Philosophy 504 (Online) Ethical Practice in Natural Resource and Environmental Science Fall Semester, 2014

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1 Philosophy 504 (Online) Ethical Practice in Natural Resource and Environmental Science Fall Semester, 2014 Assistant Professor Graham Hubbs Office: Administration 302a University of Idaho Phone: Department of Philosophy Course Description. This course will investigate some of the ethical dimensions of a life in professional science. While it is open to non-scientists, the course is part of the University of Idaho's Professional Science Master's Program, so it will be addressed directly to professional scientists. As its title indicates, its specific focus will be on natural resource and environmental sciences. No prior experience with academic philosophy is required. This course is being delivered online. To take it, you will need access to the University of Idaho s Blackboard site ( The primary goals of this course are as follows: To encourage a distinctly ethical sort of self-reflection. You should walk away from this course with a sense of your role as a citizen-scientist, with an emphasis on the role of being a citizen. This requires thinking of yourself as part of a community and in turn thinking of what you do as it contributes to this community. To encourage a distinctly ethical sort of perception. To be a good citizen, it is not enough to understand oneself as a citizen one also needs to be able to see the world with an ethical eye. This requires being able to perceive ethically salient aspects of the events and scenarios one encounters. Helping you develop and hone this perceptual capacity is a major goal of this class. To examine the idea that developing these skills of ethical self-reflection and perception can help one be a better scientist. Put another way, we will challenge the thought that the ethical dimension of the life of a professional scientist is extrinsic and optional to her or his work; we will consider the possibility that this is simply part of being a good scientist. Course Learning Objectives. The three overarching goals of this course, as indicated on the welcome page, are to make you more self-reflective of your role as a citizen-scientist, to help you hone your ethical eye, and to encourage you to think of sound ethical practices as intrinsic to the work of a good scientist. To achieve these goals, we will pursue the following narrow learning objectives. These objectives fall under three heads: content, critical reasoning, and writing. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. 1

2 (Learning objectives, con t.) Content. To develop your ethical eye and your capacity for ethical self-reflection, it is helpful to be familiar with a range of ethical approaches one can take to a given situation. By the end of the course, you should have a basic understanding of the following: The consequentialist approach to ethical issues The rights-based approach to ethical issues The virtue-based approach to ethical issues The land-ethic approach to environmental issues The property-based approach to environmental issues The anthropocentrism debate in environmental ethics The pragmatic approach to making ethically sound environmental policy The cosmopolitan approach to global environmental issues Critical Reasoning. To be able to understand and to grapple fully with a given ethical scenario, you need to be able to articulate and to analyze the reasons for and against different possible courses of action. Critical reasoning, then, is an important part of the life of the citizen-scientist. By the end of the course, you should be able to do the following: Identify an argument s thesis Identify the arguments explicitly made in support of a thesis Identify the background assumptions on which an argument depends Criticize bad arguments Clearly articulate a thesis Argue for a thesis Avoid obvious flaws when arguing for a thesis Writing. Effective communication is essential to being an effective citizen-scientist. In this course, we will work on the communicative skill of writing, in particular as an expression of critical reasoning. For explicit guidelines and expectations on writing, see the writing rubric. In general, though, by the end of the course, you should be able to do the following: Clearly and coherently articulate and defend a thesis Clearly and coherently structure a multi-paragraph essay Clearly and coherently structure a paragraph Identify gross logical and grammatical errors in others writings Avoid making gross logical or grammatical errors in one s own writing At the beginning of each Unit, in the Unit Overview section, you will see which of these objectives are being pursued in that unit. 2

