HAS Courses in Philosophy
California State University San Bernardino
Susan Finsen
Interpretation and Values
This upper division interdisciplinary general education course is designed to allow students to reflect on the values and assumptions implicit in their daily lives, culture, science, media and technology. Examines global environmental crises (global warming), intensive agriculture, and the values that have put us in these crises. Also examines the plight of animals and explores the moral status question.
Philosophical Issues in Animal Science
Philosophical problems, theories relevant to professions in animal science.
Agricultural Ethics
Basic concepts in ethics and their application to agriculture
Philip Cafaro
Environmental Ethics
Scientific, philosophical, and religious concepts of nature as they bear on human conduct; an ecological perspective.
Seminar in Animal Rights
Contemporary issues concerning nature and moral status of nonhuman animals.
William O. Stephens
Environmental Ethics
This ethics course examines what duties and responsibilities human beings have to the natural environment and the organisms within it. If speciesism is morally unacceptable by unjustifiably excluding non-human animals from the moral community, then what exactly are our ethical obligations to non-human animals? If anthropocentrism is in general defective, what implications do these defects have for the moral standing of individual plants, insects, and animals, entire species of organisms, waters, land, ecosystems, and the planet as a whole?
Faith Bjalobok
Philosophy of Animals
This course examines the moral status of non-human animals in the western philosophical tradition. We will read such philosophers as Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, Bentham, and Singer. The course also looks at the mercy perspective developed by Primatt and Scully.
Richard McCarty
Ethics and Animals
The primary goal of the course is to learn more about ethics or morality from considering the significance of animals in moral deliberation. So in thinking about whether animals have rights, for example, we shall also need to ask wider questions such as, what are rights and how do they fit into the system of morality? Questions such as these lead us to investigate theoretical approaches to the study of morality in general.
Jason Sears
Ethics and Animal Welfare
Jason Sears
Environmental Ethics
A philosophical investigation of our relationship to the natural environment, and how these considerations affect our moral obligations to other people, as well as future generations.
David D. DeGrazia
Moral Status and Personal Identity
This course integrates the important and challenging philosophical issues of moral status and personal identity, taking advantage of significant recent developments in the literature, and bringing the treatment of these issues to bear in investigating four areas of practical concern: the definition of death; the authority of advance directives in cases of severe dementia and persistent vegetative states; genetic engineering and cloning; and "cosmetic psychopharmacology." The first part of the course, focusing on moral status, places a strong emphasis on animals.
David D. DeGrazia
Ethics: Theory and Applications
This course is an introduction to ethical theory, methods of ethical reasoning, and several concrete moral problems, including ethics and animals. It is based on the assumption that critical ethical reflection and open-minded engagement with diverse viewpoints can improve the quality of moral judgment. Students are expected to identify and rigorously examine their own moral presuppositions and take responsibility for developing a body of ethical reflection that withstands critical scrutiny.
Ralph Acampora
Contemporary Ethical Dilemmas
Do atrocities of slavery, genocide, extreme misogyny, and animal exploitation have anything in common-such as massive scale or institutional structure? If so, (how) does that matter ethically? If not, why are some crossed? Should grave kinds of immorality be analyzed separately, and on what terms?
Susan J. Armstrong
Animal Ethics
Deals with animal awareness, moral development, language ability, pain and suffering, personhood, factory farming, experimentation, genetic engineering, sport hunting, legal rights and zoos.
Susan J. Armstrong
Moral Controversies
Susan J. Armstrong
Environmental Ethics
Susan J. Armstrong
Ecofeminism
Judith Barad
Ethics and Animals
Judith Barad
Environmental Ethics
Nathan Nobis
Bioethics
Nathan Nobis
Ethics and Animals
This course will provide an overview of the current debates about the nature and extent of our moral obligations to animals. Which, if any, uses of animals are morally wrong, which are morally permissible? What, if any, moral obligations do we, individually and as a society (as well as a global community), have towards animals? How should animals be treated?
North Carolina State University
Gary Comstock
Open Seminar in Research Ethics
This is an online course in research ethics that has a module on the use of animals in research.
North Carolina State University
Gary Comstock
Human Nature
This is going to be a new course that will deal in part with ethical issues having to do with the treatment of animals
North Carolina State University
Gary Comstock
Research Ethics
This course deals in part with the use of animals in research
Mylan Engel, Jr.
