habitation." Respect for the past and responsibility to future generations creates a duty to conserve our resources and protect the environment.

Read the rest here. Additional discussion at treehugger.com.

If Henry Could See Us Now

2010-11-04T22:44:00.000-04:00

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/11/02/smith

an excerpt:

"Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged?" So writes Henry David Thoreau in the first chapter of Walden, in the middle of a lengthy disquisition about the meaning of shelter in mid-19th century America. Using white pine from the shores of Walden Pond and lumber salvaged from an old shack, Thoreau stimulated his own poetic faculties by constructing his 10- by 15-foot dwelling at the outset of his famous sojourn.

With Thoreau’s exhortation and example firmly in mind and the blessing of the college administration, the department of environmental studies and sciences undertook the reconstruction of Thoreau’s cabin as our contribution to Ithaca College’s First Year Reading Initiative for 2010. The president had selected Walden as the text that would be sent to all incoming first-year students. Few books could serve as so stimulating a provocation in our hyper-mediated age, when it is harder than ever "to front the essential facts of life," when more people than ever seem to be living lives of quiet desperation. Reconstructing Thoreau’s cabin, therefore, not only resonated well with my department’s values, but would offer students an opportunity to, in Thoreau’s own vision of higher education, "not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end." (Emphasis original.)

Over the course of the summer everyone we contacted about helping with the project was enthusiastic. The local timber framers who had the tools and expertise to lead the build, the salvager who would provide us with the wood, and the local re-use center where we would get the windows and which would help us with the de-nailing — all leaped at the chance to participate, in many cases offering their services free or at a steep discount. Students, faculty, alumni, and community members who learned about the project all expressed a desire, even a craving, to become involved, to be able to build with their own hands. Their answer to Thoreau’s question, "Shall we ever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter?" was loud and clear.

And so sketches were made. A crew of students and faculty spent a day and a half pulling hemlock boards and timbers from a collapsed 120-year-old barn. The campus site for the build was selected. We sent the hand-drawn sketches to an architect friend to be rendered as computer-designed drawings.

And that was the moment when the magic of creative possibility conjured by Thoreau dissipated in the reality of 21st-century America. We can't say we weren’t warned by Henry himself, who had observed even in the 1840s that human institutions often serve those who created them in unwelcome ways. Our well-meaning friend innocently inquired, "Are you sure you won’t need a building permit for this project?"

An educational project temporarily occupying a space for a year, a 150-square-foot cabin? Surely not.

But, alas, once even our innocent inquiries were made, the Town of Ithaca bureaucrats scampered into their iron cages and set about their regulatory duties — duties, it should be said, the people have charged them with. Unable to see how irrelevant modern building codes were for this project, the director of code enforcement immediately declared our plans as drawn were a menace to public health and safety. The entire thing was transformed from frustration to farce when he insisted that the cabin would need ... a sprinkler system.

At least as frustrating was the inability of the college’s own bureaucracy to either defend the principle that this project was not even subject to review (there were precedents for such an argument) or to advocate for an expedited process. Not without reason, the college administration was fearful of alienating the local government over a project that was a low priority compared to the massive building projects under way and anticipated. No matter how powerful the experience of reconstructing the cabin might be for a few hundred students, no matter that such a project conforms more closely to the vision of higher education I believe in (and Thoreau seems to have as well) than the new 130,000-square foot athletics and events center, no one was willing to challenge the town’s misapplication of rules, at least not in time to make a difference.

Trolleyology in the news

2010-11-01T07:58:00.001-04:00

from today's Practical Ethics:

In the October edition of Prospect magazine, Practical ethics blogger David Edmonds provides an accessible and thoughtful insight into "Trolley problems"

A shocking memo leaked to Prospect, drafted by civil servants from the treasury and the department of health, exposes the stark reality of future cutbacks. Harsh decisions are inevitable, says the memo; in one NHS trust people on life-support systems are to be “finished off” on 1st November—either by smothering, or by having the plugs pulled out. Their organs are then to be used to save the lives of others on transplant-waiting lists, who have themselves become a considerable burden to the taxpayer. The total saving to the trust is estimated at £2.3m a year.
Hogwash, of course. But the government will make some tough choices in its spending review on 20th October, and these will cost lives. Whether “efficiencies” are made in the department of transport, the military or the NHS, there will be victims, even if they are unidentifiable. Governments always have to prioritise—choosing, for example, between a cheap medicine which benefits few people a little, and an expensive one which benefits many people a lot. But in hard financial times, such predicaments become more acute.
Moral philosophers have long debated under what circumstances it is acceptable to kill and why, for example, we object to killing a patient for their organs, but not to a distribution of resources that funds some drugs rather than others. To understand the debate you need to understand the trolley problem. It was conceived decades ago by two grande dames of philosophy: Philippa Foot of Oxford University (click here to read more about Foot) and Judith Jarvis Thomson of MIT.
David sums up both the nature of the burgeoning philosophical field of analysis of the trolley problem and its variants, but also the bigger questions about the role of such thought experiments in moral philosophy
The most vehement of trolley-phobes believe this whole approach to ethics is profoundly wrong-headed and, in a most fundamental way, mischaracterises the nature of morality. The world is too complex, judgements are too multifaceted, and the qualities of virtue and wisdom too subtle, for us to peel off intuitions from the trolley scenarios and usefully transplant them onto the real world. The riposte is that it’s hard to know how to do applied moral philosophy any other way. If it is indeed right to kill the spur man but wrong to kill the fat man, we need to untangle the principles at stake. Judith Jarvis Thomson once referred to the trolley problem as a “lovely, nasty difficulty.” Solving this lovely, nasty problem has repercussions for how we regard actions that weigh up lives.
Is the trolley problem a useful tool for moral philosophy?
If our intuitions lead us to not push the fat man, but to divert the trolley - does that mean that we should embrace the doctrine of double effect (or some variant of it), or does it mean that we should reject our instinctual responses to these questions?

