Theories of Human Flourishing

by

Overview

            An old truism about political and legal philosophy is that every such theory rests on a theory of human nature. If you plan to design a political/legal system, then of course you will need to have a sense of the types of people who will be governed by that system.

By analogy, I would make a similar point about education: any educational system will need to have some theory of human excellence underlying it.[1] If not, then how would you know what or how to teach? These theories about excellence might be implicit or unreflectively adopted, but they are always there.

            That way of thinking motivated my choice of topics here. There are many, many theories of human flourishing. They’re great, but my sense is that most will be too abstract to be of use to the group.

            For that reason, I start by very briefly indicating the major theories of human flourishing operative in contemporary social science. I gesture towards their links with education, which are often a little abstract. From there, I call out the primary frameworks for understanding the purpose and direction of contemporary education. I highlight the sense of flourishing operative in those ways of thinking and note their use in contemporary educational practice.

            Following the section on background context, I focus on what these differences mean for the student experience. In that way, I’ve tried to shoot for a project similar in spirit to the report I produced a few weeks ago on international educational systems (IB, AP, and A Levels). In this case, the categories are “Natural Development,” “Civic and Political Life,” and “Human Capital.”

            Those are three very common perspectives, but of course there are more. And in many ways, the three represent ideal types presented in order to emphasize their differences; in practice, there is overlap between them, and most comprehensive accounts of flourishing in education include at least some element of each.

Background: Theories of Flourishing

  • There are countless theories of human flourishing (e.g., Plato’s Republic, Nietzsche’s ubermensch, Stoic’s apatheia, etc.)
  • However, two main schools of thought are popular in modern times:
  • Eudaimonia
    • Hedonism
  • There have been countless attempts to rework and combine these (de Ruyter 2004)
  • Eudaimonia is most commonly associated with Aristotle. This view conceives of virtue as entailing the cultivation of one’s personal strengths (Aristotle, trans. 2000; Ryff 1989; Hurka, 1993; Maslow, 1970; Raz, 1986)
  • There have been attempts to use scientific methods to study eudaimonic flourishing, though how successful they’ve been is an open question (e.g., Ryff and Keyes 1995; VanderWeele 2017)
  • Hedonism is, in one sense, what it sounds like: it is about the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Thus, to “flourish” on this definition is to achieve pleasure and avoid pain (Kahneman et al. 1999; Ryan and Deci 2001; Kagan 1992; Diener et al. 1985; Diener 2000; Pavot and Diener 2008; Fredrickson 2001)
  • Hedonism comes from people like Epicurus, as well as schools of thought like utilitarianism. Notably, there have also been attempts in the scientific literature to study hedonic flourishing (Diener et al. 1999; Watson et al. 1988; Diener et al. 1985)
  • A word of clarification: hedonism is not about “hedonistic indulgence” as we might think of it now (drinking, sexual promiscuity, overeating, etc.). For example, our contemporary word “epicurean,” which can often mean indulgence, is derived from the thoughts of the Hellenistic philosopher Epicurus. However, he did not encourage his followers to engage in wild self-indulgence. He recommended an ascetic life that entailed complicated calculations regarding types of pleasure. He felt that a materially simple and meticulously organized life, particularly when combined with the rigorous study of geometry, could lead to human flourishing
  • Connection to education:
  • In ancient Greece, both schools of thought were linked to thriving institutes, and in that regard they maintain a close connection to education
  • They are very often used in scholarly literature, particularly in psychology, though less often directly discussed in educational practice (or even educational research); however, the general frameworks are subtly operative in shaping how parents, educators, and students think about the purpose of education (Lu 2001; Pflug 2009; Furnham and Cheng 2000; King and Napa 1998; McMahan and Estes 2010; Ng et al. 2003; Pflug 2009; Tseng 2007)
  • Additional accounts: Other, more contemporary educational theories of human flourishing have attempted to draw together the diverse elements one gets in the various theories (e.g., Brighouse 2006, 2008; Allen 2016). As noted in the report on wellness, these might include:
  • Health
    • Social relations
    • Safety
    • Intellectual/creative/physical pursuits
    • Meaning/existential purpose
    • Virtue
    • Morality
    • Professional success

