Joy as a Virtue: The Means and Ends of Joy

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 308-331
Author(s):  
Pamela Ebstyne King ◽  
Frederic Defoy
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Means And Ends ◽  
Developmental Science ◽  
Fruit Of The Spirit ◽  
Science And Theology

To grasp human flourishing and thriving, we must understand joy. However, no theoretical models explain the complexity of joy as a fruit of the Spirit, nor fully account for its impact on human life. We suggest that joy is best conceptualized as a virtue, a psychological habit, comprised of characteristic adaptations and given meaning by transcendent narrative identity. Thus joy involves knowing, feeling, and enacting what matters most. Developmental science and Christian theological approaches to teleology inform the ultimate ends to which joy is aimed. They suggest that telos, the purpose or goal of development, may be understood as a dynamic process that perpetuates human and social thriving and involves (1) the growing self, (2) mutually beneficial relationships, and (3) evolving moral guidelines that ensure an ongoing fit and flourishing of self and society. We synthesize developmental psychology, virtue science, and theology to propose a definition and framework for understanding the development of joy through thriving. In order to promote scholarship on joy and to elucidate its transformative nature, we discuss joy in light of discipleship, vocation, suffering, justice, and eschatology and identify issues for research.

What Theology Should and Should Not Learn from the Social Sciences About the Common Good

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary L. Hirschfeld
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common

There are two ways to answer the question, What can Catholic social thought learn from the social sciences about the common good? A more modern form of Catholic social thought, which primarily thinks of the common good in terms of the equitable distribution of goods like health, education, and opportunity, could benefit from the extensive literature in public policy, economics, and political science, which study the role of institutions and policies in generating desirable social outcomes. A second approach, rooted in pre-Machiavellian Catholic thought, would expand on this modern notion to include concerns about the way the culture shapes our understanding of what genuine human flourishing entails. On that account, the social sciences offer a valuable description of human life; but because they underestimate how human behavior is shaped by institutions, policies, and the discourse of social science itself, their insights need to be treated with caution.

Schopenhauer’s Pessimism in Context

2020 ◽  
pp. 283-298
Author(s):  
Mark Migotti
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century

In this chapter, the author attempts to establish what is philosophically living and what is philosophically dead in Schopenhauer’s pessimism. Against the background of the intriguing the history of the terms “optimism” and “pessimism”—in debates about Leibniz’s theodicy in the early eighteenth century and the popularity of Schopenhauer in the late nineteenth century, respectively—the author points up the distinction between affirming life, which all living beings do naturally, and subscribing to philosophical optimism (or pessimism), which is possible only for reflective beings like us. Next, the author notes the significance of Schopenhauer’s claim that optimism is a necessary condition of theism and explains its bearing on his pessimistic argument for the moral unacceptability of suicide. The chapter concludes that Schopenhauer’s case for pessimism is not conclusive, but instructive; his dim view of the prospects for leading a truly rewarding, worthwhile human life draws vivid attention to important questions about how and to what degree an atheistic world can nevertheless be conducive to human flourishing.

The Transformative Self

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Literature History

Everyone wants a good life. Some try to create a good life by cultivating personal growth. They have a transformative self. This book explains how people form a transformative self, primarily in their evolving life stories, to help cultivate growth toward a life of happiness, love, and wisdom for the self and others. It introduces an innovative framework of values and personhood to strengthen and integrate three main areas of study: narrative identity, the good life, and personal growth. The result is a unique model of humane growth and human flourishing. Each chapter builds on that framework to explore topics central to the transformative self, such as how cultural beliefs of a good life shape our narrative identity; how narrative thinking shapes cultural and personal beliefs of a good life; how cultural master narratives shape our ideals for personal growth; how growth differs from gain, recovery, and other positive changes in the life story; how happiness, love, wisdom, and growth serve as superordinate goods in life; how the hard and soft margins of society thwart and facilitate personal growth; the dark side of growth; and the lengthy development of authenticity and self-actualizing. This book synthesizes scholarship from scientific research across several subfields of psychology to philosophy, literature, history, and cultural studies. It offers a creative and scientifically grounded framework for exploring three of life’s perennial questions: How do we make sense of our lives? What is a good life? and How do we create one?

Introduction

Forms of Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-74
Author(s):  
Andreas Gailus
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
German Culture ◽  
Temporal Specificity ◽  
Late Eighteenth

The introduction situates the book within the context of contemporary debates about life, spells out the relevance of Ludwig Wittgenstein's later thought to the argument, and explains how literature provides access to the political interiority of human life unavailable to contemporary theories of biopolitics. It also motivates the geographical and temporal specificity of the book, arguing that German culture from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century developed an expanded conception of life as the dynamic drive toward form. It suggests that this dynamic process of formation was seen by many in the German tradition as fundamental not merely to metabolic and bodily life, but equally to the vital processes of aesthetic, psychic, and socio-political phenomena.

