Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s Critique of Modern Science and Its Relevance to The SDGs

Abstract

The advancement of modern science and technology has improved human well-being but has also contributed to resource exploitation, environmental degradation, and climate change. These conditions indicate that sustainable development requires not only technological and institutional approaches but also a transformation of human values and perspectives toward nature. Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s thought offers a critique of modern science, which he argues has undergone secularization and separated knowledge from metaphysical and spiritual dimensions. However, the relationship between Nasr’s critique and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly their ethical and worldview dimensions, remains underexplored. This study aims to analyze Nasr’s critique of modern science and its relevance to the achievement of the SDGs in the context of environmental sustainability. The study employs a qualitative approach using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) based on a literature study. The findings show that Nasr’s critique of the secularization of science, desacralization of nature, and anthropocentric tendencies is relevant to SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, and SDG 15. The concept of Sacred Science can complement technological and institutional approaches through an ethical and spiritual foundation. Thus, Nasr’s thought can serve as a philosophical perspective for strengthening the value-based and ecological dimensions of sustainable development.