Sustainability Ethics

Abstract

The paper examines the ethical dimension of sustainability. I start with an analysis of the mod‐ ern concept of sustainability and demonstrate its inherent ethical meaning. This ethical mean‐ ing is connected to the specific relational meaning of the concept, which refers to fundamental relationships of the human being: its relation to other contemporaries, future generations, and nature. I argue that the resulting ethical challenges of sustainability are rather complex and new ones, and that we need a specific approach of sustainability ethics in order to analyze these challenges adequately. I develop such an approach of sustainability ethics, which is inspired by virtue ethics, ethics of care, and critical theory, and refers to both the specific indi‐ vidual and systemic ethical challenges of sustainability. I discuss ethical implications for individ‐ ual morality as well as for the development of global systems such as science, technology, and the economy. I finally reconsider the potential of academics to properly address the issue of sustainability, and suggest a new type of sustainability research which integrates ethical analy‐ sis and philosophical reflection