Practical Ethics on November 01, 2010 at 09:28

Jim here: the trolley problem finds its way into countless public policy discussions--I'd be interested in collecting more examples if anyone runs across any.

documentary (?) on Thoreau

2010-10-29T07:17:00.000-04:00

back by popular demand

enjoy

"I mean, how much can you really say about ice melting?”

2010-10-26T11:54:00.001-04:00

And you think reading Thoreau is tough? Teaching Thoreau is tough. Check it out:

Note to Educators. Thoreau, one of America's most important and inspiring philosophers, can be tough to teach. It's not easy to dispel his stereotypes as a curmudgeon and hermit, or else a nature-gazing cloud-head, when you have only a few classes in which to present his works and thoughts.
Worse yet, the opening chapters of Walden can be seriously off-putting to many students. Better to choose among the more subtle and eloquent chapters, like "The Pond in Winter" or "Former Inhabitants" or "Spring," for an introductory assignment.
But ─ which chapters always turn up in the anthologies? The off-putting ones.
[Click here to read astounding examples of student reactions.]

Be sure to read the essay at:
http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thoroteens.html

My favorite student reaction:

“The things this dude said made absolutely no sense [and] we get to see what neurosis plagued his diseased mind…. Pages upon pages of vivid description about scenery, the little fighting ants, the whippor-whill, the squirrels under the floorboards, the bees … how they infested his cozy little shack … what do we care about his pests in nature? I mean, how much can you really say about ice melting?”

Groundhog day college student edition

2010-10-25T14:19:00.003-04:00

I know the Groundhog day movie showing was more than a week ago but I wanted to share a more college-student version of it in the show 'The tatami galaxy', which is 11 episodes long and can be streamed on youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/show/tatamigalaxy?pl=9EC5D94F47A3A147

I found it interesting, especially in that the protagonist deems various 'campus lives' unfulfilling, similar to how the repetitions of Groundhog day are unfulfilling until Phil accomplishes the 'perfectionist' day and breaks out of the cycle. The show has a bit of a twist ending that deviates a little from Groundhog day's message, and it seems to suggest that one of the most morally valuable factors is 'keeping promises'--the protagonist does some pretty morally questionable stuff, which don't seem as significant as the unfulfilled promise.

Warning: it's subtitled, which can be frustrating since the protagonist speaks extremely quickly. Also, there's some questionable stuff like walls of breasts (it's hard to explain) and interaction with a sex doll (it's not graphic, but still a little disturbing). The show is generally trippy and bizarre, but I recommend it.

Possible publishing opportunity

2010-10-25T09:53:00.002-04:00

This may be of more interest than the previous one! anyone thinking of a third paper could actually get it published.

Stance: An International Undergraduate Philosophy Journal
stance.iweb.bsu.edu

CALL FOR BOOK REVIEWS
Deadline: Friday, December 17, 2010

Stance seeks reviews of monographs, anthologies, and secondary sources in any area of Philosophy. Reviews may be 750-1000 words. Books reviewed must be currently in print and not part of public domain. Stance prefers reviews of books used in a class the reviewer is currently taking or has recently completed.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
-Review authors must currently be undergraduates
-Reviews should be (i) double-spaced (including quotations, excerpts, and footnotes), (ii) in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format, and (iii) sent as an attachment to stance@bsu.edu
-To facilitate our anonymous review process, submissions are to be prepared for blind review. Include a cover page with the author's name, affiliation, title, and email address. Papers, including footnotes, should have no other identifying markers.
-Footnotes should be kept to a minimum and follow Chicago Manual of Style. For more on proper footnoting see “Footnote Style” at http://stance.iweb.bsu.edu/notesforcontributors.html.
-Please use American spellings and punctuation, except when directly quoting a source that has followed British style.

RECOMMENDED FORMAT:
People read book reviews to discover if they want to read a particular book. As such, a good book review provides a quick overview of the main ideas in the text. Also helpful is an account of how the book fits into or engages an on going philosophical debate. While not required, a compare and contrast approach can be useful to demonstrate both the main ideas and unique positioning of a book.

