M.A. Environmental Philosophy Emphasis
Students in the philosophy program at the University of Montana can earn an M.A. with a special emphasis in Environmental Philosophy. This emphasis can serve as preparation for doctoral work in philosophy or for work in related fields such as environmental law, policy, natural resource administration, or community activism. The program is designed for students with an undergraduate degree in philosophy, but strong candidates with degrees in other fields should also apply. A student with the appropriate professional background wishing to take this degree while remaining in his or her career may be able to waive up to six of the 36 required credits. Three of these will be the internship and the other three will depend upon the student’s background. In order to be eligible for this waiver, such a student must satisfy the entire admissions committee that he or she has adequate preparation in philosophy before being admitted to the program.
The University of Montana is an exceptional institution for the study of environmental issues. In addition to a world class School of Forestry, the University has many highly regarded departments including those in Biological Sciences, Environmental Studies, Native American Studies, and English. We also have a strong tradition in environmental writing and an active, interdisciplinary Center for Ethics. There is a continual stream of readings, lectures, conferences, and events on campus related to natural resources and environmental issues. Students in the environmental philosophy emphasis have the opportunity to complete an internship with one of the large number of local and national environmental organizations located in Missoula.
The culturally vibrant City of Missoula is located at the intersection of five beautiful valleys, offering unparalleled access to Montana's wildlife, its national forest and wilderness areas, and a number of its legendary rivers.
Requirements for the Master of Arts degree, Environmental Philosophy Emphasis
1. 36 graduate semester credits
2. 27 credits must be in philosophy
3. 9 of the 27 philosophy credits must be in (a) Philosophy of Technology
[PHIL 501, 3 credits] and (b) Philosophy of Ecology [PHIL 504, 6 credits]
4. 6 of the 27 philosophy credits must be in (a) Topics in Value Theory
[PHIL 502, 3 credits] and (b) Philosophy of Science or Philosophy of Biology
[PHIL 501, 3 credits]
5. 3 of the 27 philosophy credits are earned in a supervised internship
with an environmental organization or government agency [PHIL 590, 3 credits]
6. 2 of the 27 philosophy credits must be in the Philosophy Forum [PHIL
510, 2 credits]
7. 3 of the 27 philosophy credits must be in Environmental Ethics [PHIL
427E, 3 credits]
8. 4 of the 27 philosophy credits must be thesis credits [PHIL 599, 4
credits]
9. The remaining 9 credits must be in (a) nonwestern tradition, preferably
in Native American Studies [NAS 303E, Honors, 3 credits], (b) Applied
Ecology [EVST 360, 3 credits], and (c) 3 credits which may be taken inside
or outside of the philosophy department with advisor’s approval.
10. The successful completion and defense of a 30-40 page thesis on a
topic in environmental philosophy.
Faculty
Albert Borgmann is Regents Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montana, Missoula where he has taught since 1970. His special area is the philosophy of society and culture. Among his publications are Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (University of Chicago Press, 1984), Crossing the Postmodern Divide (University of Chicago Press, 1992), Holding On to Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium (University of Chicago Press, 1999), Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology (Brazos Press, 2003), and Real American Ethics (University of Chicago Press, 2006).
Deborah Slicer has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and a Masters of Fine Arts in creative writing, both from the University of Virginia. Her interests in the environment and the arts converge in her seminars on Thoreau, environmental narrative, and environmental aesthetics. She is the recipient of the 2003 Autumn House Prize for Poetry for The White Calf Kicks. She also guest edited a special issue on environmental narrative for Ethics and the Environment, and her articles have appeared in such journals as Environmental Ethics, Ethics and Agriculture, Religion and Literature, and in several anthologies including Reading the Earth, Ecofeminist Literary Criticism, and Animals and Society: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences.
Christopher J. Preston is the author of Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston, III (forthcoming, Trinity University Press, 2009). Grounding Knowledge: Environmental Philosophy, Epistemology, and Place (University of Georgia Press, 2003) and co-editor of a collection of essays on Holmes Rolston, III titled Nature, Value, and Duty: Life on Earth with Holmes Rolston, III (Springer, 2006). He has published more than a dozen articles in environmental philosophy and related areas. His philosophical interests include value theory, ecofeminism, the science/ethics interface, and environmental epistemology. He has a Masters degree in applied ethics from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. He is a research fellow at the university’s Center for Ethics, works as a tool librarian at a local non-profit, and has commercial fished a number of summers in Alaska. Christopher was born and raised in England.
Armond Duwell In the fall of 2006, Prof. Duwell joined the Department of Philosophy at The University of Montana as an Assistant Professor. He specializes in philosophy of science. Professor Duwell teaches alternating classes in the philosophy of science and philosophy of biology that support the emphasis. Prof. Duwell has taken particular interest in the budding field of philosophy of the science of ecology. Philosophy of the science of ecology is one of the few relatively untouched areas of philosophy of science. It presents a great challenge to philosophers of science as traditional understanding of topics such as scientific explanation, laws of nature, and scientific theories, which have been developed by reflecting primarily on physics, simply don't do justice to the science of ecology.
