A bit different from the semesters in the States, mine has just ended this past weekend (yes, weekend- there was an exam on Saturday). Also in comparison to the general semester in the States, regular class work and midterms/papers don't exist to keep you on your toes the whole semester...with the exception of a few presentations here and there, it's all very relaxed right until the end, where one exam determines the grade.
Now that I'm officially on break (until April!), I've had some time to reflect on my past semester and tie it together to my overall goals in Environmental Ethics. Having completely no background in philosophical teachings, this semester allowed me to find major themes and direction, along with developing my German (a major goal).
As with this major, this semester was a smattering of different subjects.. some were more focused on Philosophy and Ethics, whereas I used others to simply broaden my vocabulary and terminology (and to boost my confidence in German). For those curious, here's a list of the classes that I took this semester:
-The Normitivity of Nature and Nature of Normitivity
-Ethical Problem Areas at the End of Life
-Physical Geology
-Environmental Philosophy (In English!)
-Environmental Economy
-Discussions on Environmental Ethics
-Societal Structures and Frameworks
-Resource Strategy: Education for Sustainability
-The History of Stuff: Nitrogen
Admittedly, the first few months of the semester were rather difficult and hard to grasp and I had to reassess my learning style; German was still flowing back to me and concentrating on lectures took an extreme amount of effort. Towards the end, luckily, connections within all of my classes started appearing and a foundation started to form. I'm still shaky with identifying specific philosophers and their theories, but that's an undertaking I'm looking to involve myself with next semester. Until then, it's travel time in Turkey and Italy!