An overview for a book review is good when it is broad and concise, including all and only the main points of the text. A good book review evaluates the text and deploys an argument regarding how successful the book is in achieving its goals. This may, but need not, involve substantive disagreement with the argumentation found in the text. Many reviews will be best when they (i) begin with any important background information (e.g. author biography), (ii) provide a summary of the contents of the book, and (iii) end with the reviewer’s evaluation.
The voice in book reviews must be obvious; readers should easily differentiate between the ideas of the book’s author from those of the reviewer. Book reviews for Stance should be accessible to the widest audience possible without sacrificing clarity or rigor. Avoid unnecessary technical or elevated language.

FOR FURTHER CONCERNS, PLEASE VISIT STANCE ON THE WEB AT HTTP://STANCE.IWEB.BSU.EDU/

If anyone's interested, let me know, and I will try to help. They are also looking for full-length essays between 1500 and 3500 words, info is on the website as well.
Jim

fyi

2010-10-22T09:16:00.000-04:00

in case any of you are planning on writing really good third papers:

CFP on Eudaimonia and Virtue

Call for Papers
Eudaimonia and Virtue: Rethinking the Good Life
University of Miami, February 25th-27th, 2011

Many ancient philosophers argued that our thinking and behavior should be grounded in a conception of eudaimonia, or human flourishing and virtue, instead of, for example, a hedonistic conception of happiness or a subjective conception of well-being. A growing number of contemporary psychologists and philosophers think that there is something deeply correct about this general eudaimonist approach, even if we may not fully accept all of the specific arguments and views propounded, for example, by Aristotle and the Stoics.

This conference is intended to bring together philosophers and psychologists who are interested in developing a contemporary eudaimonist approach and in discussing how to best appropriate Ancient views. The conference will focus primarily on theory – to discusss what conception of eudaimonia we should accept, what we can and cannot accept in Ancient accounts of eudaimonia, the relation of eudaimonia to morality, virtue, happiness, meaning, and well-being, and the prospects for future eudaimonia scholarship. There will also be a secondary, but active interest in empirical investigations of eudaimonia.

We are pleased to announce that the invited speakers will include some of the leading eudaimonia scholars from both psychology and philosophy, including Michael Slote, Eric Brown, Dan Haybron, Talbot Brewer, Alan Waterman, Joar Vitterso, and Corey Keyes,

We invite the submission of papers exploring issues like the ones mentioned above and welcome any interested individuals to attend and join the discussion.

Submitted papers should have either a reading time of 20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion, or a reading time of 40 minutes with 20 minutes for discussion, and be submitted by email by December 15th, 2010. Submissions and inquiries should be sent to eudaimonia@miami.edu.

Further information about the conference is available if you click here.

The Meaning of Groundhog Day

2010-10-19T22:51:00.000-04:00

Nice article at http://www2.kenyon.edu/Depts/Religion/Fac/Adler/Misc/GroundhogDay.htm. An excerpt:

Since its debut a decade ago, the film has become a curious favorite of religious leaders of many faiths, who all see in "Groundhog Day" a reflection of their own spiritual messages. Curators of the series, polling some 35 critics in the literary, religious and film worlds to suggest films with religious interpretations, found that "Groundhog Day" came up so many times that there was actually a squabble over who would write about it in the retrospective's catalog.

Harold Ramis, the director of the film and one of its writers, said last week that since it came out he has heard from Jesuit priests, rabbis and Buddhists, and that the letters keep coming. "At first I would get mail saying, 'Oh, you must be a Christian, because the movie so beautifully expresses Christian belief,' " Mr. Ramis said during a conversation on his mobile phone as he was walking the streets of Los Angeles. "Then rabbis started calling from all over, saying they were preaching the film as their next sermon. And the Buddhists! Well, I knew they loved it, because my mother-in-law has lived in a Buddhist meditation center for 30 years and my wife lived there for 5 years."

There's also an interview with Harold Ramis on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkEUpymTanA

three cheeseburgers...

2010-10-15T03:33:00.000-04:00

Phil, finally fed up, breaks the chains that bind his predictable life and makes his own choices. Phil thought it was a good idea to drive...and do the talking. He made decisions that gave us a real funny clip. I don't recommend trying this at home (or anywhere for that matter.) I do recommend posting your favorite clip and sharing in some laughter straight from Punxsutawney!

Ethics is ultimately all about Choices

2010-10-15T03:22:00.000-04:00

For the love of poetry

2010-10-07T21:19:00.003-04:00

the scene from Dead Poets Society that I mentioned in class today.

The ethics of love vs. the ethics of duty

2010-10-05T16:15:00.002-04:00

for your listening pleasure:

an ethical dilemma occurs at 4:32. The ethics of duty kicks in at 7:03.

Saints, Heroes, and Well-Lived Lives

2010-09-29T11:33:00.000-04:00

originally posted Sept 23, 2007:

Here is a web broadcast of an NPR program on "Moral Saints" that features an interview with Susan Wolf. Below are the listening notes on the program:

About the Guest

Susan Wolf is Edna J. Koury Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her primary areas of research are moral philosophy and the philosophy of mind. She is the author of Freedom Within Reason (Oxford UP 1993), where she makes a case for freedom as the ability to act in accordance with one's values and the ability to form one's values in light of an appreciation of the True and the Good. Professor Wolf's current research focuses on the relations among happiness, morality, and meaningfulness in life.

