Toward a Sustainable Attitude: Aesthetics, the Arts, and the Environment. Preface to the Special Issue 2024 of Contemporary Aesthetics

Abstract

This special issue of Contemporary Aesthetics aims toinvestigate the environmental challenges facing the worldfrom a philosophical and artistic perspective, particularlyto overcome the indeterminateness of the notion ofsustainability and its multifaceted nature, whichunfortunately falls prey to contrasting world views, as isevident in climate change skepticism. So far, the crisishas been addressed primarily with solutions based ontechnological innovation, rather than ones requiringsignificant shifts in attitudes and conceptual frameworks.The failure to inspire behavioral change through rigorousscientific communication has increasingly fosteredinterest in the relationship among aesthetics, art, andsustainability that offers new forms of knowledgeproduction and human action that complement necessarylegislative developments and shared internationalpolicies.