Read Leopold "The Land Ethic" in Sand County Almanac. You will notice that is organized in sections with sub-titles. Read the essay one section at a time. As you conclude each section, answer the questions in the worksheet below. Take special note of the important concepts and definitions. This is a concept driven argument. Underline important quotes or sentences that you like so you can find them again. Think about how this essay, written a long time ago, long before the reality of climate change was understood, is relevant to current problems and examples.
Remember, ethics provide context for our individual actions relative to larger social values. Leopold understood that ultimately the health of land, and in turn human health, would be determined by people’s values. A Sand County Almanac ends with Leopold’s challenge to individuals and communities to join in the “intellectual and emotional” evolution of a land ethic.
- Explain the extended analogy to slavery:
- What is the deeper significance or importance of these key concepts: Property and Expediency?
- Paraphrase the suggestive claim: “During the last three thousand years which have since elapsed, ethical criteria have been extended to many fields of conduct, with corresponding shrinkages in those judged by expediency only” (202). Is there an implied thesis here?
The Ethical Sequence
- In what sense are ethics “a process in ecological evolution”?
- How are ecological and philosophical ethics analogous? What is the common “tendency”?
- Elaborate on the idea of the key concept: “co-operation.” Why is cooperation important to Leopold?