The Phenomenology of Sustainability: From Ontic Indicators to the Search for Ontological Meaning

Abstract

Abstract

This study examines how sustainability should be understood not merely as a set of measurements and targets, but as a more profound philosophical concept. By temporarily suspending the instrumental and technical approaches dominant in current sustainability discourse, the study aims to uncover the fundamental conditions upon which the concept's meaning rests. A phenomenological method was adopted in the study, examining how sustainability is experienced as a matter of "meaning" and "value" and how it is linked to a sense of responsibility. The study's central argument is that measurable indicators (ontic level) gain legitimacy only when they are compatible with this deeper existential ground (ontological level) that gives them meaning. Through temporal consciousness and narratives, it is demonstrated how the act of "sustaining" creates a continuity between the past, present, and future.