PSCI 235
Environmental Political Theory Fall 2014
Division II
Cross-listed ENVI 235
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

What is the relationship between politics and nature? Today, this question has been given special urgency by the reality of environmental degradation and the efforts of social movements that seek a more sustainable future. But the nature-politics relationship is also a longstanding source of controversy and insight within the history of political thought. In this class, we will consider the efforts of both canonical and contemporary political theorists to fashion political principles suited to organizing the comportment of human communities towards non-human nature. The texts we read will prompt us to question common presuppositions about human nature and the material settings of political life. They will also challenge us to reconsider the actors, spaces, and knowledge that constitute politics. By putting contemporary scholarly and activist visions of environmental justice and sustainability into dialogue with works by Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, and others, we will become more familiar with the theoretical roots of contemporary debates about the environment and better equipped to notice elisions in both past and present conceptions of nature and politics. The course will primarily be driven by discussion, often introduced by 15-20 minute lectures.
The Class: Format: lecture/discussion
Limit: 25
Expected: 25
Class#: 1594
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: three papers of 5-7 pages each and class participation
Extra Info: please note that this is an introductory-level course with no prerequisites. First year students and those with no background in political theory are welcome, as are more experienced students
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: first year and sophomore students; then PSCI and ENVI majors/concentrators
Distributions: Division II
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
PSCI 235 Division II ENVI 235 Division II
Attributes: ENVI Humanities, Arts + Social Science Electives
ENVP PTL-A Group Electives
ENVP SC-B Group Electives
PSCI Political Theory Courses

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