3 Academic Honesty, Accommodation, and Record-keeping. Academic Honesty: It is the policy of the Philosophy Department to refer all instances of suspected academic dishonesty to the Student Judicial Council. For the Dean of Students' Academic Integrity site, which includes UI Policies and Student Academic Dishonesty Resources, see Reasonable Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or permanent disabilities. Students who require accommodation should see the instructor in his office during the first week of class to notify him; students should present a completed and signed Accommodation Checklist for the current semester from Disability Support Services (DSS) when requesting accommodations. All accommodations must be approved through DSS located in the Idaho Commons Building, Room 306 ( ; dss@uidaho.edu). Assignment and Grade Record-keeping: Students are responsible for saving all graded work until final grades are recorded with the registrar and checked by the student. A Note on Course Etiquette. You should be courteous and professional in all that you say and do in this course. If you link to or upload any audio or video, it should be pertinent to the course and should not be derogatory. Your writings also should not be derogatory. We will be analyzing and criticizing each others' arguments throughout the course - when you engage in such analytic criticism, be sure to aim your comments at the argument, not at the person. Finally, while your tone may be somewhat informal in your weekly blog posts and your responses to these posts, you should always write in standard English. You should always observe standard grammatical rules, and you should refrain from using abbreviations that are characteristic of texting (e.g., 'omg,' 'haha,' or 'lol'). The following is the University of Idaho's policy on civility in learning environments: In any environment in which people gather to learn, it is essential that all members feel as free and safe as possible in their participation. To this end, it is expected that everyone in this course will be treated with mutual respect and civility, with an understanding that all of us (students, instructors, professors, guests, and teaching assistants) will be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in teaching, and in learning. Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, you are encouraged to meet with your instructor during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources for expression of concern or requesting support include the Dean of Students office and staff (5-6757), the UI Counseling & Testing Center s confidential services (5-6716), or the UI Office of Human Rights, Access, & Inclusion (5-4285). 3

4 Necessary software and technical skills. You will need a web browser for this course: Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome are good free options. Be sure your browser is suitably equipped to watch Youtube videos and to listen to online.mp3s of radio broadcasts - we will watch and listen to many of these over the course of the term. You also will need Open Office's Office Suite. This is a free alternative to Microsoft's office suite. The Open Office word processor can read.doc and.docx files, so if you have Microsoft Word, you may feel free to use it. If you do have Word, though, you will still need to download the Open Office software so you can read files written in its.odt format. The technical skills you will need for this class are minimal. You should familiarize yourself with the comments function on your word processor, which you'll use on paper critiques. For directions on using the comments function in Microsoft Word, click here. This is basically the same way comments work in the Open Office word processor, but you access the comment function under "Insert" from the toolbar. You will also need to have normal web-browsing skills in order to read texts, download materials, watch videos, and conduct online research. You will also need to know how to upload pictures in order to complete your first blogging assignment. No technical skills beyond these are required. Grading. Over the course of the semester you will have the opportunity to earn 150 points. The number of points you earn will determine your final letter grade. The breakdown between points earned and letter grade is as follows: points earned: A points earned: B points earned: C points earned: D Fewer than 90 points earned: F The 150 possible points can be broken down into three different components: participation/blog points, non-final writing points, and final project points. The specific breakdown is as follows: Participation/blog points - 50 possible points. You will have 11 participation/blog assignments, each worth 5 possible points. You may receive points on 10 of these; if you do all 11, you will receive points for the best 10 assignments. Consult the blog assessment section below for specific grading criteria. Non-final writing points - 60 possible points. You will have three non-final writing assignments over the course of the term, each worth 20 possible points. Consult the writing rubric below for specific grading criteria; see the Syllabus and Schedules page for specific deadlines. Final project points - 40 possible points. Consult the writing rubric below for specific grading criteria; see the Syllabus and Schedules page for major deadlines; see the Unit V page for a detailed breakdown of the steps in this process. 4

