Joiner Flourishing Pathway Blog Eight - Flourishing

In this blog we explore JFP Principle 8 – To flourish is to have the personal attributes to enable a fulfilling life. Because the attributes of flourishing are most readily acquired with a secure attachment relationship during infancy, it is essential that this knowledge is highlighted as foundational to establishing a society made up of flourishing people.  I have talked a lot about love in the previous blog and the conditions which best facilitate the development of the most beneficial neural pathways necessary for us to flourish as well-rounded human beings. I also made the claim that parents have a moral obligation to provide children with such conditions. So, it seems a good time to examine what flourishing really is, how to achieve it, and what it promises in the way of benefits for our children and to ultimately ensure the healthiest possible society.

The idea that flourishing is what humans should strive for, has been a topic of philosophical discussion since Ancient Greek times. Although what it looked like and was to be achieved remained in contention.

Philosopher Julia Annas (1993) found that there are some fundamental areas of similarity in the Ancients’ accounts saying, ‘we have three elements: virtue, other-concern and happiness’ … only differing … ‘in the way they distribute their emphasis between these elements’ (p. 441). There also seemed to be agreement that flourishing is accomplished by persons through their capacity to reason. Yet there was no explanation as to how reason could support either a flourishing state or virtuous behaviour (Russell 2012).

Miller (2010) provides the ancient Stoic's explanation of the relationship between flourishing and reasoning

Since happiness is a life lived according to nature, all that we need to be happy is to live as nature intended us. Since nature intended us to be fully rational beings, it follows that reason is necessary for happiness. When we are rational, we are virtuous. So reason/virtue is the sole constituent of happiness (p. 601).

It is true to say that having a rational capacity appears to be a natural feature of humans while not thought to be an aspect of other species’ functioning. However, even if we accept that reason is necessary for happiness, to assume rational thought is the sole determinant of happiness appears to assume a great number of other natural human attributes, such as our emotions, dependency on others, and universal need for culture, dance, music and song, have no relevance to human happiness. Also to assume that if we are rational, we must also be virtuous, does not follow. Being virtuous, I agree, is one of the central elements of wellbeing, however it alone provides too narrow a conception of happiness. It fails to explain how we can acquire the attributes of virtuousness simply through the ability to reason.

Vitrano (2014), explores the writings of Epicurus, stating that Epicurus's recipe for happiness is having self-control, friendship, cheerfulness, and simplicity, and ultimately ‘freedom from pain in the body and trouble in the mind’ (p. 16). Epicurus then, it seems, saw a link between happiness, or the lack of it, and disordered thinking.

Plato, I suggest, made a similar link. He posits that happiness emanated from an internal condition, first having a state of inner balance, a necessary condition from which good actions spring, and ‘to be a kind of health, fine condition, and well-being of the soul’, while the opposite internal state creates badness (Plato 380BC/1992, p. 121 444e).

I suggest Plato’s and indeed Epicurus’s ideas, in reference to freedom from trouble in the mind, correspond to the idea that we need emotional wellbeing to conduct ourselves well in life. Emotional wellbeing, as I have discussed in earlier blogs, naturally aligns with those who have security of attachment. Some Ancients, it seems, were able to correctly identify that there was a relationship between ‘inner harmony’, virtue (concern for others), and happiness, however they remained unable to explain how these attributes were developed.

Moving to some contemporary philosophers ideas on flourishing, Rassmussen (1999), for instance, asserts there are six elements vital to human flourishing; ‘a state of being, not mere feeling or experience’ (p. 3); is ‘the ultimate end of human conduct’ (p. 3); different for each person (pp. 5-6); lies in the ‘fulfilment of individual human beings’ (p. 9); ‘consists in a person’s taking charge of his own life’ (p. 10); and finally, ‘human beings are naturally social animals’ and ‘maturation requires a life with others’ (p. 12).

This understanding that we cannot develop well in isolation is a critical point and largely missing from the ancients’ and modern accounts of how it is that we are to achieve a flourishing state. And this is where it ties in with infant neuroscience (and feminism which I’ll talk about in JFP Blog 11), that it is impossible for humans to develop without family and community supports, and that such supports influence our lives immeasurably - yet this has rarely been intellectually acknowledged.

Behavioural researcher Abraham Maslow, working in the 1950’s did not look to our development either, but he did seek to ascertain whether those who displayed peak wellbeing had specific traits in common that may denote or provide aspirational goals for others wanting greater wellbeing. He found his subjects had fourteen attributes which, although not outstanding as individual traits, were unusual as most were common to each of his subjects (1971, p. 41). Referring to these subjects as self-actualizers, Maslow said they had a virtuous demeanour, strong inner emotional stability, and an outward focus. He said they were also actively engaged in virtuous activities, were purported to have reached their potential (all were over 50 years), and appeared to possess a sense of inner peace and happiness or contentment.

So, if happiness and wellbeing are to be found in our state of wellbeing, don’t we then need to examine Western society’s emphasis on wealth accumulation as our source of happiness? Tim Kasser (2002) did just this in his book The High Price of Materialism. He found that it was the pursuit of materialism itself that was detrimental to our wellbeing. He explains that when our life’s emphasis is on wealth creation, we have heightened concern for how others view us and thus focus on ‘obtaining reward and praise, rather than on enjoying the challenges and inherent pleasures of activities’ (2002, p. 86). Kasser goes on to explain, ‘their concern with money and praise distracts them from the interesting, enjoyable, and challenging aspects of what they are doing’ (2002, p. 78). Such a focus he suggests ‘work against close interpersonal relationships and connection to others, two hallmarks of psychological health and high quality life’ (p. 72).

Of course, a certain amount of money is necessary – that which fulfils our need for housing, clothing and food, but after basic needs are met, research has found that increases in income do no equate to increases in happiness.

So where does all this leave us? Hopefully with a greater understanding of what flourishing looks like and how we gain it – not in having wealth as your primary concern, rather having internal stability, being other focused, and focusing on what fulfils us. And we have a much greater access to such personal attributes, when we have developed secure attachment as infants and have each of these aspects residing naturally within us. Thus, cementing the case for the need to both educate parents about the most beneficial ways to nurture their infants, and to provide them with the financial and emotional supports they need to deliver optimal care to their infants – topics I will discuss further in later blogs.

In the next blog I turn to the first of two foundational influences: liberalism, as it has heavily influenced societal expectations and thus our decision making about how we conduct ourselves. This, in turn, provides insight as to why childcare has been chosen to facilitate women’s autonomy. We explore the research on what the principles of liberalism are, and how they have affected us.

Bibliography

Annas, J 1993, The morality of happiness, Oxford University Press, New York

Kasser, T 2002, The high price of materialism, MIT press, Cambridge.

Maslow, A 1971, The farther reaches of human nature, New York: Viking.

Miller, J 2010, 'A Distinction Regarding Happiness in Ancient Philosophy', Social Research, vol. 77, no. 2, pp. 595-624.

Plato 380BC/1992, Republic - trans G.M.A. Grube, Hackett Publishing, Indianapolis US.

Rasmussen, DB 1999, 'Human Flourishing and the Appeal to Human Nature', Social Philosophy and Policy, vol. 16, no. 01, pp. 1-43.

Russell, DC 2012, Happiness for humans, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Vitrano, C 2014, The Nature and Value of Happiness, Westview Press, Boulder.