On Ethical Sustainability

Dickson Kanakulya

Objectives

• Generate the notion of ethical sustainability (ES)

• Explain its contribution to sustainability discourse

• Discuss the nature of ES and its elements

• Explain the constituent principles that form the pillars of ES

• Generate feedback from audience on direction of the notion that is being generated

“we cant solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”.

From: (1934) My World View (Mein Weltbild)

“Without ‘ethical culture,’ there is no salvation for humanity.”

From: “The Need for Ethical Culture”, January 5,1951

Quotes from Einstein

Main problem

• Our current political, economic and social development systems are unsustainable.

• Indicators the problem:

• Climate change

• Extinction of natural organisms

• Irreversible environmental damage

• New and complicated health problems – viruses, epidemics, cancers, etc

• Collapse of ecological systems e.g. bee colonies (in the US)

• Collapse of social and political systems e.g. refugee crisis; failure of traditional social safety-nets, etc

Main questions

• How do we realize sustainable political and social systems and processes for sustainable development?

• How would we effectively incorporate ethics in sustainability discourse?

• What would characterize ethically sustainable political, social and development systems and processes?

Suggested Causes and failure of proposed solutions

• Anthropocentric industrialization (19th century) • Misguided pursuit of economic growth • Irreversible scientific and high-tech engineering of

nature

Failure of suggested solutions:• IMFs Structural Adjustment Programmes – SAPs

(economistic thinking failed) • 1980s Reforestation & Green movement (more

forest cover is being depleted each day) • Carbon-trade system ???

Underlying assumptions of problems

What are the underlying assumptions of those problems?

• Self-interested rationality

• “Survival-of-the-fittest” logic

• Naturalistic reductionism

Recent observations

• That there are complex natural and social systems that are irreducible (systems approach)

• Using self-interest (which led us to the unsustainability of current development logic) to solve the problems cannot yield viable results

• That underneath all dimensions of sustainability the ethical dimension is critical because all other types depend on it

Hypothesis:

DTPr SsDev

iEtDev pDTPr

Et DTP pDTPr

(iEt + DTP) pDTPr = SsDev

+

Proposed solution:

• Change our conception of rationality from self-interest to conscientious rationality

• Focus sustainability discourse towards ethical sustainability

• Apply the ES principles of justice, ubuntu, capabilities, and integrity build sustainable political, economic and social systems plus processes.

EthicsEnvironment

Ethics

EthicsEnvironment

Ethics

Ethics

Social Ethics

Ethics

Social Ethics

EthicsEconomic

Ethics

EthicsEconomic

Ethics

ETHICAL FABRICETHICAL FABRIC

Ethical foundation

Defining ES• ethical sustainability (ES) refers to that

foundational aspect of sustainability that focuses on i) ensuring the relevance of ethics thinking to sustainability discourse and ii) maintaining the ethical fabric on which to base the realization of sustainable systems and processes.

• About i) sustaining the spheres of sustainability and ii) sustaining society’s ethical fabric.

Nature of Ethical sustainability A “scheme of complementary principles”

Scheme = systematic plan or arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect.

These principles include: i) justice, ii) ubuntu, iii) integrity and iv) capabilities.

Applied to 1) theorization of sustainability

2) structures and individual action

Nature of ES…

Principles of ES scheme are applied in 2 complimentary modes

i) Mode 1: Ensuring sustainability that is ethical (re-defining ‘sustainable’)

ii) Mode 2: Sustaining the ethical fabric itself (ethics denominators)

Mode 1: Ensuring sustainability that is ethical

• Two aspects: i) theoretical ii) practical

– Theoretical – undoing the impact of amoral naturalism and self-interest rationality (recognize irreducibility and others on planet)

– Practical – ethicalization of the functionings of individuals and institutions (engendering ethical competence and capability within institutions and among individuals).

Mode 2: Sustaining the ethical fabric itself

• Sustaining ethics denominators (basic tenets of the ethical-fabric that uphold all the other aspects of society such as business, education, and marriage, etc).

