Skolimowski, Henryk. 1995. "In Defense of Sustainable Development." Environmental Values 4(1995): 69-70.

Thesis:

In response to Wilfred Beckerman, Skolimowski agrees that sustainable development is indeed ambiguous, -- which is exactly what makes it useful as a bridge for dialogue. Where Beckerman discounts use of the concept as lacking in intellectual respectability, Skolimowski counters that intellectual respectability cannot be separated from intellectual honesty.

Summary:

Skolimowski holds that the value of sustainable development as presented in the Brundtland Report was that it struck a middle ground between more radical approaches which denounced all development, and the idea of development conceived as business as usual. The idea of Sustainable Development, although broad, loose and tinged with lots of ambiguity around its edges, turned out to be palatable to everybody" (p.69).

It has allowed a common platform for dialogue, and an entry point for ordinary people to understand the new economic thinking. Beckerman is offended by the concept's ambiguities, and criticizes it for not being more rigorously operationalized. Skolimowski counters that we should worry less about 'intellectual respectability', and more about the survival of the species, and how our current intellectual tools have led us into this crisis. He attacks the neo-classical economic approach for its pretense at value-neutrality, and its blindness to the environmental and qualitative aspects of life. He argues that "the period of cognitive purity is over" and we need to pursue intellectual honesty, and recognize that our economic theories are normative, and have led us to servitude of the status quo. Intellectual honesty is what we will need if we are to save the threatened life of the Planet.

Keywords: intellectual honesty, sustainable development