Human Meets Nature: Key Concepts in Environmental Philosophy
What you'll learn
- Understand key ideas in environmental philosophy
- Apply key ideas in environmental philosophy to contemporary environmental issues
- Use key ideas in environmental philosophy to better understand human / nature relations.
- Apply ideas about human / nature relationships to make informed lifestyle decisions
Requirements
- An interest in understanding the relationship between humans and nature, nothing else!
Description
These are hugely challenging times for the natural environment and as modern humans we’re struggling to understand how we relate to nature. If you're concerned about environmental issues and are interested in insightful ways to think about them, then this is the course for you.
Understand What Nature Means to You
* Learn key ideas about human / nature relationships
* Discover who developed these ideas and why
* Apply these concepts to contemporary environmental issues
* Develop your own personal philosophy of nature
* Make better informed lifestyle decisions
Explore What the Great Environmental Thinkers Have Said
Each topic in this course provides a unique way to understand our relationship with the natural environment. You'll learn about John Muir's Philosophy of Nature, Deep Ecology, Ecofeminism, Silent Spring, The Land Ethic, Environmental Aesthetics, and Ecophenomenology. Armed with key information about each of these you'll be equipped to better understand the threats to the natural environment that we see today.
Compare Ideas about Humans and Nature
A unique feature of this course is exploring all of these topics in one place. This allows you to easily compare ideas, decide what resonates with you most strongly and perhaps inspire a deeper interest in some of these subjects.
This course explores over one hundred years of key ideas in nature philosophy. This whistle-stop tour of environmental thought is presented over five and a half hours in 73 easily digestible classes. Classes are between three and ten minutes long and offered as presentation screencasts.
Extensive supplementary texts and links to further resources are provided so you can dive in as far as you wish. You'll also find quizzes and questions for further consideration at the end of each section to help reinforce learning and guide further thinking. The course has been designed to allow you to go as far into these topics as you wish.
Apply These Concepts to your Own Life
But this course is not just a history of grand environmental ideas. Rather it is intended to provide a framework with which you can consider the environmental issues that are impacting your life today. Global warming, species loss, changing weather patterns, soil infertility, shrinking habitat, biodiversity loss and ocean acidification are amongst the many challenges that we currently face. It can be difficult to know how to think about these huge issues, to put them into any kind of context. This course helps you better understand these important issues. Want to know what nature really means to you? Take this course and find out!
Who this course is for:
- This course is for anyone interested in environment concerns and who wishes to understand how ideas in environmental philosophy can be used to frame and understand them. The content of this course is of an academic nature but presented in a light and accessible manner. This course is not for those looking for an academic level course in these ideas, but is rather intended as an introduction to them. That said, resources are provided which will allow you to go as far into these topics as you wish. Ultimately this course is for those who want to explore and better understand their relationship with the natural world.
Instructor
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 148 Reviews
- 1,337 Students
- 3 Courses
Gary is a self-confessed lover of knowledge and through his teaching tries to inspire others to learn new tricks too!
Educated in the UK and the US he has a first class honours degree in Pure Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Environmental Philosophy.
Following a successful career in the energy industry Gary now splits his time between teaching Math in person and online and writing about human / nature relationships.
In Math, he is particularly interested in Number Theory & Fractals. In Environmental Philosophy he enjoys working with ecofeminism, ecophenomenology and environmental ethics.
When he’s not philosophizing or teaching you’re likely to catch him on a mountain, in a forest or on his yoga mat, or sometimes watching a movie!