3. The Inherent Ethical Dimension of Sustainability – Toward a Relational Ethical Perspective

In this chapter, I identify the ethical dimension of sustainability as grounded within the meaning of the term itself. I argue that the normative meaning of sustainability is not based on the continuance-aspect, but on the relational meaning of the term. Continuance is not a value or norm in itself. In regard to sustainability we need to know what systems, processes, or entities we should continue, and for what reasons. I argue that a criterion for decision cannot be found within the continuance aspect itself, but through the relational meaning of sustainability. The sustainability relations are the only fruitful and appropriate basis for construing the inherent origin and determination of the ethical dimension of the modern sustainability concept. It is only in regard to its relevance for the sustainability relations that the continuance of certain systems, processes, or entities can become a meaningful and justifiable imperative. In regard to the relational meaning of sustainability, I define the basic ethical question in regard to sustainability as follows: How ought one to live in regard to one’s embedment in the threefold relationship with contemporaries, future generations, and nature? An encompassing sustainability ethics must be a relational ethics, which is able to simultaneously address all three relations in an integrated way.