The Concept of Measure and the Criterion of Sustainability

The classical concept of measure, which is akin to moderation and balance, has been specified arithmetically in architecture and the arts. But in law, politics, the social sciences, and the behavioral sciences, measure is a fuzzy concept. This indeterminacy in the concept of measure, coupled with the human impulsive tendency to excess, has made many individuals, societies, and states prone to excessive aberrations from measure—i.e. to hubris, which has historically led societies, states, and even empires to disaster. Still, in the absence of a definition of measure, we may instead apply the criterion of sustainability to detect hubristic aberrations from measure early enough to curb their ill effects.