The Idea of Sustainability Between Science and Philosophy

Lucia Ovidia Vreja () and Sergiu Balan ()
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Lucia Ovidia Vreja: The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Sergiu Balan: The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania

International Conference on Competitiveness of Agro-food and Environmental Economy Proceedings, 2017, vol. 6, 95-101

Abstract: The concepts of sustainability or sustainable development have various meanings and definitions, depending both on the author’s vision and on the different set of values or criteria used to define them. Regardless of its specific meaning or definition, the concept of sustainability implies the idea of preservation or conservation, yet when talking about what is to be sustained, why should it be sustained or how should it be sustained the things become extremely unclear. Reviewing the relevant literature regarding the scientific definitions and meaning of sustainability, the current paper argues that ultimately the definition of sustainability and its concrete dimensions are a matter of philosophy and not of science. Defining sustainability entails the idea of values and social justice, yet these are pertaining to philosophy and not to science, which is only able to describe facts or the world as it is and not the world as it should be.

Keywords: sustainability; ecocentric perspective of sustainability; anthropocentric perspective of sustainability; values; justice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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