ECOLOGY AND
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

PHIL 5960.03 - Spring 1996


J. Baird Callicott


OBJECTIVE

To explore the relationship between ecology and environmental ethics


TEXTS

1. Donald Worster, Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, Second Edition (Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, 1994)

2. Robert P. McIntosh, The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)

3. Leslie A. Real and James H. Brown, Foundations of Ecology: Classic Papers with Commentary (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)

4. Daniel Botkin, Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the Twenty-first Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990)

5. R. V. O'Neill, D. L. DeAngelis, J. B. Waide, and T. F. H. Allen, A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).

6. Miscellaneous photocopied material.


REQUIREMENTS

1. Regular attendance, participation in seminar discussion.

2. Term paper proposal (due March 4, 1996).

Select a topic; draft a 2 page (double-spaced) proposal.

3. Term paper (due April 29, 1996).

Eighteen-22 pages (double spaced)

4. Book report

Select from attached list or propose an alternative: summarize; discuss critically; apply to seminar topic. Eight - 12 pages (double spaced).


TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

January 22. Introduction to course and texts.

January 29. Pre-ecological natural history and biology. Read: Worster, Nature's Economy , Preface, Parts I, II, and III (pp. ix-187).

February 5. The superorganism paradigm in ecology. Read: Worster, Nature's Economy, Part IV (pp. 190-253); McIntosh, Background of Ecology, ch. 1 (pp. 1-29), plus relevant parts; Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Papers 1 and 3, by Forbes (pp. 14-27) and Clements (pp. 59-97), respectively.

February 12. The earth ethic. Read: Aldo Leopold, "Some Fundamentals of Conservation in the Southwest" (photocopied); Bryan Norton, "The Constancy of Leopold's Land Ethic" (photocopied); John Phillips, "Succession, Development, the Climax, and the Complex Organism" (photocopied); James Lovelock, "Geophysiology: The Science of Gaia" and Lynn Margulis and Gregory Hinkle, "The Biota and Gaia" (photocopied).

February 19. The community paradigm in ecology. Read: Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Paper 2 by H. C. Cowles; Charles Elton, Animal Ecology, chs. I-III (photocopied); McIntosh, Background of Ecology, chs. 4-5 (pp.107-192).

February 26. The land ethic. Read: Worster, Nature's Economy ch. 13 (pp.258-290); Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, ch. 4 (photocopied); Aldo Leopold, "The Conservation Ethic" and "The Land Ethic" (potocopied); J. Baird Callicott, "The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic" (photocopied).

March 4. The ecosystem paradigm in ecology. Read: Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Papers 15 and 7 (in that order) by A. G. Tansley (pp. 318-341) and R. L. Lindeman (p. 157-176), respectively; Worster, Nature's Economy, chs. 14 & 15 (pp.291-338); McIntosh, Background of Ecology, ch. 6 (193-241); Stephen Bocking, "Visions of Nature and Society" (photocopied).

March 11. The ecosystem ethic. Read: Aldo Leopold, "A Biotic View of Land" (photocopied); J. B. Callicott, "The Metaphysical Implications of Ecology" (photocopied); Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Papers 40 and 27 by G. E. Likens, et al. (pp. 880-904) and E. P. Odum (pp. 596-604); E. P. Odum, Fundamentals of Ecology, chs 1&2 (photocopied); Worster, Nature's Economy ch 16 (342-387); 1967 BioScience special issue on ecology (photocopied); Paul Shepard, "Ecology and Man: A Viewpoint" (photocopied).

March 25. The diversity-stability relationship. Read: R. H. McArthur, "Fluctuations of Animal Populations and a Measure of Community Stability" (photocopied); Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Paper 16 by G. E. Hutchinson (pp. 342-356); Daniel Goodman, "The Theory of Diversity-Stability Relationships in Ecology" (photocopied); Mark Sagoff, "Fact and Value in Ecological Science" (photocopied); David Tilman and John A. Downing, "Biodiversity and Stability in Grasslands" (photocopied).

April 1. Reductionism. Read: Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Paper 4 by H. A. Gleason, (pp. 98-117); Daniel Simberloff, "A Succession of Paradigms in Ecology" (photocopied); McIntosh, Background of Ecology, ch. 7 (pp. 242-288); Harley Cahen, "Aginst the Moral Considerability of Ecosystems" (photocopied).

April 8. Dynamism. Read: Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Paper 30 by Margaret B. Davis (pp.650-663); Linda Brubaker, "Vegetation History and Anticipating Future Vegetation Change" (photocopied); Botkin, Discordant Harmonies.

April 15. Chaos and perturbation. Read: Worster, Nature's Economy, ch 17 (pp. 388-433); Real and Brown, Foundations of Ecology, Paper 11 by R. M. May (pp.273-275); P. S. White and S. T. A. Pickett, "Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics: An Introduction" and S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, "Patch Dynamics: A Synthesis" (photocopied); .

April 22. Hierarchy theory. Read: O'Neill, et al., A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems; Stanley N. and Barbara M. Salthe, "Ecosystem Moral Considerability: A Reply to Cahen" (photocopied); Karen Warren and Jim Cheney, "Ecosystem Ecology and Metaphysical Ecology: A Case Study" (photocopied); J. B. Callicott, "On Warren and Cheney's Critique of Callicott's Ecological Metaphysics" (photocopied).

April 22. Fin de millennium ecology and environmental ethics. S.T. A. Pickett, "The Shifting Paradigm in Ecology" (photocopied); J. Baird Callicott, "Do Deconstrutive Ecology and Sociobiolgy Undermine the Land Ethic?" (photocopied).

April 29. Concluding discussion.