WESTERN CIVILIZATION
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
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Limbourg Bros. The Month of October.
Illumination from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
FOR 203 is a general overview of the defining moments of Western civilization from the earliest human societies to the settlement of the New World and the Enlightenment. Understanding how and why Western civilization developed and evolved and its relevance to the environment is important to understanding our current civilization; it is a foundation which underlies many other topics that you will encounter in your academic studies and in your personal self-discovery.

This course is taught from a broad perspective. We will explore the human perception of and influence on the environment as important historical themes within the Western tradition across many disciplines: history, philosophy, religion, sociology, anthropology, ecology and political economy. We will also consider the impact of these historical themes both on contemporary civilization and on the environment in historical and contemporary contexts.

The large scope of this course encourages more inference, integration and synthesis of ideas and less in-depth analyses of particular topics. You will learn to consider the whole of history and its impact on the present by studying various crucial moments throughout several millennia. Consideration of this broader picture is an important skill because natural resource and environmental professionals and scientists will consider a larger spatial and temporal context in the future as they address issues such as globalization and sustainability.

The historian Jacob Burckhardt best summarizes the importance of a broad understanding of history:

In learning . . . one can attain mastery only of a limited field, namely as a specialist, and this mastery one should attain. But if one does not wish to forfeit the ability to form a general overview— indeed to have respect for such an overview— he should be a dilettante in as many fields as possible— at any rate, privately— in order to enhance one’s own knowledge and enrichment of diverse historical viewpoints. Otherwise one remains an ignoramus in all that lies beyond one’s specialty, and, under the circumstances, on the whole, a barbarous fellow.

Learning about history is not just memorizing a sequence of events, or a bunch of facts and dates. Of course, you will have to learn some names and dates, but you will also learn about history by critically examining continuity and change over time. We will introduce and revisit important ideas across history throughout the course, rather than follow a strict chronology.