5 Deadline Policy. Student deadlines: All deadlines are to be observed diligently. Only in the event of a health or family emergency will a missed deadline be excused. Instructor deadlines: It is my goal to make myself consistently available to you. You may therefore expect me to abide by the following deadlines: I will respond to any sent between 5 PM on Sunday and 5 PM on Thursday within 24 hours. I will do my best to respond to s sent between 5 PM on Thursday and 5 PM on Sunday within 24 hours, but the deadline for my response to any s received during this span of time will be 11 AM the following Monday. For your first writing assignment, I will redistribute your drafts with my comments to you by 11 AM on Friday, October 4. I will return your graded final drafts by 11 AM on Wednesday, October 8. For all subsequent graded assignments, with the exception of the draft of the final paper and the final paper itself, I will return graded drafts with comments within two days of their submission deadline. This will usually be by 11 AM Wednesday of the relevant week. By 11 AM on Friday, December 19, I will return your final draft of your final paper with comments, its grade, and your grade in the course. If I am ever unable to meet one of these deadlines, you will be notified by . Office Hours. Your primary form of communication with me throughout the course should be via my address, again, is <hubbs@uidaho.edu>. If you are in Moscow and would like to meet with me in person, my office hours are on Tuesday from 2-4 PM. My office is room 302A in the Administration Building. Texts. All texts are available on the course s Blackboard page. Blog instructions and assesment. Each week from weeks 2-11 and again week 15 there will be a blog prompt, which you will find at the top of the weekly content areas. In response to each prompt you will write a word blog post. As indicated on the schedule, initial posts are due Tuesday by 5 PM, and comments are due Friday by 5 PM. If your response is thorough and demonstrates a solid understanding of the week's material, you will receive 3 points. Inadequate or erroneous responses may receive partial credit. Your responses will demonstrate your understanding of the content and your ability to reason critically. 5

6 (Instructions and assessment, con t.) You may also earn 2 points by commenting on two of your classmates posts, 1 point for each comment. Full credit will be given to responses that engage critically with the original posts; partial credit may be given for comments that do not engage critically with the posts. To engage critically with a post, you must either analyze the line of reasoning in the initial post or offer reasons for or against the view expressed in the post. You will not receive credit for mere agreement or disagreement (e.g., for simply saying "I think you are right" or "This isn't true"), nor will you receive credit for mere applause (e.g., for simply saying, "Great post!"). NOTE: you will receive no credit for any blog comment that contradicts the video lecture without selfconsciously noting the contradiction. For example, suppose in the week's lecture I say the basis of Locke's view of justice is his belief in the sanctity of property rights. If you comment on someone's blog that week by saying the basis of Locke's theory of justice is his belief in the human equality, and you do not acknowledge that this contradicts the lecture, you will receive no credit for the post. If, however, you write something like, "Graham claims that Locke's view of property underpins his account of justice, but I think this is wrong - I think it is his views on human equality that are the basis," then you will not be penalized. NOTE: to ensure that all blogs are being read, no student will receive any points unless each blog entry has at least one comment by the Friday deadline. Writing instruction and assessment. As you likely realize by now, much of what you will be doing in this course is writing, critiquing each others' writings, and then rewriting in light of those critiques. Here are instructions on how to go about this process. Writing your drafts. The focus of every one of your papers should be the articulation of and argument for some thesis. Your thesis should be clearly stated in your introductory paragraph, and your paper should progress logically and fluidly from that point towards convincing the reader of your thesis. For specific guidelines, consult the rubric below. If you have never written a philosopher paper before, you might benefit from looking at this Prezi presentation; if you need extra help, don't hesitate to visit the University of Purdue's Online Writing Lab. How I will assess your first writing assignment. Your first writing assignment is due Monday, September 30. I will not grade this draft, but I will critique it using the rubric. The point of this critique is twofold: (i) to help you improve your draft, and (ii) to model what you will be doing when you critique each others' papers. I will return your draft to you with my comments by Friday, October 3. You will rewrite your paper in light of those comments and submit your rewrite by Monday, October 6. I will grade the draft you submit on October 6 according to the rubric: the maximum grade will be 20 points. Any rewrite that does not adequately respond to my critique will automatically have 2 points deducted. 6

