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The Sustainability Ethic: Political, Not Just Moral
Author(s) -
Goodwin Robert E.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of applied philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.339
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1468-5930
pISSN - 0264-3758
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5930.00127
Subject(s) - sustainability , environmental ethics , politics , position (finance) , economic justice , sociology , intergenerational equity , law and economics , political science , law , business , philosophy , ecology , finance , biology
Sustainable practices are commended to us both out of prudential regard for our own future and out of principled concern for the ‘right to life’ of endangered species, ecosystems and ways of life and for intergenerational justice among our own kind. The larger point of the ‘sustainability ethic’ might be more political, however. Insisting that any practice we adopt now must be sustainable into the indefinite future constitutes an institutional check preventing us from taking unfair advantage of our privileged temporal position vis‐a‐vis our successors.