Listening Notes

What are moral saints and heroes? Saints and heroes are people that go above and beyond the call of duty. In philosophical jargon, this is called "supererogation". Most moral theories divide actions into three categories: that which is obligatory, that which is forbidden, and that which is optional. Would we have better lives if we were more like the saints and heroes? Ken introduces Susan Wolf, professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Wolf defines a moral saint as a person that is as morally good as can possibly be. Wolf says that while it would be good for there to be moral saints, she wouldn't want to be too close to them. Wolf distinguishes two kinds of saints: loving saints, people that act out of love for everyone, and dutiful saints, people that act out of feelings of duty or obligation.

Wolf argues that it would be very hard to be friends with a saint because they would make you aware of your imperfections. Wolf defines a hero as a person that does one act or one kind of act heroically, and she thinks that it would be easier to be friends with a hero than with a saint. War heroes seem to be a special class of heroes. Are they somehow braver or just unlucky? Should we strive to have a maximally moral life as our life goal? Wolf thinks that it may be obligatory to do something heroic, such as a secret service officer jumping in front of a bullet to save the president. This is one difference between heroism and sainthood. John suggests that we need to distinguish two kinds of loving saints, those in love with an abstract idea and those that care deeply about particular people.

Are there situations in which we could be required to do things that are otherwise above and beyond the call of duty? Wolf thinks there are and that we should raise the bar of what is expected of the average person. Wolf thinks that aspiring to sainthood prevents us from having well-lived lives. If you start giving in to the demands of morality, how do you know where to stop? Wolf thinks that the line is determined partly by what you are interested in and is somewhat arbitrary. Wolf distinguishes between moral relativism and moral pluralism.

Amy Standen the Roving Philosophical Reporter (Seek to 04:35): Amy Standen asks some people on the streets what they think saints and heroes are.

Ian Shoales the Sixty Second Philosopher (Seek to 49:55): Ian Shoales give a quick biography of his hero, a war hero, writer, and actor.

Enjoy.

Joaquin Phoenix: hoax, con, act, b.s., or lying?

2010-09-23T11:45:00.002-04:00

Warning: Graphic content mixed with humor!

2010-09-20T00:54:00.002-04:00

It'll cost you an arm or a leg

2010-09-20T00:38:00.006-04:00

Section three deals with harm, the concept of constraint, and the differences between doing and allowing. Kagan discusses the ethical dilemma of whether it is permissible to cut off George's leg in an attempt to save his life. (see bottom of pg 86) The consequentialist will permit this act only if the end result is the ideal outcome. The absolutist would disagree. Do you consider the final outcome to weigh more heavily than the intent of the act itself?

In further reading, section four widens the scope of constraint, and begins by dealing with the act of lying. Sure, most can agree that lying is "bad" or "wrong." We were taught this at very young ages. But upon reading Kagan, I was enlightened. (1st para top of pg 114) He specifies a very different point of view than the standard opinion of lying. He says, "...the constraint against lying should not be confused with a requirement to tell the truth." In other words, we are not entitled to say something one way or the other and therefore (by virtue of this argument) the act of saying nothing is not in itself lying. So, does 'withholding the truth' still constitute lying in your opinion? If you pretend to do something is this just as bad as having committed the act itself?

What if the act happens to be a faked suicide?? Has this just broken your threshold because it is only directly affecting one person? Getting back to good 'ol George of Chapter 3, if cutting off his leg only saved him then the die hard deontologist would balk. If it saved a thousand - now that's acceptable. Kagan continues after George to use yet another example: Harold & Maude. Cut off his leg to make a serum to save her life! Is Kagan possibly using a rare, and grossly underrated, 1971 movie reference? Unlikely, but nonetheless, I encourage you to seek out this film. In the meantime, I've provided the original trailer. Oh yeah - and you were warned!

Shelly Kagan

2010-09-14T23:07:00.002-04:00

We talked about this in my section, but just so everyone else knows Shelly Kagan, is a man. His picture is to the left. I mentioned this in my section as well, but i wanted to ask it to everyone. What are the ethical implications of naming your son Shelly? Or for that matter how does a name influence a person and what is the ethical implications for any name that is given?

I can't drive 55

2010-09-09T20:03:00.003-04:00

well, I misspoke in class this morning. It was President NIXON, not Carter, who signed into law the National Maximum Speed Law of 1974 , which established a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour as an energy conservation measure. "Wildly unpopular," as the Wiki article says, the law inspired Sammy Hagar of Van Halen (not David Lee Roth as I said in class) to write the 1984 hit song, "I Can't Drive 55."

Here, for your musical and ethical edification, is Mr. Sammy Hagar singing about the ethical dilemma he faces in trying to subordinate his selfish individual preferences to the greater good of society. Enjoy.

To answer the question

2010-09-05T22:30:00.000-04:00

Truman lived under a paper moon

2010-09-03T22:30:00.002-04:00

One of my all time favorite movies is Paper Moon. While Nat King Cole sings it best it is the lyrics that really embed the meaning. (worth looking up for those interested - movie and lyrics)

What is real to us? Do we ever truly know our friends or acquaintances? How do we verify if our surroundings are even concrete? Just because we can touch, feel, see - are we actually experiencing reality? Or is it just a fleeting glimpse of someone else's design? And if so, who? What? These questions have been pondered by some of the greatest minds that have ever pondered. But are we any closer to the answers??

