Postgraduate Course: Climate Change, Justice and Responsibility (PLIT11016)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Politics |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course explores how the problem of climate change tests and expands fundamental ideas in political philosophy. What moral responsibility do we have for the harm done through climate change, as members of rich nations, voters in powerful democracies or shareholders in and customers of polluting corporations? What duties does this give us, collectively and individually? Are these duties enforceable, and by whom? Are we required to cut emissions by the claims of justice of vulnerable communities, future generation or even other species? |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2011/12 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| No Classes have been defined for this Course |
| First Class |
Week 1, Wednesday, 11:10 - 13:00, Zone: Central. 1.2, 22 Buccleuch Place |
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Students will:
- Develop their understanding of fundamental concepts in political and moral philosophy
- Apply these concepts to the problem of climate change and in turn use that problem to evaluate the current dominant political theory, liberalism
- Learn to present coherent, balanced philosophical arguments, in written or debate form
- Engage critically with the work of major political theorists and evaluate their arguments in the light of the practical dilemmas posed by climate change
- Engage with their subject as it is being developed by discussing some of the newest and most controversial topics in political theory
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Assessment Information
| 1st assessed essay of 1500-2000 words (40%) 2nd assessed essay of 2000-2500 words (50%) Tutorial assessment (10%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Part 1. Environmental injustice
Week 1: Environmental injustices at home and abroad
Does the imposition of environmental hazards constitute an injustice? Distributive and participatory justice. Exporting hazards - do state borders make a difference? The consent excuse.
Week 2: Bequeathing hazards
Nuclear waste disposal, climate change and justice to future generations. Appeal to hypothetical or second party consent.
Part 2. Harm and moral responsibility
Week 3: Human rights, human flourishing and environmental harm
Flourishing and the capabilities approach. Interest-based human rights. Does climate change constitute a rights violation? Do we need to appeal to rights?
Week 4: Harm to future generations
The Non-Identity Problem: how can we be said to harm future generations by our actions if they would not have existed if we had acted otherwise?
Week 5: Collective responsibility
"It wasn't me" - the problem of holding moral agents responsible for what was not the result of an intentional individual or collective act. Individual, corporate and weak collective responsibility.
Part 3. Duties
Week 6: Individual moral duties
"What should I do?" $ú collective and correlative individual duties in the face of collective responsibility.
Week 7: Who pays?
How should the burdens of collective action to tackle climate change be allocated? Should past polluters pay? Should the beneficiaries of past pollution? Should those most able to pay do so? What help do western countries owe developing nations in meeting emissions targets and bearing the costs of adapting to climate change?
Part 4. Pushing the boundaries
Week 8: Beyond the human
Is it of moral significance that climate change harms sentient nonhuman animals, or that it harms the natural world more generally? Capabilities and expanding the sphere of justice.
Week 9: The ethics of overpopulation
Population grown, consumption and the limits of natural resources. Do we have (enforceable) duties to limit population growth? Would these conflict with women&©s rights to reproductive liberty?
Week 10: Climate change as a test for liberalism
Does the problem of climate change (requiring strong collective action) constitute a challenge that the dominant political theory, liberalism, is unable to meet? Would rival political theories do better? |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Gardiner, Stephen M., Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson, and Henry Shue, eds.
Climate Ethics: Essential Readings. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
James Garvey (2008): The Ethics of Climate Change: Right and Wrong in a Warming World (Continuum)
Peter Singer (2002): One World (Yale University Press) |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Elizabeth Cripps
Tel: (0131 6)51 1948
Email: elizabeth.cripps@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Gillian Macdonald
Tel: (0131 6)51 3244
Email: gillian.macdonald@ed.ac.uk |
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© Copyright 2011 The University of Edinburgh - 16 January 2012 6:42 am
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