After successful completion of the course, students are able to...
After successful completion of the course, students are familiar with a selection of ethical approaches to the use of land. Aldo Leopold, in his 1949 book “A Sand County Almanac”, inaugurated “land ethic” as a field of applied ethics. Students will learn about a variety of applications to land policy, property, and planning.
Aldo Leopold, in his 1949 book »A Sand County Almanac«, inaugurated »land ethic« as a field of applied ethics. Leopold’s land ethic »changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it.« Leopold demanded:
»Quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem. Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.«
Leopold spoke of a »cowman who cleans his range of wolves« and disrupts the ecological balance between wolves, deer and vegetation. The cowman, Leopold claimed, caused an ecological disaster because he »has not learned to think like a mountain.« The seminar will examine how various members of the land community might be thinking and which consequences »thinking like a mountain« has for land use ethics.
In order to frame our discussion, we shall use a model from John Rawls’ theory of justice: The veil of ignorance. The veil of ignorance conceals to the members of a constitutional assembly who they are. The members of the constitutional assembly have full information and data for their country and society, but since they do not know who they are, they cannot tailor the constitution according to their needs and preferences (and the famous difference principle emerged). Rawls developed his theory of justice for human animals. Although he wrote his book at the beginning of environmental activism (1971), he left it to others to ponder environmental justice and land use ethics. Which principles of justice would emerge from a constitutional assembly behind the veil of ignorance, if not only human animals participate ... but also non-human animals, plants, rivers, mountains, the land?
