IPP 507: Environmental Ethics

AWAYMAVE - The Distance Mode of MA in Values and the Environment at Lancaster University

Module Description

Block 1: Foundations of Environmental Aesthetics

In this first block you are first introduced to different ways in which philosophers have tried to answer the question, What is aesthetic experience? We then look at some influential categories of aesthetic appreciation in the history of philosophy: the beautiful, the sublime and the picturesque.

Block 2: Culture, Art and Environment

In this block we begin to explore contemporary approaches to aesthetic experience of nature, in particular, the differences between art appreciation and aesthetic appreciation of environments. We also consider the experience of environments that fall between nature and art, such as agricultural landscapes, gardens and environmental artworks.

Block 3: The Contemporary Debate in Environmental Aesthetics

Now we critically examine the main theories of aesthetic appreciation of nature and environment in the contemporary debate. We begin with one of the most influential theories, Allen Carlson’s ‘natural environmental model’. This model argues for the necessity of scientific knowledge in guiding appreciation. We then examine a group of non-cognitive approaches to aesthetic appreciation of nature, which de-emphasise the role of knowledge and highlight other aspects such as imagination and emotion.

Block 4: The Integrated Aesthetic

In this block we consider more closely one version of a non-cognitive approach to aesthetic appreciation of nature, the ‘integrated aesthetic’, which I develop across two chapters of my book. This block also gives us the opportunity to look more closely at the role of the senses, imagination and emotion in appreciation of environments.

Block 5: Aesthetic Value and Conservation

In this block we begin with a look at aesthetic value. We explore the subjectivity and objectivity of aesthetic value as expressed through aesthetic judgments, and consider how one might establish the intersubjectivity or the objectivity of aesthetic judgments of the natural world. We then turn our attention more fully to the practical context of environmental conservation. We consider ways in which aesthetic value and moral value conflict in practice, and we focus on some case studies on aesthetic value in conservation.