Class 7 / IDS 3920 / Spring 2004

 

Ecological Literacy I:  Ethics and Economics
  Education is not widely regarded as a problem, although the lack of it is.  The conventional wisdom holds that all education is good, and the more of it one
has, the better.

The truth is that without significant precaution, education can equip people merely to be more effective vandals of the Earth

- David Orr

Reading

Please read in David Orr’s Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World, Chapter I, pp. 3-21 and Chapter V, pp. 85-95, and in A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, Part IV, “The Land Ethic”, pp. 237-264.
 

Prewriting

The assignment for the third paper, due in Class Eight, follows.
 
 

Ethics and Economics
Short Paper Three should be four to five typed, double-spaced pages in length. Your paper shall be evaluated according to the criteria presented by the assessment rubric and by your section instructor.  The assignment is as follows:

David Orr’s Ecological Literacy and Aldo Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” display a number of convergent or complementary ideas.  One of the most important of these is the idea that the principles of “mainstream economics” as well as the assumption that “self-interest” and the desire for personal profit are humanity’s principal motivations, hamper the development of an environmentally sustainable ethic.  In this regard, for example, Orr writes that “economic man knows not limits of discipline, or obligation, or satiation, which may explain why the growth economy has no logical stopping point, and perhaps why good neighbors are becoming harder to find.” (p. 9)  Similarly, Leopold writes that “a system of conservation based solely on economic self-interest is hopelessly lopsided.” (p. 251)

This writing assignment asks you to wrestle with some of the problems and paradoxes evident in this idea.  In four or five pages, typed and double-spaced, you should address the following concerns:
 

1) With respect to problems of environmental sustainability, what does Orr mean when he writes that “the prominence of the economy in the modern world, and that of growth economics in the conduct of public affairs explains, I think, a great deal of the propensity for social traps”? (p. 11)  How does Leopold’s discussion in “The Land Ethic” develop some very similar points? (roughly two pages)

2) Select from either Orr’s discussion or Leopold’s discussion one alternative to this economic approach or key concept that the author feels is essential to developing a more environmentally sustainable ethic, and summarize its essential points. (roughly one to one and a half pages)

3) Evaluate the alternative that you summarized in part 2 above, doing so on the basis of your personal convictions.  Be sure to explain and defend your evaluation to the reader using specific examples from your experience (roughly one to two pages).

Understanding Floridiana

Remember you will be asked to read a work of Florida literature of your choice.  Find a work of your interest.  Feel free to ask your instructor for assistance.