Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120 http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120 Analyzing Embedded Theories in an Age of Paradigm Shift Timothy C. Weiskel Discussion Session 10 2 November 2011 Harvard University Extension School Fall Semester 2011
http://www.climate-talks.net/2008- ENVRE130/Video/20090118-YouTube-Peak-Oil.htm
Specific skills – to be learned and practiced in this course: we will need to earn how to: Identify moral and ethical arguments forwarded in the realms of environment and public policy. Analyze these arguments. Evaluate these arguments (that is, make judgments about relative merit). Formulate your own arguments in response to the available logic in reference to specific problems. Articulate your moral argument effectively. and Persuade those who remain unconvinced. Tim Weiskel - 3
Specific skills – to be learned and practiced in this course: we will need to earn how to: Identify moral and ethical arguments forwarded in the realms of environment and public policy. Analyze these arguments. Evaluate these arguments (that is, make judgments about relative merit). Formulate your own arguments in response to the available logic in reference to specific problems. Articulate your moral argument effectively. and Persuade those who remain unconvinced. Tim Weiskel - 4
Envisioning the Worldview for a Sustainable Society… (fill in the blanks…) Implicit theories Sustainable Society Worldview Community ?????? System ?????? Authority ?????? Change ?????? Agency ?????? Time ?????? Tim Weiskel - 5
It would seem, then, that those of us who are heirs to the Abramic religious traditions will need to re-examine the Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse Our (common) Theory of Community Our (common) Theory of System Our (common) Theory of Authority Our (common) Theory of Change Our (common) Theory of Agency Our (common) Theory of Time Tim Weiskel - 6
A Theory of Community What community is assumed to be the relevant moral community by what the speaker has either stated or implied? Is this community aware of itself as a community? Are there a variety of moral communities? Who or what is "within" the moral community? Who or what is explicitly excluded or excluded by implication? Tim Weiskel - 7
A Theory of System What is the overall concept of system employed by the speaker or group? How do various moral communities relate to one another within this larger system of connected relations? What are the principles or attributes of this system, governing how moral communities relate to one another? Tim Weiskel - 8
A Theory of Authority ... What is the explicit or implicit concept of authority in the propositions being forwarded? What warrant do we have to assert that such-and-such is “good” or “right”? What source of authority exists to settle disputes between contesting ideas of the “good” and the “right”? In other words, what is the ultimate source of moral authority? Tim Weiskel - 9
A Theory of Change Where does change come from? How is it explained? Does change emanate from within the system or is it conceived as exogenous ? If it is endogenous how is change alleged to occur within the system? What is (or are) the presumed indices of change? Tim Weiskel - 10
A Theory of Agency Who or what the agent of change or stability in the moral community or in the system as a whole? Is it ever legitimate for moral agents to intervene in a wider inter-connected system to achieve certain ends? If so, when and under what circumstances is intervention justified? If not, what is the justification of non-intervention? Tim Weiskel - 11
A Theory of Time How late is it? Are different kinds of intervention morally justifiable according to a "theory of moment?" When is it morally justified not to intervene because the "moment has passed" or perhaps it "has not yet come?" What is the narrative shape of time implied by the disciplinary discourse? Is it "never too late?" or "always too late?" or sometimes just the right "window of opportunity?" Tim Weiskel - 12
How do we find the implicit definition of Community? Tim Weiskel - 13
“Angels and Deamons” - Binary definitions of community…. You are either “for us” or “against us”…. [classic Abramic formulation]. "Religion and the US military: The internal battle over the religious soul of the US military," YouTube - AljazeeraEnglish, (26 Jun 2009 10:17 GMT). Tim Weiskel - 14
Where do adults get this formula? Tim Weiskel - 15
"US cuts off UNESCO funding over Palestine vote," YouTube - AlJazeeraEnglish, (31 October 2011). Tim Weiskel - 16
Who http://www.climate-talks.net/2008-ENVRE130/Video/20090408-YouTube-AP- JohnHoldren.htm Who is “we” according to Professor Holdren? Tim Weiskel - 17
Remember these other categories…. What are Prof. Holdren’s other implied theories? Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse [Our (common) Theory of Community – somewhat problematic – Who is in? Who is out?] Our (common) Theory of System Our (common) Theory of Authority Our (common) Theory of Change Our (common) Theory of Agency Our (common) Theory of Time Tim Weiskel - 18
Remember these other categories…. What are Prof. Holdren’s other implied theories? Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse [Our (common) Theory of Community – somewhat problematic – Who is in? Who is out?] Our (common) Theory of System Our (common) Theory of Authority Our (common) Theory of Change Our (common) Theory of Agency Our (common) Theory of Time Tim Weiskel - 19
You are one of seven billion people on Earth. Whatever you or I do personally—eat tofu in a Hummer or hamburgers in a Prius—the planet doesn’t notice. In our confrontation with climate change, species preservation, and a planet going off the cliff, it is what several billion people do that makes a difference. The solution? It isn't science, politics, or activism. It's smarter economics. Tim Weiskel - 20
The hope of mankind, and indeed of every living thing on the planet, is now in the hands of the dismal science. Fortunately, we’ve been there before. Economists helped crack the acid rain problem in the 1990s (admittedly with a strong assist from a phalanx of lawyers and activists). Tim Weiskel - 21
Economists have helped get lead out of our gas, and they can explain why lobsters haven’t disappeared off the coast of New England but tuna is on the verge of extinction. Tim Weiskel - 22
More disquietingly, they can take the lessons of the financial crisis and model with greater accuracy than anyone else the likelihood of environmental catastrophe, and they can help save us from global warming, if only we let them. Tim Weiskel - 23
Envisioning the Worldview for a Sustainable Society… (fill in the blanks…) Implicit theories Sustainable Society Worldview Community ?????? System ?????? Authority ?????? Change ?????? Agency ?????? Time ?????? Tim Weiskel - 24
What are your “Ten Commandments” to guide our behavior to get us to reach a sustainable society? Implicit theories Sustainable Society Worldview Community ?????? System ?????? Authority ?????? Change ?????? Agency ?????? Time ?????? Tim Weiskel - 25
It would seem, then, that those of us who are heirs to the Abramic religious traditions will need to re-examine the Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse Our (common) Theory of Community Our (common) Theory of System Our (common) Theory of Authority Our (common) Theory of Change Our (common) Theory of Agency Our (common) Theory of Time Tim Weiskel - 26
Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120 http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120 Analyzing Embedded Theories in an Age of Paradigm Shift Timothy C. Weiskel Discussion Session 10 2 November 2011 Harvard University Extension School Fall Semester 2011
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