Ideas play a more crucial role in history than they appear to do at first sight. If not sufficiently scrutinized they sometimes lead to results far divergent from t h e initial intentions of those who put them forth as lines of orientation for practice. This seems to be also the case with the idea of 'development' which has marked social and political practice in the second half of the Twentieth Century.

In this volume philosophers from different parts of world discuss and attempt to evaluate from epistemological and ethical points of view the idea of development as the principal objective of national and international policies during the past few decades.