Global Justice/The Environment

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Note: prerequisites for this course are at least two philosophy courses. This course does not count as satisfying the Gen Ed requirement. The central topics examined in this course pertain to the global use and distribution of vital, but dwindling resources of food, energy, and water (the FEW Problem). Policy choices regarding any one of these resources are intertwined with resource implications for the other two. Beyond the policy challenges are deeper, often unrecognized issues of global justice. Access to and control over these resources raise fundamental questions about the paths to global development, poverty alleviation, and the capacity of individuals and nations to secure the basic requirements for decent human lives and to preserve a sustainable human habitat. The relevant issues of global justice arise primarily out of the ways that major political institutions and patterns of economic organization shape food, energy, and water policies, and as a consequence exert profound and pervasive impact on the life prospects of everyone, especially the most vulnerable, least powerful people on the planet. For more on the FEW Problem, see my website fewresources.org. Reading assignments and background resources for projects will be drawn from the FEW website, along with reading assignments posted on Blackboard or made available as electronic reserves. There is no required text. The course requirements include vigorous class participation, student responsibility for introducing the main ideas and issues presented by the assigned readings, and a class presentation on a topic that will be the subject of the final term paper. For graduate students, the requirements do not include the class presentation. The usual seminar paper is required, and we will try to find a few dates for sessions to discuss additional readings.