IPP 508: Nature in Romantic and European Thought

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

Aims and Outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

On completing this course, students will be able to:

Demonstrate knowledge of some major approaches to thinking about nature from
within the Romantic and Continental European philosophical traditions.
Critically discuss accounts of what nature is, and of its ethical status, by authors centrally including Kant, the early German Romantics, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Heidegger.
Assess the thesis that modern technologies, and modern conceptions of rationality, have brought about a disenchantment of nature.
Understand and assess a range of strategies for bringing about a re-enchantment and revaluation of nature.
Show an appreciation of the historical interconnections between continental philosophers’ conceptions of nature and of the relevance of these conceptions to contemporary environmental philosophy.

Skills and other attributes

On completing this course, students will be able to:

Demonstrate an ability to interpret complex texts and to express the thoughts of the authors in their own words.
Show an ability to analyse and critically assess arguments and to compare different arguments with one another.
Develop their own thoughts on continental conceptions of nature and their significance for environmental philosophy, both in discussion and in writing.