Ethical aspects of the Sustainable Development Goals: a reflection

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contain explicit and implicit ethical components, for instance in the goals to ensure universal access to health and education services, reduce inequalities and promote sustainable use... [ view full abstract ]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contain explicit and implicit ethical components, for instance in the goals to ensure universal access to health and education services, reduce inequalities and promote sustainable use of ecosystems. These ethical statements are framed within the paradigm of (late) Modernity, with its emancipatory politics and its imperatives of justice, equality and participation. They express the aspiration and necessity to reconcile desires of the individual, the core unit in Modernity, with that which is collectively desirable. The implicit assumption is that there is such a thing as a collective – and the emerging signs of global unsustainability reinforce the notion that there does and should exist such a planetary community of humans based on universal values.

The reality is that only a rather small fraction of the human population lives in accordance with the premises of Modernity, although global trade flows and (social) media may give a different impression. In this presentation, I explore the history and philosophy of ethics and morality in various epochs and cultures and use the findings to present a broader palette against which the SDGs can be interpreted and implemented. It will be illustrated with examples and case-studies in scientific (Global Change) modelling and religious practices.

Endeavours like this one can hopefully help to bridge the rational and universalist view of Modernism on the one and the more emotional, particularist and contingent worldviews on the other hand. This is an urgent need in a fragmented world of increasing interaction as well as inequality. It is also in line with and supportive of the deliberate attempts to decentralize the operationalization of the SDGs.