Environmental Ethics
This course seeks to determine whether and to what extent we have duties and obligations toward animals and the environment. Some questions to be addressed include: What is the value of nature? Is nature intrinsically valuable or merely of instrumental value? Do we have a duty to preserve the environment for future generations? If so, does this imply that we can have duties toward nonexistent beings (since future generations don't exist yet)? What are the most effective steps we as individuals can take to help preserve the environment? Is global warming real? If so, what steps, if any, should we take to help curb global warming? Should governments be implementing policies which encourage the use of Low Input Sustainable Agriculture [LISA] techniques? Do Western environmental practices oppress humans in developing nations? Are patriarchal patterns of male dominance to blame for many of our current environmental problems? Do we have a duty to protect endangered plant and/or animal species? Is it worse to kill members of an endangered species than it is to kill members of abundant species, and if so, why? Are some ecosystems better and more worthy of preserving than others? What is the moral status of animals? Is it wrong to kill animals for fun? Is it worse to kill animals than it is to kill plants? Is it wrong to torture animals? Is it wrong to wear animals? Is vegetarianism morally obligatory for people living in modern societies? Is animal experimentation (ever?, always?) morally permissible? What is speciesism and is it morally wrong? What bearing, if any, does our current treatment of animals have on the environment? What duties, if any, do we as individuals have regarding the environment?
Mylan Engel, Jr.
Contemporary Moral Issues
The course seeks answers to some of the most controversial moral questions of our time: What is the nature of right and wrong? Who is to say what is right? Is capital punishment ever morally justified? Is abortion morally wrong? Can a just society allow individuals to starve in poverty while other individuals hoard billions of dollars? Do moderately affluent individuals have a duty to assist the poor? Is reverse discrimination morally wrong? Is euthanasia (mercy killing) morally permissible? Is suicide morally wrong? Is homosexuality immoral? Is premarital sex morally wrong? What is the moral status of animals? Is it O.K. to torture animals? Is it O.K. to kill animals for food? Is it O.K. to wear animals? Is it O.K. to experiment on animals? Do we have a duty to protect the environment for future generations? If so, what are the most effective things we, as individuals, can do to help preserve the environment?
Environmental Ethics
How should we value nature? What is important about it, and why? Is it important to us because caring for nature advances our interests, or because it is valuable in its own right? Do animals have special claims upon us? Should our primary concern be for individual organisms, or for species? This course will aim at thinking through some of the questions that surround the idea of valuing the environment in which we live, and understanding possible views as to the source and nature of that value.
Evelyn B. Pluhar
Ethics and Social Issues
This course examines a number of ethical issues, including the ways in which humans use animals for their own benefit or convenience. Arguments for and against such use are explored to help determine whether or not they are justified. Independent thinking and discussion are strongly encouraged, and students are evaluated on how well they can back up their views with clear, careful reasoning.
Evelyn B. Pluhar
Ethics and Animals
Lilly-Marlene Russow
Ethics and Animals
An exploration through the study of historical and contemporary philosophical writings of basic moral issues as they apply to our treatment of animals. Rational understanding of the general philosophical problems raised by practices such as experimentation on animals and meat-eating are emphasized.
Lilly-Marlene Russow
Environmental Ethics
An introduction to philosophical issues surrounding debates about the environment and our treatment of it. Topics may include endangered species, the "triangular affair" between animal rights and environmental ethics, the scope and limits of cost-benefit analyses and duties to future generations. This course was first offered in 1980.
Jordan Curnutt
Environmental Ethics
Critically evaluate the ethical dimensions of environmental and natural resource issues. Identify moral values in alternative solutions and encourage reasoned defense of proposed actions.
Jordan Curnutt
Topics in Ethics: Animal Ethics
Examines moral issues arising from our treatment of nonhuman animals. Questions explored include: What is the moral status of animals? Do they have moral rights? Do animals feel pain? Are they conscious? Do they have desires and beliefs? What are the moral implications of attributing certain mental states to animals? Is there a moral problem with euthanizing companion animals?
Andrea Reed
Philosophy of Animal Rights
Environmental Ethics
Examination of the moral status of the natural environment and ethical problems of human/environment interaction.
Walter Putnam
Zoophilosophy
Many philosophical and literary attempts to locate, define, describe, and understand the human animal have been formulated with respect to the larger animal world or to some notion of animality. Is man a "featherless biped," as Plato claimed or a "soulless machine" as Descartes believed? Do animals feel pain like us? Do they know they exist? How can there be thought without language? What separates the human from the non-human animal? And what do we share in common? These are some of the pressing questions that are being re-evaluated in light of scientific discoveries and cultural transformations along the fault line between human and non-human animals.
The bulk of the semester will focus on continental philosophers and writers who have based some aspect of their thinking on animals: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Agamben, Deleuze, Derrida, and Lévinas, to cite the most prominent. Questions of identity and ethics will direct our thinking as we deal with issues of the status and treatment of animals. This course will bridge the literary and the philosophical by reading texts such as Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in light of Deleuze and Guattari's concept of "becoming-animal." I would like to devote some attention to the visual representation of the postmodern animal. This multi-disciplinary approach will allow us to gauge the range and richness of thought not only "about" but "with" the animal.
