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Content: Industrial systems are inherently extractive,
exploitative, and are ultimately dependent upon finite stocks of non-renewable
resources. Industrial systems eventually
will degrade and deplete the resources upon which its productivity depends, and
thus, are not sustainable. Industrialization is the physical manifestation of a specific philosophy
of economics, a specific concept of science, and a specific worldview. Thus, if we are to develop a sustainable
society, we must be willing to reexamine the conceptual foundation upon which
our current unsustainable society is built. The mechanistic philosophical worldview emerged during the
1600's to 1700's. It was first
articulated by early scientists such as Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton. During this “Age of Reason,” the world came
to be viewed as a large complex machine with many interrelated parts – as
clock-like. The foundation of modern
science was laid during this period with development of the “scientific method”
of inquiry and the “reductionist” approach to research. Following the scientific methods, scientists
could reduce complex systems to their elemental parts, isolating individual
causes and effects, and thus, gaining understanding of systems as wholes by
examining their component parts. Classical economics had its roots in this same period of
“Enlightenment.”