The influence of the economic thought on the idea of sustainability and its implications on the perception and conservation of the natural world

Abstract

Sustainability is a concept increasingly embedded in societies, being widely discussed within the academic and public discourse, and the idea of incorporating it has been almost assumed as an imperative. In this sense, its importance in the social, economic, environmental, scientific, and political agendas is clearly recognized. Nevertheless, this concept has become an elusive expression, with diverse uses, and lacks clarity in its dissemination, practice, and research, which hinders its understanding. As the environmental problems and consequent concern that has emerged increase, the preservation of the natural world becomes central to the sustainability agenda. Despite this situation and the diversity of the concept, especially in a context in which economy is one of the major determinants of individual and social patterns around the world, sustainability has been gradually reduced to its economic bias, limiting its understanding even more and, consequently, influencing the conservation of the natural world. Rather than seeking a new dimension or a conceptual unification for sustainability, this proposal intends to explore the ambiguities and limitations of the approaches for weak sustainability and strong sustainability, influenced by the environmental economy and the ecological economy, respectively, which characterize the economic bias for sustainability. Based on philosophical reflections and analysis, this study proposes an understanding beyond the economic thought, anchoring in the idea of "absurdly strong sustainability". The economic bias for sustainability is emphasized attempting to demonstrate that economy and its values greatly influence the values regarding sustainability and the relationship between human being and Nature. It was inferred that human relationships with Nature are quite conditioned by economic rationality. Thus, sustainability is likewise strongly influenced by such rationality, compromising the potential transformative role of the concept and the possibilities of engendering new relationships and values.