Ecofeminism
Examines the merger of feminism with environmental ethics and its subsequent evolution. Subject matter includes the analysis of patriarchy, gender issues and multicultural perspectives within the larger framework of ethical responses to ecocrisis.
Eugene Hargrove
Seminar in Environmental Ethics
An intensive analysis of new positions in environmental ethics with special emphasis on their theoretical value as a contribution to contemporary philosophy and their practical value with regard to environmental policy and decision making.
Kathie Jenni
Ethics and the Environment
Kathie Jenni
Taking Animals Seriously
A four week long internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah that is grounded in study of the history, issues, philosophies, and strategies of the animal welfare movement. One and one half days per week are devoted to class time; the remaining three and one half days each week are devoted to full time work in all aspects of the Sanctuary: cleaning, feeding and watering, socializing with and exercising animals, veterinary care, adoption services, humane education, and community outreach. Students may specialize in one facet of animal care during their final two weeks.
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
Advanced Environmental Ethics
This course is an advanced study of a certain area, figure, or problem in the field of environmental ethics. The theme of the course will change from semester to semester but may focus on such things as the works of a central figure in environmental ethics, the problem of intrinsic value, the topic of moral pluralism, non-anthropocentric environmental ethics in general, or environmental politics and activism.
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
Environmental Ethics
Parallel to the increasing public awareness of environmental degradation has been the need to examine these complex issues from a philosophical vantage point. This course is an exploration of contemporary approaches to environmental ethics, including Judeo-Christian stewardship, animal liberation/rights, biocentrism, and the ecocentric Land Ethic of Aldo Leopold. We will also look at such contemporary topics as Ecofeminism, the debate over the concept of Wilderness, Gaia theory, Deep Ecology, and radical environmental activism. This course also explores larger questions about the nature of nature, human nature, and what an appropriate relationship between human beings and the natural environment might look like.
Contemporary Moral Problems
Examines the opposing positions typically taken in discussions of contemporary moral problems, such as euthanasia, the death penalty, pornography, animal rights, and world hunger. The focus is on developing and critically analyzing reasons used to support a moral position.
Environmental Ethics
An introductory exploration of issues in environmental policy and the value presuppositions to different approaches to environmental problems, including economic, judicial, political, and ecological. Discusses specific environmental problems, focusing on their moral dimensions, e.g., wilderness preservation, animal rights, property rights, values of biodiversity, corporate responsibility, varieties of activism, ecofeminism, resource exploitation, and technological advancement, global environmental politics, and obligations to future generations.
Lori Gruen
Humans-Animals-Nature
Due to unprecedented ecological degradation and enormous inequalities in the distribution of the means of flourishing, human beings all over the world are being forced to reconsider their relationship to each other and the non-human world. In this course, we explore the character, conditions, and concerns that shape these troubled relationships. The first part of the course will discuss the philosophical basis for membership in the moral community. Do animals matter? Do future generations matter? Do trees matter? We will spend most of the course exploring how these things matter, if and when they do, by analyzing specific cases/problems: vegetarianism, cultural hunting of whales, environmental racism, and wilderness preservation. The goals of the course are to help you to think critically, to read carefully, to argue well, and to defend your reasoned views about the moral relations between humans, animals, and nature.
Western Connecticut State University
Kristin Aronson
Ethics and the Nonhuman
Students learn about the treatment of nonhuman animals by humans, and learn how to argue logically and evaluate moral arguments for and against practices and positions. The emphasis is on critical thinking and development of proficiency in arguing the issues.
Nancy Williams
The Fictional and Not-So Fictional Lives of Animals
The course is an exploration of the interconnections between the fictional and non-fictional representations of the lives of animals and our complex relationship with them. After reading fictional accounts about the human-animal relationship, such as The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G.Wells, we move on to examine the ways in which these accounts correspond to the realities of animal lives, such as vivisection. Within this format, we will analyze some of the ethical issues relating to animal welfare and the human-animal relationship and attempt to answer the following philosophical questions: What is the nature of our relationship with animals? What can we learn about ourselves from our relationship with other animals? How should animals be treated?
Scott Wilson
Moral Problems
Are we permitted to raise and then kill animals for food? Are we permitted to perform experiments on animals that will benefit human beings? Can we keep animals in zoos, hunt animals for sport or use animals for our entertainment? There is a growing interest in these questions today. However, these questions cannot be answered completely without first engaging in a bit of moral philosophy. Whether we can do these things to animals will depend on the moral status of animals. Therefore, we must first understand the concept of moral status and the various possible positions one can take on the moral status of animals. In this class, that is precisely what we will do. We will read three books by leading philosophers on the question of the moral status of animals, as well as numerous articles and excerpts from other leading philosophers. The goal of the course is for students to determine and justify their own beliefs on these matters through careful reading, class participation and several writing assignments.
