In book 5 of his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle opens his lecture on justice (Greek: dikaiosune) by pointing out that human beings speak of justice in many ways. Sometimes, for instance, what we have in mind when thinking about justice is something more akin to righteousness or uprightness. That is, an…

The Western intellectual tradition has as a central preoccupation the question, “what is a good life?”. The concept of the good life (eudaimonia) was a major theme in the writings of Ancient philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Interest in the topic was rekindled in the Christian era and…

As the holiday season approaches, many people enter — willingly or not — into a reflective mood. Alongside the parties and presents, as the year draws to a close, a quiet space is opened outside of hectic daily routines, inviting meaningful contemplation about one’s life. However, these meditations may have…

What makes life meaningful? This question may be difficult to answer for many. In 2018, Pew Research Center released a report that attempted at answering this question for American adults. 4,867 adults on the American Trends Panel responded to an open-ended question about what makes their lives meaningful. The top…

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Global Flourishing Study. The Global Flourishing Study (GFS) is a longitudinal research study being carried out in collaboration between scholars at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard and Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, and in partnership with Gallup and the…

by Richard G. Cowden, Victor Counted, Tim Lomas and Andre Renzaho It is a truism that the world has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of lives tragically lost, families separated, economies shut down and societies disrupted. Given these unprecedented challenges, it is vital to understand how the…

Augustine and the Stoics agreed that human flourishing is fragile if it depends on any external goods, but the Stoics took this to show that virtue alone suffices for our happiness, whereas, for Augustine, it proved that true flourishing is impossible except in the kingdom of God. Philosophers and theologians…

It may not be the mere presence or attainment of value as such that is meaningful but rather the effort involved in the attainment Meaning in life is a perennial concern for philosophers, and recent empirical social science has furnished substantial evidence that people’s perception of their lives as being…

One way to understand human flourishing is to break “complete human wellbeing” into some of its component parts. Templeton World Charity Foundation has recently launched a new five year strategy to discover, develop, and launch innovations for human flourishing. As part of this, we are reaching out to leading scholars…