Contested Concept of Sustainability: A Consumer Society and Dialectic of Human Desire Cover Image
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Contested Concept of Sustainability: A Consumer Society and Dialectic of Human Desire
Contested Concept of Sustainability: A Consumer Society and Dialectic of Human Desire

Author(s): Malgorzata A. Dereniowska
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Zeta Books
Keywords: self-actualization; human desires; ontological transformation of modernity;

Summary/Abstract: This article argues that sustainability is essentially a contested concept that not only cannot be sufficiently defined in a one-for-all blueprint, but requires a new mode of self-actualization of human potential in dialogical, cooperative learning processes. Inherent aporias and their ethical implications are illustrated by an analysis of the mainstream interpretation of the sustainability concept in the context of the relationship between the logic of accumulation and improvement and insatiable human desires as off-springs of a deeper ontological transformation of modernity. A philosophical account of technology and modern science will be introduced in order to investigate overconsumption driven by mimetic desires and the transformative and dialectic dynamics of desire. A contemplative learning model is suggested as a useful basis for a reasonable interpretation of the sustainability concept.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: Vol.4/2
  • Page Range: 25-62
  • Page Count: 38
  • Language: English