Science and philosophy of sustainable development

Abstract

The article presents an attempt to search for answers to the following research questions: what should science be like, what should it be based on and what necessary connections must exist in science so that it could help to implement the idea of sustainable development? Hence, the main goal of the publication is also an attempt to find answers for the above posed research questions concerning the dependence between science and the concept of sustainable development. As far as the above-mentioned problems are concerned, the author has reviewed the subject literature concerning the essence of science and its constituent elements presenting at the same time a unique philosophical approach depending on depicting three philosophical fundamentals of science, namely: truth, good and wisdom. The publication also presents the development of scientific thinking concerning the way in which the concept of sustainable development is perceived in the domestic and foreign literature of the subject. Such an approach in turn has made it possible to depict the evolutionary aspect of the context of scientific reflection on this problem. This evolutionary approach seems to be composed of three stages: – Understanding the idea of sustainable development as referring to economic growth supported by the natural and social environment. – Acknowledging sustainable development as that which is accepted by the society, economically justified and ecologically approved. – Acknowledging the need to implement the concept of development going beyond the contemporary points of reference in the direction of creating a new model of economy based on knowledge and innovativeness, where a new quality of human capital as a motive power of harmonious improvement of life quality in all spheres of existence and human acting is born. It nevertheless requires promulgating holistic, interdisciplinary thinking on development in which the spheres of existence and activity coexist dependently, where the decision process is based on many choice criteria and cost effectiveness is solely a means of implementing development goals, not a goal in itself. On the other hand, the acceptance of the thesis of scientific and ideational context of the philosophy of sustainable development has led to presenting the assumptions of its paradigm, underlying at the same time the salient meaning of management (and not only of governing) in putting the idea of sustainable development into practice.