Ethics and Economics
Paper
Three is due in Class Eight. It 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).
Paper Three
/ IDS 3920 / Spring 2004 
