Catherine Larrere

M2, option "Philosophy and society"

Applied ethics seminar (Semesters 1 and 2)

Theme: "Environmental ethics: local and global"

"Think globally, act locally" is one of the best known, if not the most hackneyed, expressions
of greenism. It is, however, relatively recent. Environmental concerns, when they emerge at
the end of the 19th century, are eminently local, and the first explicit formulation of an
environmental ethic - the Land Ethic, by Aldo Leopold - asks us to "think like a mountain",
not like Gaia. It was not until the second half of the twentieth century, with the entry of
scientists onto the public scene in the defense of nature, and the establishment, at the
international (UN) level, of an environment program, to that the environmental question be
perceived as a global question, of which the first Earth Summit, in Rio, in 1992, marks the
official recognition.

Do we then achieve a real articulation of the local and the global, or do the two poles come
into tension? We will try to analyze the possible meanings of the formula (the inversion of
which has sometimes been proposed) by studying three forms of globalization: 1) the ecology
of the biosphere and the Gaia hypothesis, 2) the question of catastrophism 3) ethics of climate
change.

Bibliographical indications (a more detailed bibliography will be given at the start of the
semester):
Robin Attfield, The Ethics of Environmental Concern, The University of Georgia Press, 1983.
René Dubos, The Gods of Ecology, trad. from English by Armand Petitjean (A God Within,
1972), Paris, Fayard, 1973.
Jean-Pierre Dupuy, For an enlightened catastrophism, Paris, Seuil, 2002.
Stephen M. Gardiner, Simon Caney, Dale Jamieson, Henry Shue, Climate Ethics, Essential
Readings, OUP USA, 2010.
Garvey, James, The Ethics of Climate Change, right and wrong in a warming world, London
and New York, Continuum, 2008.
James Lovelock, The Earth is a Living Being. The Gaia Hypothesis, Paris, Flammarion,
"Champs", 1993.
Lynn Margulis, The Symbiotic Planet, A New Look at Evolution, New York, Basic books,
1998.
Mary Midgley, Gaïa, The Next Big Idea, London, Demos, 2001.
Isabelle Stengers, In the time of catastrophes. Resisting the coming barbarism, Paris, Les
Empêcheurs de Penser en Rond-La Découverte, 2009.