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2012 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

2. The Meaning of Sustainability

verfasst von : Christian U. Becker

Erschienen in: Sustainability Ethics and Sustainability Research

Verlag: Springer Netherlands

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Abstract

In this chapter, I discuss the meaning of the modern concept of sustainability. I argue that sustainability means more than just the ability to maintain or continue something. Rather, the core meaning of the modern concept of sustainability encompasses three aspects: continuance, orientation, and relationships. First, sustainability literally is about the continuance of something. Secondly, sustainability is an orientational concept, i.e. it has a normative and evaluative meaning: Sustainability usually is considered to be something positive, something we should strive for. Third, sustainability is a relational concept as it essentially addresses fundamental relations of the human being: the relation with other contemporaries, future generations, and nature. In other words, sustainability addresses our ability to recognize and realize ourselves as fundamentally relational beings, as beings embedded in the threefold relationship with others, future generations, and nature. It addresses the human being as a timely, socially, and naturally contingent being and the implications of this threefold contingence for human self-identity, life, and actions.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Introduction

Nächstes Kapitel The Inherent Ethical Dimension of Sustainability – Toward a Relational Ethical Perspective

See, e.g., The Oxford English Dictionary (Simpson and Weiner 1989).

Some definitions of sustainability are based on the aspect of continuance, e.g., the definition given in the Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Holland 2005).

See, for instance, Berg and Hofkes (1999) or Quaas et al. (2007) for possible ways to analyze the continuance of social-ecological systems.

That sustainability has a normative dimension has already been recognized, e.g., by Becker (1997), Newton (2003), Ott and Thapa (2003), Norton (2005), and Clark et al. (2004). However, this has not led to a separate field of sustainability ethics so far.

This has, for example, prominently been the case with Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), one of the most prominent precursors of environmentalism in the twentieth century. His arguments for a Land Ethic are based on insights of ecology in his times and result in this conclusion: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” (Leopold [1949/53]1966: 262).

The is–ought distinction has prominently been addressed by Hume ([1740]2000: 3.1.1.27) and, although it raises many philosophical problems, is still one of the fundamentals of modern scientific self-identity. This extends also to the social sciences (see prominently Weber [1918]1988).

Becker, B. (1997). Sustainability assessment. A review of values, concepts, and methodological approaches. Issues in agriculture 10. Washington: The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, World Bank.

Chapin, F. S., III, Torn, M. S., & Tateno, M. (1996). Principles of ecosystem sustainability. The American Naturalist, 148, 1016–1037.CrossRef

Clark, W. C. (2003). Sustainability science: Challenges for the new millennium. An address on 4 September at the official opening of the Zuckerman Institute for Connective Environmental Research and the Third Sustainability Days, 4–10 Sept 2003, University of East Anglia, Norwich. http://sustainabilityscience.org/ists/docs/clark_zicer_opening030904.pdf. Accessed April 15, 2011.

Clark, W. C., Crutzen, P. J., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2004). Science for global sustainability. Toward a new paradigm. In H. J. Schellnhuber, P. J. Crutzen, W. C. Clark, M. Claussen, & H. Held (Eds.), Earth system analysis for sustainability (pp. 1–28). Cambridge: MIT Press.

Holland, A. (2005). Sustainability. In E. Craig (Ed.), The shorter Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy (p. 1008). London/New York: Routledge.

Hume, D. [1740](2000). A treatise of human nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Leopold, A. [1949/53](1966). A sand county Almanac. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Newton, L. H. (2003). Ethics and sustainability. Sustainable development and the moral life. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.

Norton, B. G. (2005). Sustainability. A philosophy of adaptive ecosystem management. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.

Ott, K., & Thapa, P. (Eds.). (2003). Greifwald’s environmental ethics. Greifswald: Steinbecker verlag Rose.

Quaas, M., Baumgärtner, S., Becker, C., Frank, K., & Müller, B. (2007). Uncertainty and sustainability in the management of rangelands. Ecological Economics, 62, 251–266.CrossRef

Simpson, J., & Weiner, E. (Eds.). (1989). The Oxford english dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

United Nations (UN). (1992). Agenda 21. New York: United Nations.

United Nations (UN). (2000). United Nations millennium declaration, General Assembly resolution 55/2 of 8 September 2000. New York: United Nations.

United Nations (UN). (2002). Report of the world summit on sustainable development. New York: United Nations.

van den Berg, J. C. J. M., & Hofkes, M. W. (1999). Economic models of sustainable development. In J. C. J. M. van den Berg (Ed.), Handbook of environmental and resource economics (pp. 1108–1122). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1987). Our common future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Weber, M. [1918](1988). Der Sinn der “Wertfreiheit” der soziologischen und ökonomischen Wissenschaften. 1917. In J. Winckelmann (Ed.), Max Weber. Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Wissenschaftslehre (pp. 489–540). Tübingen: Mohr.

Titel: The Meaning of Sustainability
verfasst von: Christian U. Becker
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Buch: Sustainability Ethics and Sustainability Research
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-2284-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-94-007-2285-9

Copyright-Jahr: 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2285-9_2

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