Truman was brought up to think his world was real. His entire 'reality' as he knew it was a construct of his creator, Christof. Christof designed this elaborate world to disguise the outside REAL world from Truman. Truman could even taste the salty air surrounding his menagerie, and yet it wasn't true. So eloquently put: "We accept the reality of the world in which we are presented," responded Christof in interview. If Emerson were alive today, I think he would have retorted with one of his lines: "The mind does not create what it perceives, anymore than the eye creates the rose." R.W. Emerson

What are your thoughts?

Morals of money Part I

2010-09-03T22:03:00.003-04:00

This clip is essentially a bit of a slight of hand trick mixed in with just enough jabber to confuse anyone trying to count out bills. In life - and especially in the South during Great Depression - you can never know who to trust. Watch as Moses Pray pulls one over on an unsuspecting shopkeeper. He makes it out with a free ribbon (for Addie) and some dough along the way... $5 for $10

Welcome to Ethics and the Environment, 2010!

2010-08-26T20:36:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,
welcome to the class blog for NTRES 3320. Have fun with posting items of interest and discussion of issues that relate to the course.

Jim

Angry Mermaid Award!

2009-12-13T14:31:00.002-05:00

Vote for which corporations have made the greatest effort to sabotage the prevention of climate change! Keep in mind, each of these listed corporations have made "bullshit" proposals to help battle climate change that end up being much more profitable than effective!

Angry Mermaid Nominees!

Optional Paper topics

2009-11-30T17:14:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone,

So I'm thinking about the optional paper topics and I want to write about the ethics of reading, and draw heavily from Thoreau's essay in Walden on reading. It was a close call between that and plastic trees. I was wondering what other people picked for a third topic, and, would it be possible for us to put our third papers online or something for the whole class to see? It might be fun to just see the variety of specific things that interest different people. If you don't like the idea, feel free to veto it.

-Arjun

PS--I haven't done the Blog so far b/c I thought I was bad with computers, but this is pretty easy.

New National Park Service Director

2009-11-29T22:38:00.002-05:00

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113697978

Here's a link to an interview with the new director of the National Park Service. Pretty short, but mentions restrictions on snow mobile use in Yellowstone.

-Dana

Life After People

2009-11-20T12:00:00.004-05:00

We were talking about anthropocentrism in class today. Many people are concerned about how the environment will change but is this really about how the environment will change the lives of human beings? What about life after people?

The History Channel made a film about this (link below)

Life After People

Hope you enjoy it!

Child Labor in Uzbek: Repercussions of Speaking Out

2009-11-11T13:59:00.003-05:00

This is going back to the 11/10 lecture and the article referring to examples of paternalism... I'm wondering if the individual who divulged the information to BBC would have changed his mind if he knew he was going to be harmed out of his attempt to help others.

Activist 'beaten' after BBC story

Groundhog Day

2009-10-29T12:36:00.003-04:00

For anyone interested in watching part or all of Groundhog Day, here is the link to Part 1 of ten on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MoOvPIuKAY&feature=related

A Series of Great Films to Accompany Great Literature

2009-10-28T16:45:00.002-04:00

We have been reading a lot of thought-provoking material in the past weeks on various ethical issues and approaches to core ethical question of "How should one live?" There seem to be a number of films coming out that deal with ethical issues we are discussing in class. Adding to the post before mine, there are a few films that are out in theaters in the coming weeks that may be worth your time.

In addition to"The Invention of Lying" (which was very thought-provoking - is the world actually made better if there is no lying?), there is also "Surrogates," "Where the Wild Things Are," and "The Box" (coming out November 6). "The Box" poses the following moral dilemma: pushing a button will instantly earn you one million dollars, but will also kill someone you do not know; do you push it?

"Where the Wild Things Are" does not necessarily fit in the category of dealing with ethical issues, but is in the broader category of how should one deal with issues in general, and the foundation of a person's character. I wanted to share a link to a NY Times Opinion article related to the movie that I found to be very well-written on this subject of morality:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/opinion/20brooks.html

- Jess

"The Invention of Lying" On the Topic of Lying vs. Bullshit

2009-10-05T17:55:00.007-04:00

I just saw this preview for "The Invention of Lying" recently and thought it'd be interesting to share with all of you considering it's fairly pertinent with what we had been discussing just a week ago. It's literally about a man who stumbles upon the ability to lie in a world where no one has ever lied before, and how he exploits it. Enjoy.

The Invention of Lying

-Brian Han

The rights of nature

2009-09-29T13:39:00.005-04:00

The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is a Pennsylvania nonprofit dedicated to asserting the rights of nature and having such rights codified into law. Check out their website at:

http://www.celdf.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

How far do rights go?

2009-09-29T11:35:00.003-04:00

Here's a clip from Ghost in the Shell that made me think of class today (9/29), how far do we go with rights? Like other sci-fi robot films (AI or iRobot), what rights do they have? They can think and act, even independently, so what rights do they have. So if a robot has rights, can the earth??? How far do we go with rights?

