Module

Voraussetzungen

Inhalte

Part "Epistemological Problems of Ecology" • Limits and subdivision of ecology, nature conservation and environmental sciences • Historical account of the development of paradigms and research programmes in ecology • Fundamentals of normative epistemology: knowledge and ignorance, theories and hypotheses, concepts and classification, explanation and prediction in ecology, causality, chance and necessity, teleology and purposiveness • Fundamentals of systems theory: evolution and ecology, evolutionary epistemology, hierarchical systems theory, complexity, emergent properties and theory reduction in ecologyPart "Biodiversity Ethics" • What is ethics? A classification of ethical approaches, the grand ethical systems: Deontology, Utilitarianism, Social Contract Theory • Logical reasoning, factual and normative statements, values, preferences and ideologies • The Tragedy of the Commons, the individual and the social good • Animal welfare or animal rights, moderate anthropocentrism vs. bio- and ecocentrism • Restoration ecology; the ethics of environmentalism vs. ethics of nature conservation • Case studies in wildlife management, in-situ and ex-situ conservation of biodiversity and related topics

Lernziele

Rationale Orientation in a postmodern world requires a comprehensive overview of the philosophical background and the ethical relevance of ecological concepts and their applications. In contrast to standard philosophical approaches, emphasis is laid on the analysis of examples and cases studies taken from the field of biological sciences, in particular ecology and biodiversity. Part "Epistemological Problems of Ecology" The objective is to enable students to overview the basic concepts of and approaches to normative philosophy of science. Additionally, systems theories relevant in the ecological context are analysed. Students will be able to • tell the difference between basic and applied ecology and name the interfaces between theoretical ecology and philosophy of science, • analyse the influence of the social and political background on the development of ecological concepts, • discuss verification, falsification, deduction, induction, and the hypothetical-deductive approach in ecological research, • give judgments about the validity of ecological facts and theories, and about description, explanation, prediction, and understanding in ecology, • distinguish between different types of biological concepts and classification approaches, and to consider the role of language in biological concept formation, • consider concepts like causality, teleology, purpose, goal directedness, function, stochasticity, chance, necessity, ad truth with respect to their influence on world views relevant for nature conservation, • consider the dynamic nature of ecological systems in the context of management and control approaches to ecosystems.Part "Biodiversity Ethics" Objectives are to give an overview of general ethical approaches, to apply ethical theories to relevant fields of environmental ethics, and to analyze topical case studies of biodiversity ethics in detail. Students will be able to • advance relevant arguments consisting of general premises, specific premises and conclusions (practical syllogism), and recognize validity and soundness of statements, • distinguish between factual and normative statements, and avoid the is-ought fallacy in environmental reasoning, • apply the three grand ethical theories to selected case studies referring to topical biodiversity examples, • analyze benchmark papers in nature ethics from the viewpoint of modern bioethics.

Prüfungsleistung

Part "Epistemological Problems of Ecology" • 4 class minutes (8 points - 2 points each) • Oral presentation, 10 min presentation + 5 min discussion + 2 pages abstract or handout (22 points)Part "Biodiversity Ethics" • 10 assignments (10 points - 1 point each) • Case study in form of a short essay (20 points) The module is passed with 30 points.