HUMAN FLOURISHING
Ability to live a good life
WHAT IS IT?
Human flourishing is the ability to live a good life. Rooted in Aristotelian ethics, it values health intrinsically and applies universally to all human lives. Human flourishing embraces our shared humanity and serves everyone’s interest. All people should have the conditions for flourishing and realizing their ability to be healthy. They can use their values, talents, and abilities in pursuit of their own goals and health.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Human flourishing is important because it promotes the growth, development, and holistic well-being of individuals and populations. It serves as a moral basis for what it means to be a human being. If we desire individuals’ abilities to flourish, we will be better equipped to analyze and shape health policy and public health. We can better achieve health equity worldwide.
Having a thorough understanding of the conditions that enable human flourishing will promote safety and security in people’s lives. This includes health, economic, community, financial, political, and more.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
A flourishing person is living a good, fulfilling life, a life with a sense of purpose. They have the ability to do what they want to do and be who they want to be. They have, and are committed to building, good mental health, physical health, and social health in all areas of their lives and those of their community members. This includes family, work, education, community, politics, economics, and more.
A flourishing person has the ability to help their bodies thrive, their emotional needs met, the trust and cooperation to function in social settings, and the ability to use their reason for individual and collective ends.
HOW DO WE DO IT?
Human flourishing is supported at the individual and community levels. At the individual level, we can develop our abilities to flourish by 1) being committed to growing within, and developing, supportive and cultivating environments that form our capabilities, 2) believing in ourselves and our abilities, 3) knowing about our health and how to be healthy, and 4) being self-motivated to achieve the goals that we and society value. At the community level, we must be surrounded and supported by, and contribute collaboratively to, strong support systems, institutions, resources, norms, and security that will help us all flourish.