New Fall Course: EVST 219 Philosophical Environmental Ethics

August 23, 2021

Professor Stephen Latham, Director of Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, will teach a new course in Environmental Ethics this fall. Philosophical Environmental Ethics, EVST 219, PHIL 290, ENV 619, introduces students to the basic contours of the field and to special philosophical environmental problems. No philosophical background is required or expected. Students will explore topics including classical ethical theory, animal rights, wilderness preservation, the impact of climate change on environmental ethics, and environmental justice in the 21st Century.

Professor Latham has published widely in health law and bioethics, with particular emphasis on the legal regulation of novel medical technologies and of human and animal research. He also has a strong interest in philosophical argumentation in bioethics. He is a former board member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, which gave him its distinguished service award; and a contributing editor of the Hastings Center Report.

The Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics focuses its attention on bios or life, and the ways we have helped, broken and abused it. Their teaching and research program includes biomedical ethics, environmental ethics, animal ethics, the ethics of scientific research, business and professional ethics, and