JRH
Humanities 350 Ethics and Ecology Syllabus Fall 08
TTH 9:0010:15 a.m.
Dr. James R. Hepworth, Professor, 309 Spalding Hall
Office Hours: MW 4:15-5:15 and TTh 10:30-11:30 & 1:30-2:30 and by Appointment
Email: hepworth@lcsc.edu Telephone: 792-2385
Pre-requisite: Junior standing. Satisfactory completion of the skills component of the General Education core.
Required Texts
Daniel, John. The Far Corner: Essays. (Unpublished manuscript.)
Ferguson, Gary. Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wolf to Yellowstone. (Any edition)
Keeler, Greg. Trash Fish: A Life. (Available in October.) San Francisco: Counterpoint, 2008.
Maclean, Norman. A River Runs through It and Other Stories. (Any edition.)
I will also assign the class to read additional essays, poems, articles, and various other texts that are required reading. Most of them are available on line through our class blog but some of them may not have been available at the time of this writing, including one of Maclean’s books below.
Suggested Reading (I’ll also make another, more comprehensive list available to you.)
Ingram, David Bruce and Jennifer A. Parks. The Complete Idiot’s Guide toUnderstanding Ethics. (Any edition.)
Maclean, Norman. The Norman Maclean Reader. (forthcoming in November). Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 2008). Forthcoming.
Maclean, Norman. Young Men and Fire. (Any edition.)
Course Description
Is water a basic human right for all people or is it a commodity to be bought and sold? How should water be controlled? And who should control it? Corporations? The federal government? State and local governments? Does more water exist on the surface of the earth or below the earth? What impact have science and human cultures and technologies had on the earth’s ground and surface water supplies? What impact should they have? Do animals have water rights? How about plants?
At first, these questions may appear tangential to one of our primary texts, the title story to Norman Maclean’s first book, but how can people fish if there are no fish to catch or if a very few people own the access to the rivers and restrict that access to a few?
In this particular class we’ll take a literary and cinematic approach to such questions. In other words, we’ll examine ethical reasoning in relationship to the environment and the impact of human culture and scientific thought on ecology by reading and discussing Maclean’s best-selling books; a selection of poems, essays, and scientific articles; and by viewing films. We’ll familiarize ourselves with some basic history of our “ecological crisis,” some important philosophical terms, and some key environmental buzzwords (“the commons,” “privatization,” etc.) We’ll also learn to define “environmental literature” and clarify and re-examine our personal and cultural values. If possible, we will also make fieldtrips and host surprise guest lectures by such luminaries as our state’s official archeologist, literary scholars, and perhaps a historian. Certainly, in concentrating on Maclean’s books, we’ll also learn some things about fly-fishing and fire-fighting.
Grading
Participation* 25%
Group/Team Work
Attendance
Individual Blogs
Individual Presentations
Attitude
Essays and Exams 75%
Graded Essays (25%)
Exams on Assigned Reading (25%)
Final Exam (25%)
*Participation
Scholars generally agree that the learner is the person most in charge of what gets learned inside and outside the classroom. I expect you to be an active learner. I will base your grade in this category on the following criteria:
• your general attitude toward the class: your willingness to volunteer, to express your own thoughts aloud and in writing, to permit others to speak, to assist others with their writing, and the effectiveness of your overall effort and academic maturity
• your willingness to go beyond what is required
• your ability to follow verbal instructions, to learn from your mistakes, and to improve your writing
• your ability to work independently and as a part of an assigned team
• your completion of reading assignments in the text and online
• your ability to meet deadlines with complete drafts for peer review (All papers, including drafts for peer review, become due at the beginning of the class period on the due date.)
• the scores and completion rate for all exercises and quizzes on MyComplab
• your ability to write honest and helpful peer reviews
With the exception of timed essays, all papers (even drafts written for formal peer reviews) must be typed and formatted in MLA style. I will treat the failure to turn in a complete typed draft (3-5 pages) for peer review by making a step reduction in the final grade (e.g B- to C+) for that paper. I will not accept papers improperly formatted.
Additional Policies
• If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment to talk with me. You will need to register with the Disability Services office (RCH 111) to verify any disabilities and to determine suitable academic accommodations.
• Our class is writing and computer intensive. It is not, however, a distance learning class. Nevertheless, our class requires you to do perhaps even a majority of your work at a computer with internet access. If you do not own a computer, the college SUB and library both have computer labs where you may use a computer.
• I call on students by name, and I do my best to memorize the names of students in all my classes early in the semester, usually within the first two weeks. If I call on you and you don’t know or can’t think of the answer to the question, just say, “I don’t know.” That’s the same answer I will probably give you under similar circumstances. In my experience, too many people are either unable or unwilling to say, “I don’t know.” If you knew everything, why would need a college class?
• I check my Email once a day. Some days I receive as many as thirty or forty Emails in addition to spam. If you must Email me, please limit your Email to three well-written sentences. The college requires that you Email me only from your college Email account. I probably will not respond to Email sent to me from personal Email accounts outside the college system.
• For updates on assignments, changes to the calendar and clarification on assignments, extra credit opportunities, and general class news, please check
Incompletes: I will grant you a grade of Incomplete at the end of the semester if (1) you have completed 80% of the work and (2) if you have a documented medical or family emergency that occurs in the last few weeks of class.
Plagiarism or any form of cheating will result in an automatic F for the semester. If you believe or know a student has committed an act of academic dishonesty, document the incident and notify the Judicial Affairs Officer in Reid Hall 11, phone 2211.
Extra Credit: Students who publish individual essays in our online class anthology (“mag-zine”) will receive extra credit. Submitting an essay for a full class review also results in extra credit. In general, however, I will announce extra-credit opportunities as we progress through the semester.
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