Defining and achieving sustainable development

This paper analyses the fundamental problems of defining and achieving sust ainable development. A common core of the various definitions of sustainabi lity circulating is identified. Economic and scientific approaches to opera tionalize sustainability generally lead to management rules, which - if obe yed - should guarantee sustainability. Since it is not possible to precisel y predict the future, this scientific-technical-economic route to sustainab ility may fail. A second, ethical way, to sustainability which interprets s ustainability as an ideal for fair play is introduced. How the two differen t ways may complement one another with a three-step hierarchy of political goals is elucidated.