Teaching Environmental Philosophy at a British University

Abstract

The introduction of environmental philosophy into four philosophical courses at University College, Cardiff is discussed in this article. One-fifth of a course on philosophical aspects of social and world problems is devoted to ecological problems. In philosophical theology, the objections to Christian belief are considered—despotism, anthropocentrism, speciesism, chauvinism, and dualism. In a course on modern European ideas, changing attitudes to nature are considered. In a course on moral philosophy, theories of moral considerability, of intrinsic value, of consequentialism, and of interspecies morality are defended. Some of the opportunities for, and constraints upon, the teaching of environmental philosophy in British and American universities are also expounded.