• Done at two levels, – i) primary levels of ethical sustenance– ii) secondary levels of ethical sustenance

Principles of ES• Complementary ethical principles that would

provide pillars for realization of ES – Justice – Ubuntu – Capabilities – Integrity

• Principle = “general axiomatic statement from which particular decisions are drawn by a deductive process of reasoning.

• But why use the “principle-approach”?

Why use the “principle-approach”?

• There is criticism of this approach e.g. it produces “machine-like” moral decisions.

• But principlism is not necessarily exclusive to the virtue approach. The virtue-approach necessarily turns into principles.

• PA = neutral, pluralistic and all-embracing …the orderliness and relativity of application appeals to the practical-minded

Why choose these 4 principles1) Applicability to a contractualist spatial

political reality i.e. the EAC (Rawls’ theory of justice; in global justice thinkers e.g. Pogge).

2) Need to reverse-engineer the ethical impact of self-interest rationality & its influence on modern economism. (use Ubuntu to bring a sense of community)

3) Increase peoples’ ethical capabilities

4) Increase trust by people in the functionings of their institutions

Justice principle • Sustainability of political and social

systems and processes requires justice. The disadvantaged would seek to destroy it; thus relevance of Rawl’s “justice as fairness”.

• Is a contractualist and uses a distributive approach to justice; rational humans come together under the “veil of ignorance” and agree on certain principles to guide society

Justice…• Rawlsian principles:

– i) equal liberty principle – Ii) difference principle – Iii) just saving principle (added later-1999v)

• In The Law of Peoples (1999) he extends his theory to international relations; he laid out as agenda for the “…extension of a general social contract idea…” to [the international order] (p.4).

Justice…• Need to make Rawls applicable in resolving

prob. of self-interest in contractual political and social systems (self-interested agents take advantage contractual systems). In economist assumptions this is termed “rationality” (error)

• My view: change the underlying assumption of rationality from “self-interested rationality” to “conscientious rationality”. Rational ≠ selfishness

• Rationality means being conscious and careful about existential support provided by nature and the ‘others’ around us

Ubuntu principle • Ubuntu is an African philosophy of humanity and

community; it is a philosophy of becoming human, which encourages a holistic and inclusive view of all humans as those who share the same space and resources.

• It promotes a spirit and logic of “community”; that can help sustain a contractual political or social arrangement.

• But there is need to adapt it to political discourse and allow it to influence contemporary social realities.

Ubuntu…• Enables us realize and appreciate our

interconnectedness as humans; thus promote the sustainability of our social and political systems and processes

• A “conscientious rationality” is necessary in order to actualize ubuntu; it is important to acknowledge that other beings in nature and society support our existence but are not our competitors (as by Darwinian logic)

Capabilities principle • Generated by Amartya Sen and Martha

Nussbaum to address failures and injustices of economistic approach to development.

• CA is a theoretical framework for achieving human-centered well-being, development and justice.

• Argues that, “…freedom to achieve well-being is a matter of what people are able to do and to be”

• Built on: Functionings and Capabilities

Capabilities…• Functionings - various states of ‘beings’

and ‘doings’– What the person is capable of being and

doing

• Capabilities - individual’s real freedom and opportunities to achieve functionings – Valuable opportunities from which a person

can choose

Capabilities…• Serves as pillar of ES because:

– CA is flexible enough to be applied in cultivating ethical capabilities in persons

– Need for both intrinsic and extrinsic empowerment to be in position to contextualize their development

– Assists in replacing the resourcist or trickle-down theories that are not sustainable

Integrity principle

• Means wholesomeness in the consistence of character individually or collectively (i.e. being aligned to) in ethical virtues such as honesty, respect of life, truthfulness, transparency, accountability, etc

• A society or institution that has not integrity is falling apart and is unsustainable.

Integrity…• It is a pillar of ES because:

– Builds and increases trust of the persons and institutions in society (such as political systems and processes)

– Builds character for public officers and ensure sustainability of their offices

• However it needs to go beyond legalistic rhetoric of punishment and sanctions, etc to instead cultivate integrity by incentives

Conclusion

All other forms of sustainability in society and planet depend on human

conduct; therefore the ethical aspect of reality is more fundamental in ensuring

sustainability. Ethical sustainability needs to be realized in order to have

sustainable political and social systems and processes