Journal für Philosophie / Nachhaltigkeit

The buzzword "sustainability" has gone from being a niche topic of sandal-wearing eco-romantics in nature conservation groups for decades to the centre of current social discourse. Not least the voices of the young people organised in Fridays for Future, who fear for their future, make it impossible for politicians to play the well-practised game of appeasement and calming down, followed by an unrestrained "business as usual". But what exactly is meant by sustainability? Are the abandonment of further technologies and a lowering of the Western standard of living inevitable or is the key to sustainability to be found precisely where the cause of unusual weather phenomena lies: in even more technology? Are man's passions necessary to nature or rather deficits that must be put in check by legal prohibitions? Do we need a new generational ethic?