ABSTRACT
We currently live in a world dominated by rationalistic philosophies and practices, where ‘good’ decisions are deemed to be those that are able to identify and provide a tangible and measurable balance of benefits, adjudicated by cost-benefit ratios and statistical quantification. However, as we have seen, little, if any, accord is given to the underlying principles and values that underpin such evaluations. Whilst the Western world aspires to increasing ranges of low cost goods and efficiency of production and provision of services, it reaps large-scale unemployment patterns reflected in global trends and environmental debilitation in the form of atmospheric pollution, biodiversity decline, siltation, land degradation and global warming – which is beginning to have profound impacts on global weather patterns.
