The Way We Think Shapes Our Future: On the Importance of Fruitful Concepts, Well-Founded Attitudes, and Powerful Rhetoric

Abstract

”Business as usual” will not lead us into a sustainable future. Therefore, we need visions about alternative routes to follow. We have to think along new lines, both collectively and personally, in order to make other choices and to reconsider what is really important. Such alternative, sustainable thinking is already underway, and when we analyse it, we discover that a gradual creation of new concepts is important. New concepts open new perspectives and allow for fruitful discussions. However, new concepts have to be precise enough. Twenty-five years ago, the concept of “sustainable development” achieved global consensus [1], and initiated waves of new thinking. As we shall see, there was also a great need to discuss the concept itself, and to refine purpose and aims through a number of sub-concepts. This process is still going on. For instance, it is not yet clear what should be meant by “green economy”. In the following, we shall also illustrate how conceptual progress in certain academic disciplines has fuelled our thinking about environmental questions.