The Ethics of Sustainability: Lessons from the Classics

Sustainability is often conceived as a contemporary issue, since several synergic factors put both the environment and our societies under stress. Although son of modernity, however, the problem has roots grounded in a distant past, insofar even classical civilizations such as the Greeks at the times of Plato and Pericles faced sustainability-related challenges. It is clearly difficult to approach such a complex topic after so many centuries, and a thorough process of historical contextualization is necessary. Yet, this chapter represents an attempt at providing an overview of sustainability through the lenses of economic and social development in classical times. In doing so, after an introduction with some caveats to the reader, it describes i) aspects of ecological awareness in nuce, and ii) the impacts of classical civilization on the environment. It does so also relying on the words of prominent figures of the time, like Plato or Aristotle. The chapter will hence delve into humanities for societies and business as a key concept to (re)gain a correct relationship between communities and the surrounding environment: as in the Republic of Plato, the healthy city where citizens live with σωφροσύνη, with a progress that enables the community to pursue at once quality of life and economic progress, social equity and environmental preservation: in one word, what we currently define as sustainable development.