Course Content and Outcomes Guides (CCOG)

CCOG for PHL 206 Winter 2025


Course Number:
PHL 206
Course Title:
Introduction to Environmental Ethics
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Investigates the ethical questions that pertain to human choices regarding the environment. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  • Articulate key philosophical arguments in the field of environmental philosophy.
  • Identify the influence of culturally based perspectives, values and beliefs to examine how diverse philosophical perspectives affect human experience.
  • Construct arguments on issues dealing with environmental philosophy using critical reasoning to identify and investigate philosophical theses and evaluate information and its sources.
  • Respond to arguments on issues dealing with environmental philosophy using critical reasoning to identify and investigate philosophical theses and evaluate information and its sources.

Integrative Learning

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to reflect on one’s work or competencies to make connections between course content and lived experience.

General education philosophy statement

Philosophy courses ask students to use critical thinking and reasoning skills in multiple ways: to identify the content, structure, and influence of beliefs, to examine how diverse philosophical perspectives affect human experience, and to construct and respond to arguments on a variety of philosophical issues. They encourage students to both create and understand their and others’ frameworks of meaning, and to use this new understanding in their own lived experience.

Course Activities and Design

The course will be conducted in both the standard classroom and distance learning settings.  It will involve lectures, discussions, and other assignments such as exams and papers.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

Assessment strategies will include some of the following:

  • Essays in the form of in-class exams, short papers, and term papers
  • Short-answer exams
  • Student presentations
  • Class and small group discussions
  • Participation

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

The course content will include some of the following themes:

  • Animal Rights
  • Environmental Holism
  • Deep Ecology
  • Ecofeminism    
  • Social Ecology
  • Direct Environmental Action 
  • Environmental Sustainability