Dan Spencer is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and has taught at The University of Montana since 2002. Some of his areas of teaching and research interest include ecological ethics, ethical issues in ecological restoration, the relationship between religion, spirituality, and the environment, and globalization, justice, and environmental issues in Latin America. He was born and raised in California and Colorado, and received his B.A. in Geology from Carleton College, Minnesota in 1979, and his Master's (1983) and Ph.D. (1994) in Environmental Ethics from Union Theological Seminary, New York. He is the author of Gay and Gaia: Ethics, Ecology and the Erotic, published by The Pilgrim Press (1996).
Vicki Watson was born on a small family farm on the Texas prairie. She grew up watching her parents care for their land and struggle to protect the small creek on their land from the wastewater of a growing town upstream. Since then she completed degrees (and worked to protect lakes and streams) on the Texas coastal plain and the Wisconsin deciduous forest. At UM since 1983, her research, teaching and service focus on the conservation, preservation and restoration of watersheds. In this effort, she has worked with federal, state, and local governments and with citizen groups and individuals. With her students she provides technical assistance to watershed groups through the UM Watershed Health Clinic (www.umt.edu/watershedclinic), working for sustainability, social justice, and peace.
Collaboration with the University of Idaho
Students in the program have the opportunity to benefit from the proximity of the masters emphasis in environmental philosophy at the University of Idaho in Moscow. Up to 9 credits from the University of Idaho are transferable into our Masters emphasis (approval required by graduate advisor). An annual graduate student mini-conference (alternating between the two institutions) enables students to present their work in environmental philosophy before their peers. For more details of the Idaho Program see, http://www.uidaho.edu/philosophy.
Students and faculty at the first Montana-Idaho graduate
student
colloquium held in Moscow, ID, in April, 2008.
The Summer Environmental Ethics Institute
The Center for Ethics at The University of Montana holds an annual summer institute focusing on environmental issues. The summer classes, typically lasting from 2-6 days and requiring 2-3 weeks of online preparation, brings nationally recognized speakers from around the country to Missoula for intensive discussion involving students and professionals from a mixture of backgrounds. Previous workshop leaders include Yuriko Saito (Rhode Island Instituted of Design), Andrew Light (University of Washington), and Karen Warren (Macalaster University).
Bugbee and Guth Lectures
The department also sponsors two major lectures each year, often in conjunction with the Presidential Lecture series. The Henry Bugbee Lecture commemorates the work of a former Professor and Chair of the philosophy department at the University of Montana. In addition to being a notable and influential thinker and an esteemed colleague and teacher, Henry Bugbee was known for his eloquence in writing and storytelling, and for his love of flyfishing and the Montana landscape. He died in December 1999 in Missoula, Montana. The Brennan Guth lecture series is offered in memory of a former philosophy major, environmentalist, and world-class kayaker who died tragically in an accident on a river in Chile in 2001. Brennan´s love of philosophy and of environmental issues inspired many in Missoula to continue his legacy in numerous ways. In addition to the annual Brennan Guth lecture, a broad citizen effort in Brennan´s memory led to the construction of Brennan´s Wave on the Clark Fork River. An old irrigation diversion was converted into a standing wave for recreational kayaking where the river flows through downtown Missoula.
Both lecture series bring nationally and internationally known figures to campus to talk about important contemporary issues that often bear on environmental science, literature, and politics.
Recent Guth lecturers include Terry Tempest Williams (2008), James Hansen (2007), Robert Bullard (2006), Larry Rasmussen (2005), and Wendell Berry (2004). Recent Bugbee lecturers include Jonathan Lear (2008), Michael Ruse (2007), Robert Bellah (2006), Elliot Sober (2005), Susan Haack (2004), and David Chalmers (2003).
Environmental Philosophy Links within The University of Montana
Center for Ethics - www.umt.edu/ethics
Environmental Studies - www.cas.umt.edu/evst/
Environmental Writing Institute - http://www.umt.edu/ewi/
Wilderness Institute - http://www.cfc.umt.edu/research/MFCES/programs/wi/wildciv.htm
Wilderness Information Network - http://www.wilderness.net/
Native American Studies - www.umt.edu/nas/
Division of Biological Sciences - http://www.dbs.umt.edu/
Department of English - www.umt.edu/english
College of Forestry and Conservation - http://www.forestry.umt.edu/
Environmental Philosophy Links outside The University of Montana
Center for Environmental Philosophy - www.cep.unt.edu
International Society for Environmental Ethics - http://www.cep.unt.edu/ISEE.html
International Association for Environmental Philosophy - http://www.environmentalphilosophy.org/
Bibliography of Environmental Ethics - http://www.cep.unt.edu/bib/index.htm
University of Idaho Philosophy Department - http://www.uidaho.edu/philosophy