Thesis Construction

Please read these assignment instructions before writing your paper, and re-read them often during and after the writing process to make sure that you are fulfilling all of the instructions.

Overview
The following assignment is an exercise designed to help you write your Final Paper. In this exercise, you will do the following:

Identify a topic of interest from the list, and narrow it down to a particular, concrete ethical problem or question.

My topic of interest is below, Note:
To the right of the topics, you will find the weeks in which these topics are directly addressed. Please go to those weeks and begin using the required and recommended resources in those weeks to gather information for your
papers. However, bear in mind that many of these topics will also overlap with material from other weeks, so you will want to be thinking about how that other material might bear on your chosen topic.
TOPIC:Responsibility to the Environment (Week 4)
•What does it mean to respect the environment in the way we as individuals live our lives.
•What kinds of behaviors would that involve?
•What kinds of behaviors would that exclude?
•Do we as individuals have moral obligations toward the environment when our own behavior
has very little direct effect on the overall state of things? (Consider the products we buy and use, the cars we drive, the energy we consume, etc.)
•How should we weigh human needs and/or desires against environmental impact?
•Does a government have an obligation to care for its natural resources as well as its human
citizens?
•How should the answer to this question affect political policy?

REQUIRED RESOURCES:Required Text
Understanding Philosophy
Chapter 6: Traditional Theories of Ethics
Read the following sections:
The Environment
Ethics of Extinction
Articles
Hill, T. (1983). Ideals of human excellence and preserving natural environments. Journal of Environmental Ethics, 5(3), 211-24. Retrieved from https://www.shodor.org/ncssm/elc/content/attachments/EnvironmentalEthics-Hill.pdf
This article discusses the problem of environmental preservation by considering the various kinds of virtues and vices exhibited in different sorts of attitudes and behaviors toward the environment. He argues that this presents a more satisfying approach than thinking in terms of either utilitarian or deontological principles.

Recommended Resources on Environmental Ethics:
Articles

Hursthouse, R. (2007). Environmental virtue ethics. In R. L. Walker & P. J. Ivanhoe (Eds.), Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems Working Virtue: Virtue Ethics and Contemporary Moral Problems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from the ebrary database.
An explanation and defense of a virtue ethics approach to environmental concerns, including a critique of Thomas Hill’s alternative approach
Leopold, A. (1948). The land ethic. In A Sand County Almanac. Retrieved from http://home.btconnect.com/tipiglen/landethic.html
A classic of modern environmentalism, Leopold proposes that just as human societies have expanded the notion of the “moral community” over time to include other races and cultures, women and children, etc., we are at a point where we must recognize the land and environment as more than just raw material for our own use

Multimedia
Mercola. (2012, August 1). Dr. Mercola and Joel Alatin discuss water and manure at polyface farm [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gBwCQspdwo
In this video, Joel Salatin and Dr. Joseph Mercola examine the relationship between irrigation and fertilization on a farm and the virtues of the farmer as he or she tries to create a healthy farm. Transcript
Mercola. (2012, August 1). Dr. Mercola discusses pigs with Joel Salatin at polyface farm [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjBtZxlkEDw
Joel Salatin discusses ethical treatment of pigs and the relationship that exists between pigs, land, soil, and biodiversity in an ecosystem. He also examines the responsibility of the virtuous farmer in relation to allowing these relationships to exist in harmony with one another. Transcript
Moyer, B. (Interviewer), & Berry, W. (Interviewee). (2013). Wendell Berry on his hopes for humanity [Video file]. Retrieved from http://billmoyers.com/segment/wendell-berry-on-his-hopes-for-humanity/
In this interview, Bill Moyer interviews the great agrarian writer and poet Wendell Berry. Berry’s expresses ideas that relate to the virtues of a life lived well, one in which the human regains its place in nature and finds peace and hope.
USDA NRCS ENT SC. (2012, September 20). Under cover farmers – feature length [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWXCLVCJWTU
This short film follows farmers as they begin using cover crops in their planting. Cover crops are offseason crops that farmers plant that they then later plant through when they plant their cash crops. This video demonstrates new methods of farming that enhance production through diversification and conservation of the soil. As it relates to virtue, farmers appear to be learning how to work their lands to enhance the health of the soil and this in turn leads to higher levels of flourishing in relation to production as well as overall farm health.

Websites
Center for Environmental Philosophy (http://www.cep.unt.edu/)
Erratic Impact. (2000). Ecofeminism. Retrieved from http://www.erraticimpact.com/~ecofeminism/
International Association for Environmental Philosophy (http://environmentalphilosophy.org/)
The University of North Texas. (2014). The philosophy of food project. Retrieved from http://www.food.unt.edu/

Additional Instructions:
Provide an introduction in which you briefly explain the topic and the particular question on which you will focus your paper.
Explain three ethically significant issues pertaining to this question that would need to be considered when addressing it.
Use the Thesis Generator in the Ashford Writing Center to construct a thesis statement that articulates your position on the topic as you have defined it. (https://awc.ashford.edu/writing-tools-thesis-generator.html)

Instructions
The exercise must be at least 400 words in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Be sure to including a title page and reference page as necessary. Your exercise must be organized to address each of the five parts below. Number each part accordingly.

Part One: Thesis Statement
Use the Thesis Generator in the Ashford Writing Center to construct a thesis statement that articulates your position on the question as you have defined it. This will likely be the last thing you do in this exercise, but your thesis should be placed at the top of the first page after the title page.

Your thesis should clearly state your position and provide a concise statement of the primary reason(s) drawn from the three issues you raise in Part Two. For example, having identified three important issues that need to be considered, you may find that two of them support your view, and while one may present a challenge to it, that challenge can be overcome.

Part Two: Provide a Brief Introduction to the Topic
Your introduction must make clear to the reader exactly what ethical problem or question you are addressing within this topic, and what you consider to be the boundaries of the question.

For example, a paper on criminal punishment might consider whether capital punishment should be used as punishment for certain types of crime, or it might consider the broader question of whether the criminal justice system should favor retribution over rehabilitation. If you were writing on this topic, you would need to specify which of these (or some other) specific question you intend to discuss. (Note: You may not write on criminal punishment, this is just an example. More examples are given in the “Notes and Advice” section.) You should aim to focus your question as narrowly as possible.

The final sentence of this paragraph should provide a brief summary of the three ethically significant issues pertaining to this question that you intend to address.

Parts Three, Four, and Five: Explain Three Ethically Significant Issues Pertaining to This Question
An “ethically significant issue” is a feature of the topic and circumstances that must be taken into account when reasoning about the question. For example, if you were writing on criminal punishment and focusing on the question of whether drug users should be imprisoned, ethically significant issues might include the monetary costs, the social costs, the impact on the person, the effect on the drug trade, and so on. And each of these, in turn, would have sub-issues, negative and positive sides, etc. Your task is to be as specific as you can in explaining the ethically significant issue. See the Instructor Guidance for further information.

The first sentence of each paragraph must be a topic sentence that clearly states what issue you will be considering. The remainder of the paragraph should address the relevance and import of the ethically significant feature of the situation. Each paragraph should be focused on a distinct issue.

 
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