Natural Development

  • The key assumption behind Natural Development is that humans are inherently curious and inquisitive learners
  • Rousseau is the big figure here (particularly his treatise on education, Emile). On his account, oppressive social practices or poorly formulated social values may lead human nature astray
  • In the contemporary classroom, this account takes issue with rote learning based on a prescribed curriculum. The idea is that this style of learning suffocates students’ creativity and natural drive for learning and reduces the joy students take in learning (Dewey 1916; Illich 1970; Rousseau 1979)
  • In short, on this account, the types of learning methods common in contemporary schools for the last 100-150 years are at odds with how humans learn; this poor fit leads to sub-par learning experiences
  • In the most general sense, it would seem that “flourishing” on this account would entail living out one’s authentic human existence while being unswayed by misguided social conventions. More concretely, the idea is that students will learn more effectively if they are able to follow their natural curiosity
  • A common theme here might be a sense of “finding oneself” through learning and incorporating what one learns into one’s life choices
  • There are more moderate forms of this school of thought, such as those of Dewey. On Dewey’s account, the classroom should be organized according to both the student’s natural curiosity and the structure of the curriculum. To give an example, Saint John’s College in the US is famous for its Great Books program, which chronologically follows the development of Western thought (they also have a program oriented towards Eastern classics). On a Deweyan account, while a student may still read most of those books, the curriculum would be sequenced according to the student’s process of questioning rather than the historical order of the publication of the books
  • Some version of this thinking is most overtly operative in Montessori, Waldorf, and “progressive” (in the non-political sense) schools, though there are hints of it in other educational policies, such as student electives, for example
  • Common educational strategies associated with this vision of flourishing include:
    • Project-based learning
    • Qualitative over quantitative evaluations
    • Student-initiated projects
    • Independent studies
    • Interdisciplinarity
    • Inquiry-based learning
    • Non-hierarchical relationships between educators and students

Civic and Social Life

  • There are several versions of this one, but the basic idea is that education should prioritize participation in the communal life of the society
  • On this account, humans are inherently social creatures who can only flourish within a well-functioning social system (or perhaps to effectively participate in the social life of one’s society is to flourish) (Detweiler 2021; Levinson 2012; Hunter 2000; Narvaez et al, 2003; Narvaez, 2002; Gutmann 1999)
  • A separate version of this comes through in the school of thought, critical pedagogy (Apple 1979; Friere 1973; Giroux 2020)
  • The civic perspective in general, and critical pedagogy in particular, often adopts a sociological view on education: it asks how society relates to the school, and how the school relates to society; the answer often has something to do with how schooling perpetuates inequality (Bowles and Gintis 1976; Anyon 1997)
  • The central figure of critical pedagogy is Paolo Friere, a Brazilian educator known for developing radical pedagogical methods to respond to colonialism
  • Critical pedagogy can vary in its execution. In general, there is a sense behind it that current social conditions in the form of material, political, and social inequality prevent a large part of the population from flourishing. Thus, on this account, education should address those barriers first before attempting to use educational institutions to facilitate human flourishing
  • Common educational strategies associated with this perspective include:
  • Community-service projects
    • Volunteer work
    • Political campaigning
    • Participatory learning
    • Student projects oriented towards solving social problems (thus, the social or environmental ill guides the shape of the student’s learning, e.g., a natural science class might be oriented around the theme of climate change, which then becomes the organizing principle behind the curriculum. This can be contrasted with Natural Development, which might have a student’s question lead the way)
    • Multiculturalism
    • Social justice curricula (e.g., an American history class based on Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States)

Human Capital

  • This is the “human capital” perspective on education; this view of education is more in line with how an economist might think about schooling (Becker 1994; Grubb and Lazerson 2009)
  • On this account, education instills value in students in the form of skills and competencies that can then be exchanged on the market
  • The idea of “flourishing” here would largely center on a student’s ability to succeed within the contemporary social order by equipping students with the skills that the market is likely to reward
  • Other versions of this school of thought link it to things like national or societal progress (i.e., expanding the capabilities of a nation involved in international competition (Graham 2005), or simply bolstering the society’s ability to meet the needs of its citizens) (Tyack 1974)
  • In many ways, this is the dominant view of education across large parts of the globe. Some version of it is overt in cases of high-stakes standardized tests, programs that recommend majors based on projected future income, vocational education, and so on
  • In this case, the market largely directs the character of the student’s education, rather than social ills/communal life (the Civic Perspective) or a student’s natural questioning (the Natural Development perspective)
  • The perspective’s adherents argue that this is a valuable way of thinking about education because it helps people to make their lives materially better and it can contribute to solving practical problems (the logic being that the market often rewards solutions that provide real value to people) 
  • The perspective’s detractors argue that this approach to education can bleed the joy out of it, undermine its more humanistic or social aims (as embodied by Natural Development and Civic Education), and can lead to narrow training that in time will put the student at a professional disadvantage if their highly specific vocational skills become obsolete (Gardner 2022; Detweiler 2021)
  • Common educational strategies associated with this vision of flourishing include:
    • Standardized tests
    • Applied fields of study (e.g., medicine, education, engineering)
    • Student and university rankings
    • Heavy reliance on grades and other quantitative metrics
    • Competitive internships
    • Leadership positions in student organizations

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[1] Anecdotally, I briefly had my own experience of designing a curriculum dedicated to encouraging human flourishing. During my time in Chengdu, China, I worked with a large education conglomerate to develop a curriculum for human growth that was sort of similar in spirit to Harry Brighouse’s framework (cited in the background section). The project quickly declined as it was rushed to market without my authorization and was largely used to support privileged students in gaining a leg up in college admissions.