Wilderness Philosophy

PHIL 5960.01 - Spring 1996




Course Description

Explores the evolution of the idea of wilderness from post-Neolithic culture to the present. The larger context of the course is the so-called environmental crisis in its various permutations, such as the likelihood of an anthropogenic mass extinction of life and total domestication-industrialization of the planet (legitimated in either the name of Progress or Sustainable Development). So contextualized, wilderness philosophy is not so much an arcane, academic exercise as an adaptive response (or set of responses) to environmental exigency (including, for example, the reconceptualization of human beingness (cf. e.g., Shepard) and knowledge itself (cf. e.g. Wright)). Further, the idea of wilderness conceptually challenges the basic presuppositions and the practice of mainstream environmentalism. Wildly diverse themes will run through our reading and discussion. Yet there is hope that, like so many game trails, these themes might come to cross and recross each other.
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Required texts

David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World, Pantheon Books (1996 hardback).

David C. Burks, ed., Place of the Wild, Island Press (1995).

Neil Evernden, The Social Construction of Nature, Johns Hopkins UP (1992).

Stephen R. Kellert, The Value of Life: Biological Diversity and Human Society, Island Press (1996 hardback).

Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness, Yale UP (1991).

George Sessions, Deep Ecology for the 21st Century, Shambala Publications (1995).

Paul Shepard, The Others: How Animals Made Us Human, Island Press (1996 hardback).

Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild, North Point Press (1990).

Michael Soulé and Gary Lease, eds., Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, Island Press (1995).

Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity, Harvard University Press (1989).

Will Wright, Wild Knowledge: Science, Language, and Social Life in a Fragile Environment, U. Minnesota Press (1992).

Course Requirements

Attendance. Ideally, the class will be small. Informal discussion of the readings and issues introduced by the seminar participants will be our mainstay. Please be prepared to participate in class discussion. And also allow room for everyone to take part in the conversation.

Required reading. Most of you know the __précis drill__ from previous classes. For those who do not, please read the guidelines below. Given the class size, we will distribute copies of each précis (one week prior to the discussion). Please, no late précis: if you must miss class, turn your précis in early. Ten précis scores will be counted in your semester average; the 11th précis can be counted as extra credit.

Precis guidelines: Every assigned reading requires an approximately 600 word, typed précis (double spacing, 1" margins all around, 12 or 13 point font; this syllabus is 12 point with double spacing and one inch margins). Please fit your work onto two pages maximum, including your name in the top right corner. Straight summaries or digests of the reading assignments are not acceptable. As the reading progresses, earlier reading and class discussion should bear on your present interpretation.

Midterm examination. A midterm exam consisting of one essay question and several identification questions will be given approximately mid-semester.

Term paper. Your term paper should be at least ten and no more than twenty pages. Your assignment is to develop one theme or idea from any of the assigned readings or discussion. At least one required text must figure prominently in the paper. A one page overview of your paper is due by week eight and a FULL DRAFT is due by week twelve. The maximum possible grade without submission of a draft is 90.

Final examination. A comprehensive examination consisting of one essay question and several identification questions will be given.

Semester Grade. Précis scores count for 25%; midterm exam 25%; final exam 25%; and term paper 25%. Grades will be distributed on the basis of a flat scale where 90% = A, 80% = B, and so on.

Plagiarism. Plagiarism is seldom a problem at the graduate level. However, occasionally some confusion does exist. Please be advised that the direct citation or extensive paraphrasing of other's work (ideas, sentences, paragraphs, data, etc.) represented as your own will result in an automatic failure for the course.

Weekly Class Schedule

1. January 16. Introduction to the idea of wilderness. Narrative overview of the texts and the conceptual __trail map__ (which we will abandon for bushwhacking at the first available opportunity). Read Abram as assigned for next week. In addition to your précis write a 2 to 5 page first person essay that explores your own relation to wild nature. We will discuss the first person essays in class next week. Please make an appropriate number of copies of the essay and the précis for distribution.

2. January 23. Discuss first person essays. Abram précis due. Read Shepard for next week.

3. January 30. Discuss Abram. Shepard précis due. Read Kellert for next week.

NOTE: Begin thinking about your term paper. Consider writing a one page proposal for your term paper this week: sooner is much better than later.

4. February 6. Discuss Shepard. Kellert précis due. Read Burks for next week.

5. February 13. Discuss Kellert. Burks précis due. Read Snyder for next week.

6. February 20. Discuss Burks. Snyder précis due. Read Sessions for next week.

7. February 27. Discuss Snyder. Sessions précis due. Read Evernden for March 12.

8. March 5. MIDTERM EXAM. Bring a blue book to class.

9. March 12. Discuss Sessions. Evernden précis due. Read Oelschlaeger for April 2.

March 19. SPRING BREAK

10. March 26. Discuss Evernden (or guest lecturer). Oelschlaeger précis due. Read Taylor for next week.

11. April 2. Discuss Oelschlaeger. Taylor précis due. Read Soulé and Lease for next week.

12. April 9. Discuss Taylor. Soulé and Lease précis due. Read Wright for next week.

13. April 16. Discuss Soulé and Lease. Wright précis due.

14. April 23. Discuss Wright.

15. April 30. Wrapping up. Discuss the idea of wilderness in the context of environmental crisis, integrating our readings and discussions insofar as possible.

16. May 7. FINAL EXAMINATION. TERM PAPER DUE. Bring a blue book to class. If your term paper is late you will receive an Incomplete.