Envr 305 Discussion on Introductory readings

Introduction - ideas for questions on readings

This page gives some suggestions for questions on the readings covered in the first section of the course.

In general, focus your discussion the week on your responses to some of the issues raised in introductory lecture, discussion and readings, and on your anticipations about the course. Bring the readings along so that you can refer to the texts in your discussion.

Questions pertaining to the following readings are on this page:

Rights of Nature, Prologue

1) List the key parallels which Nash argues unite the different movements in figure 2.

2) What differing positions on the implications of ecological knowledge does Nash discuss?

3) Nash observes that "Environmental history has the potential for displaying the successes and failures of our custodianship of the land in such a way that the present can benefit from the experience of the past" (p. 7). Discuss how you think environmental history might be "used" inthe contemporary effort to solve environmental problems.

Rights of Nature, Chapter 1

1) What perspective does Nash take towards his subject? Is he partisan (and if so, what is the issue, and what is his position), or is he reporting what happened in an unbiased manner? Carefully consider both of these, and explain your response with reference to Nash's language.

2) What logical basis is there for natural rights? Is any of it an empirical basis (i.e., verifiable by looking at what is in fact the case)? Be sure to compare the different justifications Nash cites, including Greek and Roman thinkers.

3) Summarize how the creation of a concept of human nature distinct from the rest of nature did, and did not leave room for the ethical treatment of nature.

4) Draw out some of the different and contradictory conclusions thinkers made from the idea that nature was God's creation.

5) Explain some of the ways that ancient or modern ideas of "property" create confusion in the extension of natural rights to animals and nature.

6) Why was the treatment of animals especially important in the evolution Nash traces? List the various figures who took positions on animal rights, and what their positions were. (Further, if you like: Why were they more important than some of the ideas championed by organicists?)

Rights of Nature, Chapter 2

1) Nash identifies some influential ideas that had long ancestries, and others that were more original, in the origins of American environmentalism. Identify one or two of each and discuss what they contributed.

3) Summarize the comparisons and contrasts Nash draws between Muir's and Thoreau's thoughts.

Leopold

1) Describe three different ways Leopold explains the "land ethic."

2) What explanation does Leopold give for the "evolutionary process of an ethic" to which he refers?

3) How does Leopold's description of the land ethic balance reason and emotion?

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