A Systems Thinking Approach to Sustainability: A Triadic Framework for Human Nature and Worldviews

Humanity faces converging crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and social fragmentation. These challenges are usually treated as technical or policy problems, yet their persistence suggests deeper causes in the paradigms through which human beings understand themselves and act in the world. Systems thinking highlights that paradigms shape perception, motivation, and institutions, but it does not specify which paradigms best support sustainability. This article develops a conceptual framework to examine how paradigms of human nature have shifted historically and how these shifts influence sustainability outcomes. Using a comparative synthesis of wisdom traditions (Greek, Islamic, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Confucian, and Daoist) together with modern and late-modern frameworks, the study identifies key differences in how human faculties and values are ordered, and how these differences manifest in ecological and social outcomes. A paradigm–perception–intention–action–impact feedback model is introduced to explain how worldviews propagate into institutions and outcomes, and how inversions contribute to ecological overshoot, inequality, and dislocation. The article contributes a synthesized map of paradigms across traditions, a causal schema linking paradigm shifts to sustainability outcomes, practice-oriented design principles, and a research agenda for testing the framework in sustainability transitions. Re-examining paradigms is argued to be a critical leverage point for durable sustainability.