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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

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Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120

http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Timothy C. Weiskel

Harvard University Extension School Fall Semester 2011

Analyzing Embedded Theories in an Age of Paradigm Shift

Discussion Session 10 2 November 2011

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http://www.climate-talks.net/2008- ENVRE130/Video/20090118-YouTube-Peak-Oil.htm

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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.

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Tim Weiskel - 4

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.

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Tim Weiskel - 5

Implicit theories Sustainable Society Worldview

Community

??????

System

??????

Authority

??????

Change

??????

Agency

??????

Time

??????

Envisioning the Worldview for a Sustainable Society…

(fill in the blanks…)

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Tim Weiskel - 6

It would seem, then, that those of us who are heirs to the Abramic religious traditions will need to re-examine the 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

Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse

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Tim Weiskel - 7

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?

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A Theory of System

What is the overall concept of system employed by the speaker

r 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?

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Tim Weiskel - 9

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

f authority exists to settle disputes between contesting ideas
f the “good” and the “right”? In other words, what is the

ultimate source of moral authority?

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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

ccur within the system? What is (or are) the presumed

indices of change?

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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?

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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?"

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How do we find the implicit definition of Community?

Tim Weiskel - 13

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"Religion and the US military: The internal battle over the religious soul of the US military," YouTube - AljazeeraEnglish, (26 Jun 2009 10:17 GMT).

“Angels and Deamons” - Binary definitions of community…. You are either “for us” or “against us”…. [classic Abramic formulation].

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Where do adults get this formula?

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"US cuts off UNESCO funding over Palestine vote," YouTube - AlJazeeraEnglish, (31 October 2011).

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Who

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http://www.climate-talks.net/2008-ENVRE130/Video/20090408-YouTube-AP- JohnHoldren.htm

Who is “we” according to Professor Holdren?

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Tim Weiskel - 18

Remember these other categories…. What are Prof. Holdren’s other implied theories? [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

Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse

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Tim Weiskel - 19

Remember these other categories…. What are Prof. Holdren’s other implied theories? [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

Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse

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Tim Weiskel - 20

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.

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The hope of mankind, and indeed of every living thing on the planet, is now in the hands

f 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).

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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.

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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.

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Implicit theories Sustainable Society Worldview

Community

??????

System

??????

Authority

??????

Change

??????

Agency

??????

Time

??????

Envisioning the Worldview for a Sustainable Society…

(fill in the blanks…)

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Tim Weiskel - 25

Implicit theories Sustainable Society Worldview

Community

??????

System

??????

Authority

??????

Change

??????

Agency

??????

Time

??????

What are your “Ten Commandments” to guide our behavior to get us to reach a sustainable society?

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It would seem, then, that those of us who are heirs to the Abramic religious traditions will need to re-examine the 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

Implicit Theories in our Ethical Discourse

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Environmental Ethics and Land Management ENVR E-120

http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Timothy C. Weiskel

Harvard University Extension School Fall Semester 2011

Analyzing Embedded Theories in an Age of Paradigm Shift

Discussion Session 10 2 November 2011