SUMMARY

N. M. Lakusha. The idea of the sustainable development in the context of environmental problems (social-cultural and praxeological aspects). - Manuscript.

Thesis for the Degree of Candidate of Science (Philosophy) on speciality 09.00.03 - social philosophy and philosophy of history. – Institute for Higher Education of the Academy of Pedagogic Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 2005.

The thesis is devoted to the question of the sustainable development of the civilization in the context of environmental problems and to determining the ways of achieving the sustainable development. The investigation has been carried out within the concepts of social philosophy. On the basis of the factual material of the national and foreign scientists the author determines the way of achieving the sustainable development as the model of the future destiny of mankind, develops heuristic possibilities of the model in question and its contradictory character.

In the thesis it is mentioned that mankind is facing the alternative: either to retain the established type of activity (that of consumption) and to die in the environmental crisis or to radically change it and to preserve Nature for the generations to come. So the present task is to revise the priorities of the development and to turn to the sustainable development of the society. The sustainable development means economic effectiveness, biosphere compatibility and social fairness under the general decrease of the man-caused pressure on the biosphere. The important problem of the sustainable development model realization is to take into account the natural-cosmic factor in the activity of mankind and the problem it creates for the modern civilization because there exists the threat of possible cosmic catastrophes which might greatly affect the environmental state of the Earth. It must be prevented.

Key words: sustainable development, man, nature, cosmic phenomena, environmental crisis.