Environmental Ethics

Course Contents

Environmental Ethics (TPM012b & TPM013b) is an elective MSc course that TU Delft students, or study abroad/exchange students, from any degree program are invited to take. No prior knowledge or experience with ethics or philosophy is assumed.

This course introduces key ideas, arguments, and concepts from Environmental Ethics, the area of philosophy concerned with the nonhuman world. Through the weekly meetings, readings, and course assignments, we'll consider questions like:

• Do nonhuman entities (plants, animals, ecosystems, etc.) have moral value?
• Is there really such a thing as 'nature,' existing separately from humans?
• What is biodiversity, and how should we conserve it?
• Who benefits when environments are protected, and who is harmed? Who does the work of environmental maintenance and repair?
• What makes climate change a moral issue, and what should we do to address it? What does climate justice entail?
• Are we living in the Anthropocene, and if so, what does that mean about how we should live?

We'll also think about what environmental ethics means for engineers specifically, asking questions like:

• How can thinking environmentally attune us to others in space and time, and what responsibilities do engineers have to do this?
• How do other traditions of thought (feminism, indigenous philosophies) consider human/nonhuman relations, and what might these, alongside environmental ethics, contribute to how engineers and engineering practices think about the nonhuman world?
• How do you already think about yourself in and with your local environment, and does this perspective align with engineering?

Students are encouraged to pursue their own personal and/or professional interests throughout the course. Students choose the topic of their final assignment and the paper (for students taking the 5ECTS version).