Austin Powers: is this international man of mystery doing or allowing harm?

2009-09-28T00:21:00.003-04:00

You decide: is Austin Powers doing or allowing harm?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLlUgilKqms

Interview with Harry Frankfurt on bullshit

2009-09-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

Here is an interview with Harry Frankfurt that can help you with understanding his essay on bullshit.

originally posted 9/21/07

Soda Tax

2009-09-17T12:47:00.003-04:00

While reading the NY Times today, I ran across an article (found online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/business/17soda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=soda&st=cse) on the front page of the Business section about how a tax should be imposed on sugary beverages like soda. This, supporters argue, would help fight obesity and raise funds for the health care reform. As someone who doesn't drink soda, I can honestly say I am biased in favor of such a tax, but what do you think? Is it right for the government to influence what we drink?

Neurath's boat

2009-09-03T16:08:00.004-04:00

There are many references to Neurath's boat in various places on the web, and one nice paper that relates to ethics is by Gilbert Harman of Princeton University. "Three Trends in Moral and Political Philosophy" is available as a pdf file and may be of interest to some of you.

for more on Apollo 13:

Welcome to Ethics and the Environment, Fall 2009 version

2009-08-27T13:19:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone,
glad to get the class started today. Enjoy the blog, and please do share items that you run across that relate (however broadly) to the subject matter of the course.

Jim

Recreation in the National Parks

2008-12-16T14:56:00.001-05:00

From a long time ago, but I just figured out how to post as a new blog, rather than a comment!

After talking today in class about what forms of recreation in the national parks are intrinsically better than another it got me thinking of a personal story from this past summer, that I included in my Mill v. Sax Paper, but I think everyone might find it interesting:

"In defense of Sax’s position that the parks should be kept as natural as possible, I recall a personal anecdote from my family trip to Alaska this past summer. Denali National Park is a six million acre preserve originally set aside as a national park in 1917. Set in the heart of Alaska, Denali is a majestic park that I have always been enthralled with since I was a young child. To me, it seemed as though Denali was one of America’s last great wildernesses; a place where grizzly bears and moose far outnumbered people. All this set against the backdrop of Mount McKinley, the highest, and perhaps most spectacular peak in North America. Denali was one of the last places my family visited on our two-week trip to Alaska and I was effervescent with anticipation until the moment we arrived there.
Our tour bus pulled up to the Princess™ “Wilderness” Lodge right outside of the park boundary and I was appalled at what I saw. This “wilderness” lodge was more like a Disneyworld resort, packed full of tourists who seemed as though they had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the middle of Alaska. Across the street from the resort there was a “scenic” cable car ride that took you to the top of a nearby mountain, as well as a strip mall crammed with restaurants, souvenir shops and even a Harley Davidson Motorcycle outlet! The physical and symbolic scar that was left on this landscape by human development was palpable. It felt like a bad dream, all my life I had envisioned Denali as an unspoiled, expansive wilderness, and here I was, standing outside a McDonald’s only feet from the Denali park border. I was dejected. Technically, this development was allowed because it was mere feet outside of the park’s borders, but that didn’t change my opinion of it. The over-development of such a wonderful natural area detracted from my personal experience while visiting the park."

Any thoughts or comments?

-Matt

Ethics of Hunting

2008-12-16T14:53:00.001-05:00

From a long time ago, but I just figured out how to post as a new blog, rather than a comment!

I found the discussion of bear hunting with hounds and jelly donuts today in class especially interesting, particularly when the issue was raised: is it unsportsmanlike to hunt in such a manner and if so, should that be penalizable? It was brought up that in sports such as basketball and football that acting in a respectful "sportsmanlike" manner is a personal decision, which not everyone chooses to follow. If a person chooses to act unsportsmanlike this doesn't get penalized. The problem I had with that is in sports such as football, basketball or baseball that's simply not true. If an athlete acts unsportsmanlike in any way he is subject to consequences such as penalties for his team or being ejected from the game. So taking it back to the bear hunting argument, if it is indeed a sport like basketball and football, shouldn't hunters be held accountable if they behave in ways that are deemed unsportsmanlike by their specific sport? Not to say I believe this, I am merely playing devil's advocate and offering up some food for thought

P.S. I found some interesting bear hunting video's with hounds on YouTube; you decide if its ethical or not.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS292&q=bear+hunting+with+dogs&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#

It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature

2008-11-06T18:21:00.005-05:00

retro 70s margarine commercials, as promised in class. enjoy!

more info at http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_mothernature.htm .

Join the Thoreauvian Small House Movement

2008-10-24T16:12:00.002-04:00

Animal Rights

2008-10-23T13:05:00.003-04:00

Hi guys.
I had to read this article for my debate class and I thought it was really interesting. It discusses ethics in regards to animal rights. A lot of the concepts we covered in this class appear in the debate, like utilitarianism and moral philosophy.
Just thought a lot of you might enjoy it...

http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/interviews-debates/200106--.htm

Is Fargo a true story? lies and deception redux

2008-09-25T12:58:00.002-04:00

the following is from snopes.com:

"Fargo opens with: 'This is a true story. The events depicted in this film took place in Minnesota in 1987. At the request of the survivors, the names have been changed. Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.'

