The Imperative Progress Versus the Ethics of Moderation: Future Expectations in the Society of Knowledge
The Imperative Progress Versus the Ethics of Moderation: Future Expectations in the Society of Knowledge

Author(s): Arthur Wagner
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Scientia Moralitas Research Institute
Keywords: imperative; knowledge society; ethic; moderation; responsibility; future
Summary/Abstract: The 20th and 21st century are characterized by a strong urge for progress in the field of technology, knowledge, communication and business. These structural changes patronized the emergence of a knowledge society, where knowledge is the basis of economic and social growth. The other side of progress is characterized by ambivalent effects. While the idea of progress is based on development and crossing the institutionalized limits, the ethics of responsibility starting from respecting the limits and the temperature, following the aim of sustainability. Hans Jonas sets with his principle the responsibility of a distinctive scale both in dealing with the present and with the future. Without an interdisciplinary exchange, the ethics of moderation proves in its action to be guidance, but only limited. The wider actual acceptance of “sustainability” reveals its chances towards becoming a global ethos.

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