Course Description: This course is part of the Values Seminar program at Widener.  The wider purpose of the program as a whole is to improve your skills in ethical reasoning and evidence-based judgment.  This seminar is on the topic of environmental ethics, which is:

“a systematic account of the moral relations between human beings and their natural environment. Environmental ethics assumes that moral norms can and do govern human behavior toward the natural world. A theory of environmental ethics, then, must go on to explain what these norms are, to whom or to what humans have responsibilities, and how those responsibilities are justified”

         (DesJardins. 2006. Environmental Ethics)

Environmental ethics provides framework to define our roles and responsibilities as global citizens. This framework guides our use of ecological and ethical knowledge in personal and societal decisions that determine how we interact with each other and with our environment. This affects our individual actions (consumer and disposer decisions) and our participation in those sociopolitical and economic hegemonies that mediate human-environmental interaction on regional and global scales. Such knowledge should inform our interactions and understanding of the world and our place in it, which would be the basis for environmental literacy and citizenship:

Course Objectives:  1) To improve your skills at ethical reasoning and evidence-based judgment in environmental decision-making by investigating important, current, and controversial environmental issues that affect us all.  2) To improve your analytic skills at critiquing and assessing the credibility and validity of ethical and scientific arguments in order to make better judgments, perceive deeper questions, and comprehend underlying concerns.  3) To improve your oral and written communication skills as a way of knowing.