Sustainability science and the epistemic challenge: some matters philosophical and why we ought to come to know them better

While there would appear to be a general awareness and appreciation of the foundational significance of values to sustainability science, they, along with other philosophical dimensions associated with beliefs and assumptions, rarely seem to make the headlines. With reference to a seminal contribution on macroethical systems that was published in the initial edition of this journal, some of these important matters are explored in the context of worldviews, their nature and their significance.