AUC Philosophica et Historica (Acta Universitatis Carolinae Philosophica et Historica) is a multidisciplinary academic journal focused on the humanities with more than 50 years of tradition.
The journal is indexed in CEEOL, DOAJ, and EBSCO.
AUC PHILOSOPHICA ET HISTORICA, Vol 2009 No 1 (2009), 155–168
Dlouhodobě udržitelný rozvoj, udržitelný ústup, nebo rozvrat?
Pavel Nováček
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/24647055.2018.18
published online: 12. 01. 2018
abstract
More than forty years ago Man landed on the Moon. On the other hand people in poor countries are starving to death until now. The environment is degraded or even devastated in many regions, biodiversity is decreasing. We need a daring vision of what to do next. And maybe more than that. We need to search for and find “will to meaning” (according to founder of logotherapy, Viktor Frankl). Almost 25 years ago vision of sustainable development was first published in the UN report “Our Common Future”. Question remains, how vital and perspective is this vision in present multipolar world. In the past we learned from our former experience and mistakes. Today, in the era of huge scientific and technological development, we need new model of learning. We need to learn from our future potential opportunities as well as threats, not just from the past. It also includes possibility, that our effort to formulate and implement sustainable development will not succeed. Then alternative to sustainable development is sustainable retreat. And even darker scenario is possible – chaos and anarchy. We can already see this in some failed states (Somalia, Haiti). In such case key challenge would be to keep and preserve principal knowledge and skills accumulated by civilized societes during former decades and centuries for future generations.