Systems of Knowledge

Science, Economics and Ethics

Ways of knowing the world impact the ways of being in the world: what appears politically feasible, socially desirable and ethically legitimate defines the range of the possible. The dominant Western worldview had guided some societies towards unprecedented material wealth, but has left others devastated: today, the gap between the rich and the poor wihtin society's is widening rapidly and has historically never been so vast on the global scale either.

In addition, the industrial-material development has brought our ecosystems close to collapse. Unlimited competition within this extractive-detructive mode of development creates violence over scarce resrouces and fear for survival - most seriously affecting the prospects and rights of future generations. And even where economic growth has delivered the goods in material terms, its success has been at the price of undermining human relationships that are the basis of social solidarity and community.

The severity of these multiple crises is not even recognized in much political and economic discourse, and even where it is recognized, the public discourse often reflects the assumption that problems can be met by techological fixes. There is a deep-seated reluctance to tackle the fundamental systems of knowledge that have brought us a crisis in the relationship between the human species and our living world.

The Expert Commission Systems of Knowledge therefore explicitly addresses these systems of knowledge and shows how they impact policy-making and economic decisions. Explicit attention is paid to the premises of economic and natural sciences, as these are highly influential disciplines in the construction of our current worldview - influencing which institutions and solutions seem adequate.

The Commission divides its work in two strands, one conducting more fundamental research on the adequate theoretical framework for Future Economics and Science and the other one identifying and promoting the policies necessary to guide the shift towards sustainable and just economies that flourish within the boundaries of our one sacred planet.