Summer
2007, The University of Montana
Instructor: Christopher Preston
Dates: October 15 - November 30.
Times: Asynchronous, online.
TEXTS
Callicott & Nelson, The Great New Wilderness Debate (GNWD)
Emerson & Thoreau, Nature & Walking
- Emerson:
"Nature"
- Thoreau:
"Walking"
Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Synder, The Practice of the Wild
Other assorted texts available online & through our E-Reserve system
new
resource center
Schedule (below, click here)
Historically, in the United States wilderness preservation was motivated by primarily aesthetic concerns. For example, Thomas Moran’s paintings of Yellowstone were decisive in creating Yellowstone National Park. In the 19th century there was a direct link between wilderness aesthetics and an environmental ethics focused on preservation. The connection between wilderness aesthetics and environmental ethics is evident in the works of painters like Moran, and essayists like Emerson, Thoreau and Muir. These artists created a legacy where conservation efforts are to an important degree built on the aesthetic appreciation of nature—the experience of the sublime. This legacy has come to be called “the received wilderness ideal.” However, over the last several decades this legacy has been severely criticized.
The criticisms are summed up as follows: “The wilderness idea is alleged to be ethnocentric, androcentric, phallocentric, unscientific, unphilosophic, impolitic, outmoded, even genocidal. Defenders of wilderness insist that it is none of these things. The received wilderness idea, has, in short, recently been the subject of heated debate.” This course will explore this debate by examining the connection, if any, between wilderness aesthetics and environmental ethics. This will be done by reading literature, examining wilderness paintings and photography, and studying environmental aesthetics and ethics. The course will start with the 19th century painter and writers, then move to the contemporary heirs of their legacy and its critics.
LEARNING
OUTCOMES:
Participants will become familiar with America’s art and literature
that has given rise to the “wilderness ideal.” We will examine
the role wilderness aesthetics has played in the creation of modern environmentalism
and become familiar with the contemporary debates over the connections,
if any, between the aesthetic experience of wilderness and environmental
ethics—the debate over the “received wilderness ideal.”
Together, participants will develop an understanding of the important
issues, concepts and arguments in the field of environmental aesthetics.
REQUIREMENTS
& GRADING:
This course is offered not-for-credit only. No grades will be assigned.
Schedule:
The course will be broken into six weekly sections (the precise readings/schedule is subject to minor changes). Additional optional material will be added both before and during the course.
Week
1: The Wilderness Tradition in American Thought
Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting
Back to the Wrong Nature”
Available
online: http://history.wisc.edu/cronon/free%20writings/Cronon_Trouble_with_Wilderness_1995.pdf
Sagoff, “Do We Consume Too Much?”
Available
at The Atlantic Monthly online: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/97jun/consume.htm
Kant, “The Experience of the Sublime”
Emerson, "Nature"
Available
online: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/nature.html
Week
2: Wilderness and Transcendence
Thoreau, "Walking"
Available
online: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/walking/
Muir, "A Wind Storm in the Forests"
Available
online: http://pweb.jps.net/~prichins/w-storm.htm
and here
Dillard, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Chs 1-4
& 10-14
Snyder, The Practice of the Wild, “The
Etiquette Freedom,” “Good Wild Sacred,” and “The
Ancient Forests of the
Far West” as well as “The Rediscovery of Turtle Island”
(in GNWD, p. 642).
Week
3: Wilderness Transcendence and Preservation
Slide Show: “Why We Think Nature is Beautiful”:
http://www.cep.unt.edu/show/
Leopold, Selections from “Threatened Species,”
“Wilderness” and “Wilderness as a Form of Land Use”
Week
4: The Great New Wilderness Debate
Guha, “Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness
Preservation: A Third World Critique” (GNWD)
Naess, “The Third World, Wilderness and Deep Ecology”
(GNWD)
Callicott, “Wilderness Idea Revisited: The Sustainable
Development Alternative” (GNWD)
Rolston, “The Wilderness Idea Reaffirmed”
(GNWD)
Callicott, “That Good Old-Time Wilderness Religion”
and “Should Wilderness Areas Become Biodiversity Reserves”
(GNWD)
Rolston, “Naturalizing Callicott” (GNWD)
Mann, “1491”
Available
at The Atlantic Monthly online: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/03/mann.htm
Week
5: Preserving the Tradition
Rolston, “From Beauty to Duty: Aesthetics of Nature
and Environmental Ethics” and “Landscape from
the
Eighteenth Century to Present”
Carlson, “Appreciation and the Natural Environment”
Saito, Everyday Aesthetics
For
those with access to a MUSE subscription:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v025/25.1saito.html
or http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v025/25.1saito.pdf
Week
6: Review and open discussion
What were some key issues in the course? What surprised you most? What
would you like to know more about?
Note: Due to the brevity of the course (packing 14 weeks of readings and discussion into 6 weeks) participants are urged to preread as much material as possible.
| Instructor:
Christopher
Preston, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, The University of
Montana. Teaching Assistant: Justin Whitaker, Center for Ethics Project Coordinator, Ph.D. candidate at Goldsmiths College, London; former UM Graduate Student in Philosophy and Instructor in Buddhist Studies. For registration information contact Justin Whitaker at justin.whitaker@mso.umt.edu or 243-5744 or download our registration form (.pdf) |
Christopher
J. Preston is the author of Grounding Knowledge: Environmental Philosophy,
Epistemology, and Place (University of Georgia Press, 2003) and
more than a dozen articles in environmental philosophy and related
areas. He recently co-edited with Wayne Ouderkirk of Empire State
College a book on Holmes Rolston, III titled Nature, Value, and
Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III (Springer 2006). He
has also edited a special issue of the journal Ethics and the Environment
on epistemology and environmentalism and revised the environmental
ethics chapter of a popular ecology text book Environmental Science
(McGraw Hill, 2008). He has a Masters degree in applied ethics from
Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado and a Ph.D.
in philosophy from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. He
teaches courses in the philosophy department at the University of
Montana in Missoula. He is a research fellow at the university’s
Center for Ethics, works as a tool librarian at a local non-profit,
and has commercial fished a number of years in Alaska. Christopher
was born and raised in England. About
us | Courses
| Programs | Environmental
Ethics Institute | Resources
| Consulting
The Center for Ethics | 1000 East Beckwith | The University of Montana
| Missoula, MT 59812-2808 | (406) 243-5744 | (406) 243-6633, fax | ethics@mso.umt.edu
|| :: Revised: August, 2007 :: ||
Website by Justin Whitaker