"Great opening. And not a word of truth to it.

"Fargo's creators, the Coen brothers, are known for their playfulness, the inclusion of 'little touches' that add to a film. Given the Coens' reputation for this, you'd think any responsible film reviewer would have made at least a stab at confirming this bold claim before blithely passing it along as fact. (Had they done any checking, they would have quickly discovered that nothing so much as vaguely resembling that level of carnage had occurred in Minnesota. Not in 1987. Not ever.) As a result of those reviews, an even greater number ended up believing what the Coen brothers had to have thought no one but the incredibly gullible would fall for. Their little leg-pull went over big time."

read the rest here.

Laws

2008-09-22T20:45:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone,

I was thinking the other day about the discussion of ethics being separate from the legal system and the importance of not confusing ethics and the law, and I though of this book...

"You May Not Tie and Alligator To a Fire Hydrant: 101 Real Dumb Laws"
http://www.amazon.com/You-May-Alligator-Fire-Hydrant/dp/0743230655

It seems to offer some support for the idea that not all of our laws are based on morality...

-Emily

Filming for the Environment

2008-09-11T09:54:00.001-04:00

*Call for Submissions*

ACUPCC Video Competition

The American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment <http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/>(ACUPCC) is soliciting videos that demonstrate creative strategies for communicating the Climate Commitment across your campus and beyond. Deadline is Oct 1.

Five selected videos will be highlighted and screened at the 2nd biennial conference of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education <http://www.aashe.org/conf2008/> (AASHE) November 9-11th in Raleigh, NC. Videos will also be made publicly available on the ACUPCC and AASHE websites, providing exposure for your institutional efforts and sharing creative strategies to build awareness.

For more information and for guidelines on submitting videos:

http://www.aashe.org/conf2008/ACUPCCvideocompetition.php

Money for Green Projects on Campus

2008-09-11T09:51:00.005-04:00

In case you all didn't see this:

Now that you are back on campus, it's time to make it a better,greener place. Students can implement projects on campus, making the college more sustainable, while also building their resume.

National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology program awardsfellowship grants to undergraduate and graduate students who arecommitted to reduce their campus carbon footprint; projects including: greenhouse gas inventories, climate action plans, energy conservationand efficiency, habitat restoration, convening climate actiongatherings and more will be considered.

Grant awards:

Up to $2000 for Undergraduate Students

Up to $5000 for Graduate Students

Fall deadlines: October 1, 2008

November 14, 2008

Visit www.nwf.org/fellows for details about the Campus Ecology

Fellowship program.

How Wild is Wilderness?

2008-09-11T08:57:00.006-04:00

An excellent and eye-opening read on just how dramatically the Americas where transformed by humans BEFORE they turned into wilderness, that is, before the majority of humans living in the America's were wiped out by European disease and made room for the beasts to roam:

1491, New Revelations about the Americas before Columbus, by Charles C. Mann

For a very special take on American wilderness see
http://www.rewilding.org/

2008-09-11T08:55:00.004-04:00

Food for thought 1. Zeitgeist Movie

2008-09-11T08:54:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kHhc67GopM

This is what you signed up for when you signed in

2008-09-11T08:54:00.001-04:00

3. Privacy. As a condition of using the Service, you agree to the terms of the Google Privacy Policy (http://www.google.com/privacy.html), which may be updated from time to time, as expressed in the most recent version that exists at the time of your use. You agree that Google may access or disclose your personal information, including the content of your communications, if Google is required to do so in order to comply with any valid legal process or governmental request (such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute, or court order), or as otherwise provided in these Terms of Service and the general Google Privacy Policy. Personal information collected by Google may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Google Inc. or its agents maintain facilities. By using the Service, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.

Ethical and psychological egoism

2008-09-09T11:30:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,
Don't be bashful about using some of the links to the right from various philosophy resources on the web. Lawrence Hinman's site is very thorough; check out the page on "ethical egoism" at http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Egoism/index.asp , for example.

Please do suggest other links to other resources if you encounter them, and I'll put them on the sidebar.

Jim

A little Calvin and Hobbes

2008-09-05T14:47:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, sorry that the font is so tiny, but you can read the comic strip better at http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm ...... I couldn't help but laugh at Calvin's logic when I read this. It says quite a lot about us, doesn't it? Are we right to be hunting deer in order to limit populations when we ourselves our extremely overpopulated? Is overpopulation a valid excuse for taking the life of another being? Any thoughts?

Welcome to Ethics and the Environment, Fall 2008 version

2008-08-28T17:19:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,
I've sent out the invites to class members to sign up. Feel free to pass along news items, tentative speculations about ethical issues, clear-cut cases of injustice and/or righteousness . . . it's all good.

