The need for a priority structure for the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

This article argues for the need to set priorities to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It proposes to assign primary focus on goals that, along with being ends in themselves, operate also as means for achieving other objectives – and are therefore of instrumental value also. Education is briefly analyzed as an example of one such goal. In addition, this article addresses population growth, an issue that is not explicitly mentioned in the SDGs but that is arguably relevant for sustainable development. Here too, it is suggested that education can play an important role.

Keywords:

• SDGs
• intrinsic and instrumental value
• capabilities
• education
• population growth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Francesca Pongiglione is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano (Italy), where she teaches Philosophy and Human Rights. She is interested in normative ethics, and her main research area concerns the moral foundations of individual responsibility in collective action. She is also interested in global issues, especially climate change.

Additional information

Funding

Research relevant to this work has been supported by the Italian Ministry of Scientific Research within the FIRB project Structures and dynamics of knowledge and cognition [Milan unit: B41J12000300008].