Ethics of Rationality & Sustainability An Economic and Environmental Approach

Abstract

In the current age of widespread, rapid and dynamic technological growth, loss of environmental sustainability is primarily due to mass depletion of resources and increasing rates of pollution which has weakened the ecological balance of the planet and poses a significant risk and threat on the survival of the future generations. Sustainability is defined as ?the maintenance of a state in its present or perhaps improved form?. It is characterized by the notion of dynamicity in the sense that the particular state needs to be maintained in its present or improved form in the future for the fulfillment of its objectives. The most important questions which may arise while discussing the issue of sustainability could be the following: Why is sustainability important? Why is it worth sustaining? What ethical principles should guide the notion of sustainability? An attempt has been made in this paper to analyze the rationale of sustainability from an economic and more importantly, an ethical perspective. Addressing the important inter-relationships between the concepts of identity, rationality and sustainability and applying the most important ethical theories to validate the necessity of sustainability has been the main focus of this paper.