What is good, anyway? discuss.

new ethics blog announced

2007-11-21T09:07:00.000-05:00

**Please contact miriam.wood@philosophy.ox.ac.uk with any queries**

This is to let you know about a new blog which will provide ethical analysis of the news, with a focus on developments in science and technology developments. You can find it at http://ethicsinthenews.typepad.com/ and we plan to provide comment at least daily for an initial month‚s trial. Authors are drawn from researchers at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the Program on the Ethics of the New Biosciences and the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute at the Philosophy Faculty, University of Oxford. Content has so far included ŒSupermouse‚, the monkey cloning, and imaging the brain as well as obesity and home medical diagnosis.

Best wishes,
Miriam

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Miriam Wood

Administrator and PA to the Director
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Suite 8
Littlegate House
16/17 St Ebbe's Street
Oxford
OX1 1PT

Tel: 01865 286888
Fax: 01865 286886
www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk
blog: www.ethicsinthenews.typepad.com

Here's a better one . . .

2007-10-20T14:24:00.001-04:00

Actually filmed at Walden Pond. enjoy.

Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories blog

2007-10-02T16:33:00.000-04:00

I will proceed with some very succinct comments about one article for this week.
In the article Schizophrenia of Modern Ethical Theories, I though it was interesting how Brandt makes use of a disease know to have antagonistic or contradictory/incompatible elements as a metaphor. That is, indeed, how society works: a stunted moral life or disharmony. Biology has often asked the question: Is there such a thing as ‘true’ altruism? It depends on how one defines ‘true’ and ‘benevolent person.’ There might be cases in which a rarity happens in nature, and one encounters an individual who is morally good by nature and does not have to strive to be in control and do great efforts to be good. Because generally, an individual will do a good (a ‘blessing’) if the results of such action exceed or are equal (in the future) to the benefits received by its ‘blessed’ counterpart. But when it comes to kinship, would it be fair to say that it is easier to reciprocate because one is doing a favor to one’s own lineage or genes?
Every society has something called the Favor Bank. If one deposits favors in another person’s account, in the short/long run, that is an investment. So, concerning the ‘benevolence’ topic which Brandt talks about, I think that people do favors and are nice, in most cases, due to reciprocity. So, can there be a world full of harmony when the rule is ‘quid pro quo?’ I’m not trying to be cynical….this personal conclusion is empirical ……but it is opened to any critic from anybody in class. You are welcomed to refute this point if you wish…but please provide solid proof.

Robert Nozick's Experience Machine

2007-09-04T20:49:00.000-04:00

Here are some links about Nozick's "experience machine" thought experiment and its significance:

Wikipedia's "experience machine" entry;
philosophical note on Nozick's "experience machine" thought experiment;
Philosophy and The Matrix entry on "experience machine," with accompanying film clip!

Grave Robbing

2007-08-30T23:43:00.001-04:00

I was thinking about the example Professor Tantillo gave in class about the underlying ethic behind what different cultures do with their dead (that one culture who buries their dead might view another culture's eating of their dead as unethical, but really both are just upholding the underlying ethic of honoring the dead).

I thought of another scenario that applies to this situation. What about grave robbers of the late 18th century and early 19th century who unlawfully took bodies and used them as cadavers in the name of studying human anatomy. For religious reasons and because of society's lack of acceptance for this type of behavior, these people were often severely punished by the law.

But is what they are doing unethical? Does it violate the widely accepted ethic of honoring the dead? Or are they still honoring the dead? OR, are they living by a different set of ethics? Does the government have the right to make laws based on a widely accepted ethic that is not held by everyone? In a practical sense, do the benefits that were gained for science outweigh the importance of honoring the dead? Eventually as pressure was put on different governments, laws like Britain's Anatomy Act of 1832 were passed to make cadavers more available and widespread. If there are two different ethics here, are laws like this a reflection of a change in ethical priorities, or simply a compromise because both ethics are important?

Ethics in the News

2007-08-23T19:56:00.000-04:00

From today's BBC News:

Is stealing wireless wrong?

By Finlo Rohrer
BBC News Magazine

A man has been arrested after being spotted allegedly sitting in a street with a laptop using someone else's unsecured wireless connection. Is it immoral to do this?
So here's the thing.
You're walking down the street in Hypotheticalville and in front of you is a gentleman who, when he walks, spills seemingly endless torrents of golden coins on to the pavement behind him.
He seems unconcerned by this and you notice that if not picked up, these magic coins quickly evaporate. Is it moral for you to pick a few up?
It's the kind of tree-falls-in-the-forest whimsy that an undergraduate philosopher might mull over for a moment, but back in the real world a not entirely dissimilar debate is being played out.
The man arrested in a street in west London is at least the third person to be accused of breaching the law by taking internet service without permission.
The Communications Act 2003 says a "person who (a) dishonestly obtains an electronic communications service, and (b) does so with intent to avoid payment of a charge applicable to the provision of that service, is guilty of an offence".

It is a bit like reading your book from the light coming out from someone's window
Julian Baggini
Philosopher

There are also suggestions using somebody else's wireless could come under the Computer Misuse Act, usually used to combat hacking and electronic fraud.
But if it can be interpreted as illegal, can it be truly said to be immoral?

Read the entire article here.

Welcome!

2007-08-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,
welcome to the blog for NTRES 332, "Introduction to Ethics and Environment." Have fun with it!

Jim