ALDO LEOPOLD
AND THE LAND ETHIC

PHIL 5960.02 - Fall 1996


J. Baird Callicott



OBJECTIVE

To explore the seminal environmental philosophy of Aldo Leopold


TEXTS

1. Aldo Leopold, Game Management (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1933/1986)

2. Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (New York: Oxford University Press, 1949)

3. Aldo Leopold, (A. Starker Leopold, ed.) Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold (Oxford University Press 1953/1993)

4. Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott, eds., The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold (University of Wisconsin Press 1991)

5. Susan L. Flader, Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude toward Deer, Wolves, and Forests (University of Wisconsin Press 1974/1994)

6. Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work (University of Wisconsin Press, 1988)

7. J. Baird Callicott, ed., Companion to A Sand County Almanac: Interpretive and Critical Essays (University of Wisconsin Press, 1987)

8. J. Baird Callicott, In Defense of the Land: Essays in Environmental Philosophy (State University of Wisconsin Press, 1989)

9. Miscellaneous photocopied material


REQUIREMENTS

1. Regular attendance, participation in seminar discussion.

2. Mid-term paper on a topic mutually acceptable to the student and the professor; 10-15 pages, double-spaced; due October 15, 1996.

3. Term paper on a topic mutually acceptable to the student and the professor; 10-15 pages, double-spaced; due December 10, 1996.


TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

August 27: Introduction to course and texts

September 3: The making of a naturalist/conservationist. Read: Meine, His Life and Work, chs.1-5; Flader and Callicott, Mother of God, pp. 33-39.

September 10: The Southwest, part 1. Read: Meine, His Life and Work, chs. 6-8; Flader and Callicott, Mother of God (selections to be announced).

September 17: The Southwest , part 2. Read: Meine, His Life and Work, chs. 9-11; Flader and Callicott, Mother of God (selections to be announced); Flader, Thinking, chs. 2&3.

September 24: The earth ethic. Read: Flader and Callicott, Mother of God, (selections to be announced); Norton, "The Constancy of Leopold's Land Ethic" (photocopied).

October 1: The game manager. Read: Meine, His Life and Work, chs.12-15; Leopold, Game Management, pp. xxxi-45, 391-423; Flader and Callicott, Mother of God (selections to be announced); Callicott, Defense, ch. 12.

October 8: Beyond game management. Read: Meine, His Life and Work, chs. 17-18; Flader, Thinking, chs. 4&5; Leopold, "Naturschutz in Germany" and "Deer and Dauerwald" (photocopied); Flader and Callicott, Mother of God (selections to be announced).

October 15: Wilderness. Read: Meine, His Life and Work, ch. 16; Flader and Callicott, Mother of God (selections to be announced); Callicott, "The Wilderness Idea Revisited" (photocopied).

October 22: the masterpiece, part 1. Read: Leopold, Sand County, Part I; Callicott, ed., Companion, ch 2.

October 29: the masterpiece, part 2. Read: Leopold, Sand County, Part II; Callicott, ed. Companion, chs. 4&5.

November 5: the masterpiece, part 3. Read: Leopold, Sand County, Part II; Callicott, ed. Companion, ch. 6.

November 12: the masterpiece in review. Read: Callicott, ed., Companion, chs. 7-9 and "Appendix."

November 19: Round River. Read: Leopold, Round River.

November 26: Was Leopold an anthropocentrist? Read: Flader, Thinking, ch. 1; Norton, "Context and Hierarchy in Aldo Leopold's Theory of Environmental Management" and "Thoreau and Leopold on Science and Values"; Scott Lehman, "Do wildernesses have rights?"; James Hefernan, "The Land Ethic: A Critical Appraisal"; Jon Moline, "Aldo Leopold and the Moral Community" (photocopied).

December 3: Beyond the land ethic Read: Callicott, Defense, ch 7; Worster, "The Ecology of Order and Chaos"; Pickett and Ostfeld, "The Shifting Paradigm in Ecology"; Callicott, "Do Deconstructive Ecology and Sociobiology Undermine Leopold's Land Ethic? (photocopied).