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Unit of study_
PHIL3640: Nature and Crisis
2024 unit information
While the environmental crisis is a physical crisis--a crisis of extinction, biodiversity, pollution, and climate change--it is also a crisis of reason, challenging our usual ways of thinking about human and non-human life and demanding significant changes in the ways we think, act and behave. This unit aims to investigate the origins of the environmental crisis and develop alternative models of thinking and acting. We will also examine key philosophical and ecological concepts (e.g., nature, culture, society, responsibility, biodiversity, sustainability), explore the possibility of an ethics beyond the human, and consider new conceptions of agency, responsibility and multi-species justice.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Arts and Social Sciences
| Study level | Undergraduate |
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| Academic unit | Philosophy |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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12 credit points at 2000 level in Philosophy |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Understanding of the philosophical and cultural sources of the environmental crisis
- LO2. Insight into the way in which nature has been historically conceived and is currently understood
- LO3. Understanding of current debates with environmental ethics and politics
- LO4. Interrogation of crucial moral ideas within the environmental sphere, including responsibility, obligation, justice, and representation
- LO5. Exploration of the ways in which environmental justice can be achieved and what is involved in achieving justice
- LO6. Analysis of ideas and philosophical arguments
- LO7. Careful reading of philosophical text
- LO8. Presentation of ideas in a clear and coherent manner
- LO9. Development of an argument with clear justification
Unit availability
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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