Topics for Final Project

Dear Philosophers,

Here are prompts for your final project. Projects must be 7 pages (minimum length) and can take any format. Projects are due Saturday December 14th by midnight via email to justin@oursanctuary.org. Enjoy! )

Topics

1. How could a currency backed by the Commons help to retrieve the steady-state democratic economics of hunter-gatherer societies?

2. What is the argument for providing every citizen with a social dividend payment, and is it sound?

3. What are the Commons, how were the Commons privatized, and how might they be returned back to public stewardship?

4. How does the phenomenon of debt created by privately-issued money relate to climate change and other crises generated by economies structured by a growth imperative, and how might this system be fixed? 

5. Climate Change poses a looming existential threat to human beings. Explore the ramifications of this event, either personally or socially. 

6. Is the domination of nature by humans isomorphic with the legacy of patriarchal domination of women by men? What light does this relationship shed on the social conditions for ecological restoration? 

7. Are there significant philosophical differences in how Indigenous philosophers such as Winona Laduke or Sequoyah Trueblood view our environmental crisis with more mainstream environmental thought?

8. Many of the cultural changes required for environmental restoration seem to require a new relationship to Nature and a new concept of human self: from the disconnected, ego-defined Self (“More for me is less for You”) pursuing ever greater detachment and autonomy and Mastery over Nature and Other (Cartesian-Newtonian), to the Interconnected, Networked, Inter-existing Self (“More for You is More for Me”) in Cocreative Partnership with Lover Earth (No longer Mother Earth). Explore this transformation of self as we have discussed in class and evaluate the claim this this process is already underway.

9. Personal Metaphysical Report: Write about your own personal philosophical journey this semester as you’ve grappled with key questions in the philosophy of the Environment. This could take many forms, including: how your views have changed, key insights, what questions have come to light as closest to your philosophical curiosity, biggest surprises, cave-related fears, shifts in self-perception, connections between philosophical questions and personal issues you were facing this fall, attitudes towards judgment, mindfulness, etc.

10. Make up your own topic, but check it over with me first.