C5. Ethics and the Environment

Philosophy has a number of separate fields of which Ethics is one. Its topic is human behavior under the aspect of evaluating behavior. We regularly call human behavior “good” or “bad.” But it is not easy to say what criteria we use to call behavior good or bad. Add to that behavior that we have a duty to perform—think of childrens’ obligations towards their parents and obligations of parents’ towards their children.

In our time of environmental crisis, questions arise as to what behavior with respect to the environment should be considered good or bad and whether we have any obligations with respect to environmental matters.

NOTE: This course has 10 classes and will continue on a different day in Session D

Richard Schmitt has been teaching Philosophy for 68 years—6 years as a Graduate Assistant and Instructor at Yale University, 42 at Brown University, 12 at Worcester State University,  some time at Becker, and I have been teaching courses at Wise for about 25 years. Before coming to Yale I earned a BA and MA at the University of Chicago. I received my secondary education at the Eerde International Quakerschool, which Philadelphia Quakers maintained in the 1930s and 40s to allow German Jewish children to live and survive outside Nazi Germany.