7 (Writing instruction and assessment, con t.) How we will proceed with the second and third writing assignments. You will post your first draft to your blog on Monday. Each of you will then be assigned two drafts to read and to critique. Read the draft against the rubric and try to find places whether the author might improve the paper. Do not assign a grade to the paper you are reading. Your objective is to offer constructive advice that will help the author improve the paper. Post the draft with your comments to your blog by Friday, and the author let her or him know that your critique has been posted. If you fail to do your assigned critiques, you will lose 3 points per critique (so, 6 points total if you do no critiques). You may also lose points if your critique is superficial (e.g., if it only says things like "Good job!" and "I agree!" and offers no critical advice). You will then rewrite your paper in light of the comments on your critiqued drafts and submit your rewrite by the following Monday. Like the first writing assignment, I will grade your final draft according to the rubric, and the maximum grade for it will be 20 points. Any rewrite that does not adequately respond to its critiques will automatically have 2 points deducted. How we will proceed with the final project. This process will be more involved, but it will roughly follow the submit-critique-rewrite pattern of your second and third writing assignments. You will write a précis worth 4 possible points; you will comment on some of your classmates' précis, and these comments will be worth 3 possible points; you will comments on some of your classmates' rough drafts, and these comments will be worth 3 possible points; finally, you will submit a final draft, which will be worth 30 possible points. For more specifics, see the weekly content areas in Unit V. Final notes on formatting and length. You should submit your drafts and your critiques in.doc,.docx, or.odt format. Papers should be written in twelve-point font, double-spaced, with standard margins. When you write your critiques, you should use the comment function to make short remarks and/or grammatical corrections, and you should include a single-spaced bolded paragraph at the end with your summary recommendations. Papers other than the final should be words long. The final draft of the final paper should be words long. For more specifics on the final, see the Unit V page. 7

8 Brief overview of course structure. The course will be organized as follows. For more specific information, consult the course s Blackboard page. Unit I: Introduction to the Course, Each Other, and Philosophical Ethics WEEK I - Aug 25 Aug 31: Course introduction WEEK II - Sept 1 Sept 7: Consequentialism, Rights-Based Ethics, and Virtue Ethics WEEK III - Sept 8 14: Case Study - Eating Meat Unit II: Environmental Ethics I - Land and Property WEEK IV - Sept 15 21: The Land Ethic WEEK V - Sept 22 28: Property WEEK VI - Sept 29 Oct 5: Case Study - Hydrofracking Unit III: Environmental Ethics II - Humans, Value, and Motivation WEEK VII - Oct 6 12: Deep Ecology WEEK VIII - Oct 13 19: Anthropocentrism WEEK IX - Oct 20 26: Pragmatism in Environmental Ethics Unit IV: Global Citizenship WEEK X - Oct 27 Nov 2: Cosmopolitanism WEEK XI - Nov 3 9: Case Study - Coffee WEEK XII - Nov 10 16: Research Practice - Another Round of Coffee Unit V: Final Research Project WEEK XIII - Nov 17 23: Précis Week WEEK XIV - Nov 24 Nov 30: Thanksgiving Week WEEK XV - Dec 1 7: Draft Review Week and the Last Case Study of the Semester: Microplastics WEEK XVI - Dec 8 14: Final Writing Week 8

9 Specific dates for writing assignments. Paper 1, on land and property: First draft is due Monday, September 29, by 5 PM. Response to comments and revised draft are due Monday, October 6, by 5 PM. Paper 2, on humans, value, and motivation: First draft is due Monday, October 27, by 5 PM. Comments on others papers are due Friday, October 31, by 5 PM. Response to comments and revised draft are due Monday, November 3, by 5 PM. Paper 3, on global citizenship: First draft is due Monday, November 10, by 5 PM. Comments on others papers are due Friday, November 14, by 5 PM. Response to comments and revised draft are due Monday, November 17, by 5 PM. Précis of Final Paper: Précis is due Tuesday, November 18, by 5 PM. Comments on others précis are due Friday, November 21, by 5 PM. Rough drafts and comments of Final Paper: First draft is due Monday, December 1, by 5 PM. Comments on others' papers, including responsiveness to comments on précis, are due Monday, December 8, by 5 PM. Final draft of Final Paper. Final draft is due Monday, December 15, by 5 PM. 9