Human flourishing

PRESENTED BY: GROUP 5

 FLOURISHING
It is a state where people experience positive emotions,
positive psychological functioning, and positive social
functioning; most of the time “living” within an optimal
range of human.
 Human flourishing
• Aristotle coined the term EUDAIMONIA which means
“good-spirited”
• Described it as a pinnacle of happiness that is attainable by
humans
• As discussed in the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle’s
human flourishing arises as a result of different components
such as phronesis (wisdom), friendship, wealth, and power.
 According to e.f. Schumacher(2014), in an essay entitled “buddhist

economics
“Right Livelihood” is one of the requirements of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. It is
clear, therefore, that there must be such thing as Buddhist Economics. Spiritual health and
material well-being are not enemies; they are natural allies.
If you think human flourishing is an objective reality based on objective criteria, it is not . It is more
complicated than merely physical and mechanical movements. When we understand our human
flourishing as mechanical, we reduce ourselves, to machines, or even reduce ourselves to objects. From
this sensibility stems the negative thinking toward work and the difficulty of satisfying work (one
perfectly aligned with our sense of purpose and mission ). If all that we do is focused on acquiring
wealth and becoming rich, we see ourselves pushing too much and exerting unnecessary effort to be
someone we are not.
 Says Schumacher, it is
undeniable that the source of
wealth is human labor
 Labor from two opposing perspectives:

• From the perspective of the employer, it is understood as a cost in a process,

which can be removed by automation
• From the perspective of the workfrorce, it is understood as a “disutility”.

DISUTILITY- Labor as a letting go of leisure and comfort. In relation to this, wages are
understood as a kind of compensation for the sacrifices made.
When understood in a relation to the two aforementioned perspectives, the employers
envision “an output without employees”, while the work force envisions an “income
without employment”.
 Consequences of these differing
views
• The tendency of companies to automate
• But automation is costly and expensive
• So they engage in the process of dividing labor
• produce efficiency of labor (faster and accountability)

As this involves efficiency, it is often understood as

progress, or better yet, this is what is often
misunderstood as human flourishing.
 Schumacher challenges this understanding of
human flourishing using a Buddhist point of view.
In the Buddhist perspective, labor is understood
as:

“To give a man a chance to utilize and develop his

faculties; to enable him to overcome his ego-
centeredness by joining with other people in
common task; and to bring forth the goods and
services needed for a becoming existence”.
 Two types of automation / mechanization

Enhances the skills and Reduces human work to a

power of humanity mechanical slave
= =
Constitutes the Buddhist Leaves humanity to the
vision for human position of serving the slave
flourishing
 • If our understanding of human flourishing simple constitutes
automation/mechanization, then we become victims of the slaves;
this is not the vision of the human flourishing, we entend to push
forward.
• Similar to Ghandi, Schumacher further distinguishes Buddhist
economics with the economics of modern materialism.
• For Buddhist, character is formed, as well as is a consequence of
human labor. Since human labor is concerned here, it is
determined by the condition of human dignity and freedom.
 Schumacher’s claim in Buddhist economics
highlights two things: NONVIOLENCE and
SIMPLICITY.

From this economist perspective, the beauty of

this way of life lies in its utter rationality- that
human flourishing does not entail big or huge
things, but tiny or small means that lead to
satisfactory results.
Thank
You