HUMAN FLOURISHING

AND SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY
EUDAIMONIA

• It comes from the Greek word eu meaning “well” and

daimon or daemon meaning “spirit”.

• It is defined as the contented state of being happy, healthy,

and prosperous.
 In Philosophy, eudaimonism refers to pursuing the right
actions that lead to one’s “well being”.
Ancient Greek philosophers developed normative ethical
theories called virtue ethics that emphasize the virtues of
mind and character. According to them, such virtues are
linked to the concept of arête, meaning “excellence of any
kind that is necessary in order for one individual to flourish
and attain the good life.
Eudaimonia - is an objective state that characterizes the
well-lived life as individual’s ideal emotional state.

There are different philosophical theories that attempts

to explain eudaimonia such as hedonism. According to
hedonism, pleasure is the most valuable pursuit of
mankind and everything that one does is to gain pleasure.
Another approach to good is from the historical and
philosophical teachings of Aristotle. –the eudaimonic well
being.

Epicurus and other notable hedonists agreed with Aristotle

that eudaimonia is the highest good. However, Epicurus
associated this with the idea of “pleasure for pleasure’s
sake”
 HUMAN
FLOURISHING IN
THE CHRISTIAN
PERSPECTIVE
St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Thomas Aquinas
-proposed that eudaimonia of human flourishing requires
one to have a knowledge of God.
John Locke
-derived fundamental principles of his philosophy from the
Bible, stressed that happiness is pursued through prudence.
OLD TESTAMENT
“shalom” – according to theologians, means peace,
harmony, and completeness. It is a sense of wholeness
involving in individuals relationship with God and his
creation.
NEW TESTAMENT
Beatitudes - comes from the Greek word
“makarios” meaning “blessed” and
“happy”.
- comes from the latin “beatus”
meaning “blissful”, “happy”,
“fortunate”, or “flourishing”
 In the classical Greek, makar from makarios refers to
the state of living a life of happiness without struggles
and difficulties.

Scot McKnight highlighted in his discussion of the

Beatitudes that “the entire philosophy of the good life
and the late-modern theory of happiness are at work
when Jesus says , “Blessed are”
HUMAN FLOURISHING IN
THE SOCIO-
PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
 CONSEQUENCES OF
HUMAN FLOURISHING
• Science and technology clearly affect the human experience
and human understanding of happiness.

• Carol Ryff (1995),psychology professor, studied different

models and theories of happiness in different subfields of
psychology. She concluded that there are six components of
well being.