Overview

To provide students with a comprehensive understanding of environmental problems, including the threat of destruction of the current regime of the global ecosystem, of the forces driving this destruction, and what is required to address and overcome these problems.

Requisites

Prerequisites
PHI30009 Environmental Philosophy
Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Demonstrate thorough knowledge of the state of the Australian and the global environment, the driving forces for ecological destruction, and the main changes that will be required to create an environmentally sustainable society and civilization
  • Comprehend and participate in arguments on the state of our environment, on causes driving its destruction
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the core assumptions and questionability of prevailing economic theories and the alternative provided by institutionalist forms of ecological economics
  • Comprehend the use of cost-benefit or risk-benefit analyses to assess policies and the alternative provided by retrospective path analysis, and the ability to defend and use this alternative

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Lecture		2.00 12 weeks 24
Face to Face Contact (Phasing out)
Tutorial		1.00 12 weeks 12
Specified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Readings		5.00 12 weeks 60
Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out)
Independent Learning		4.50 12 weeks 54
TOTAL150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Essay 1Individual 40% 1,2,3,4 
Essay 2Individual 60% 1,2,3,4 

Content

  • The environmental crisis as a global phenomenon, and the implications of the crisis for Australia and Australians
  • Ethics, cultural analysis, political philosophy and policy formation and their relationship
  • The assumptions of prevailing economic theory and alternative ways of conceiving our relations to each other and to nature.
  • A framework of ideas as the basis for formulating environmentally sound political and economic policies to replace those at present dominating Australian society

 

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.