Sociocultural constructs of children and childhood

2019 ◽  
Vol 578 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
Joanna Maria Garbula ◽  
Małgorzata Kowalik-Olubińska
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Childhood Studies ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Sociocultural Perspective ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sociocultural Approach ◽  
Universal Feature ◽  
Children And Childhood ◽  
Cultural Component

Interpretations of the concepts of children and childhood have significantly changed over the past centuries. In the eighteenth century childhood was ascribed a status of a separate phase of human life in which human beings learn, grow and develop. Research conducted within the developmental psychology paradigm based on the notion of childhood’s ‘naturalness’ and on the necessity and normality of development has contributed to the emergence of a universal vision of the child and childhood. This vision has been challenged by the research conducted within the sociocultural paradigm in which childhood, understood as a social construction, is neither a natural nor a universal feature of human groups but appears as a specific structural and cultural component of many societies. We focused our attention on the sociocultural interpretations of the concepts of children and childhood. Our aim is, therefore, to show the ways in which children and childhood are understood in a sociocultural perspective. In the introductory part of the paper we briefly describe a universal vision of child development as well as the criticism it met from the supporters of the social childhood studies. In the main part of the article we focus our attention on the issue of social constructing of children and childhood. Sociocultural approach to childhood reveals a multitude and diversity of images of children and childhood constructed by adults in a variety of places, contexts and social spaces.

scholarly journals Charisma and Communion

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 31-37
Author(s):  
Vera Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Human Life ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Science And Theology

Abstract In the context of reflections on modernity, an increasingly widespread belief seems to be emerging: the subject at which it is necessary to direct our attention, to which to throw a lifeline as it were, is the concrete and real human being, alone and at the same time besieged by increasingly tight and numerous systemic schemes. Are the “human subject” and his social context only undergoing a deep transformation, or are they actually in danger? This “new” knowledge involves all the humanistic and social sciences, such as philosophy, anthropology, psychology, economics, political science, and theology, in a sort of fusion and pact for mankind. Great spiritualities include life experiences and ideas that reverberate on everyday life, lifestyles, and culture. From the very beginning, Chiara Lubich’s spirituality, is based on two fundamental concepts: unity and forsaken Jesus, has been perceived as a new way to know God, but also as an idea that is able to renew human life, as well as to penetrate social and cultural realities.

scholarly journals Psychometric Properties of Flourishing Scales From a Comprehensive Well-Being Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska ◽  
Piotr Bialowolski ◽  
Matthew T. Lee ◽  
Ying Chen ◽  
Tyler J. VanderWeele ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Connectedness ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
Financial Security ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Over Time

In this article, we develop a measure of complete well-being. The framework is derived from the theoretical model of human flourishing understood as a state in which all aspects of a human life are favorable. The approach extends beyond psychological well-being and reflects the World Health Organization definition of health that not only considers the health of body and mind but also embraces the wholeness of the person. The Well-Being Assessment (WBA) is a comprehensive instrument designed to assess holistic well-being in six domains: emotional health, physical health, meaning and purpose, character strengths, social connectedness, and financial security. Although each of these domains is distinct, all of them are nearly universally desired, and all but financial security constitute ends in themselves. Data were collected from a representative sample of working adults. A sample of 276 employees participated in the pilot, 2,370 participated in the first wave and 1,209 in the second wave of the survey. The WBA showed a good fitting (40 items, six factors), satisfactory reliability, test–retest correlation, and convergent/discriminant validity in relation to stability over time and relevant health measures, as well as a good fit to the data that were invariant over time, gender, age, education, and marital status. The instrument can be of use for scientists, practitioners, clinicians, public health officials, and patients. Adoption of more holistic measures of well-being that go beyond psychological well-being may help to shift the focus from health deficiencies to health and well-being promotion.

The Construction of Paul’s Self in His Writings: Narrative Identity, Social Memory and Metaphorical Truth

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-265
Author(s):  
Simon Butticaz
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Narrative Identity ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Construction Of Self ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Narrative Mode ◽  
The Church

The article aims to investigate – in two autobiographical fragments of the Pauline writings (1 Cor. 15:8-10 and Gal. 1:13-24) – how the narrative mode enables the apostle to grasp the continuity and coherence of his identity, while integrating in the construction of his self disparate and discordant elements (like the Damascus event) which continually threaten the “narrative unity of a human life” (MacIntyre). Furthermore, since “collective memory” precedes and shapes the individual representation of the past (Halbwachs; Assmann), the article also examines how Paul integrates and negotiates in his construction of self-identity the “communal memories” shared by his social group, and in particular his past as persecutor of the Church. Finally, we shall describe the integration of these autobiographical fragments within their respective literary contexts and explore the “metaphorical truth” – or the “refiguration” of reality – which is produced by these different “configurations” of Pauline identity (Ricoeur).


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