Aristotle called it “eudaimonia,” a Greek word that is usually translated as happiness.
In his book “Nicomachean Ethics,” the philosopher posed that humans’ main goal in life was to reach “eudaimonia,” or happiness.
Blaine Fowers, a professor at the School of Education and Human Development, believes that the philosopher was talking about more than the simple emotion of happiness. He likes to think that “eudaimonia” means flourishing.
“It is a richer concept or idea,” said Fowers. “Flourishing is living in the best possible way.”
Definitions of flourishing include “marked by vigorous and healthy growth” and “being active and successful.”
But how do you flourish? And do we all flourish in the same way?
Fowers hopes to get some of those answers soon. He has been selected to lead one of 11 teams by the Templeton World Charity Foundation to organize research that provides scientific knowledge on how people flourish.
“I feel honored that they chose me and that they liked my idea,” he said. There were almost 500 other teams of scientists that applied for this honor.
MarieGuerda Nicolas, also a professor at the School of Education and Human Development and a prominent scholar in cultural psychology, will work with Fowers as a co-principal investigator.
Nicolas is a member of the Global Psychology Alliance, a group of more than 60 national, regional, and international psychological associations from every continent across the world. Nicolas’ knowledge in the cultural psychology field and contacts will be crucial to the task, said Fowers.
“Flourishing is an area of particular interest to me as it pertains to different cultural groups across the globe,” she said. “While we know that individuals inherently want to achieve success and thrive, we recognize that for many countries and communities such achievements are very challenging because of several barriers.
“I am excited to embark on this project with my friend and colleague Blaine, because it will allow us to not only understand the individual factors that promote flourishing but the systemic barriers that impede such progress and develop strategies to eliminate them,” she added.
Flourishing has been studied in the past, but almost all the studies focused on Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (WEIRD) populations, said Fowers. His study will take a global approach and be more inclusive of the world’s populations.
The project will recruit a group of advisors who are academic psychologists from 10 regions of the world (Canada, Central America, East Asia, Europe, North Africa, South America, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, the United States, and West Asia). Those advisors will be interviewed to gauge how flourishing is viewed in their area of the world. In subsequent years, the researchers plan to include investigators to study flourishing in many different populations, said Fowers.
The professor said that he hopes the project will provide knowledge on what flourishing looks like in different cultures.
Some of the questions the researchers will explore include: What does it mean to be happy and flourish to someone in Spain versus someone in Sub-Saharan Africa? Can one flourish in a war-torn country like Syria or the Congo? Can one flourish if one is poor or vulnerable?
“Every society will be different,” said Fowers. Some societies take care of their residents better than others and there may be more satisfaction and a propensity for those residents to flourish, he explained. A sense of community and belonging also helps people to flourish, he pointed out.
“If you live in a place and you are in a downtrodden group, it is difficult to flourish because you have to deal with the oppression and negativity,” he said. Gender and race will also be taken into consideration as interview questions are drafted; because in some societies, men may find it easier to flourish than women.
According to Fowers, Aristotle believed that in order to flourish, human beings had to practice the virtues: be kind, courageous, fair, generous, and compassionate. In short, be a good person.
