Spiritual Animals: Sense-Making, Self-Transcendence, and Liberal Naturalism
Owen Flanagan has advocated for an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural inquiry into the nature and optimal conditions of human flourishing that he aptly terms eudaimonics. For Flanagan flourishing is multifaceted, involving biological, psychological, and social dimensions. In this article, I will expl...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Open Library of Humanities$s2024-
2021
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| In: |
Zygon
Year: 2021, Volume: 56, Issue: 4, Pages: 971-983 |
| Further subjects: | B
Spirituality
B Sense-making B Enactivism B Naturalism B eudaimonics |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Owen Flanagan has advocated for an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural inquiry into the nature and optimal conditions of human flourishing that he aptly terms eudaimonics. For Flanagan flourishing is multifaceted, involving biological, psychological, and social dimensions. In this article, I will explore the spiritual dimension of human flourishing from a liberal naturalist perspective. My first core claim is that, at the root of human experience, there are capacities for sense-making and self-transcendence. These capacities allow us, indeed drive us, to create, maintain, and transform spiritual ecologies. These ecologies allow us to find meaning, value, and purpose in our individual and shared worlds—that is, to be spiritually at home. My second core claim is that this spiritual dimension is a distinct and irreducible dimension of our flourishing. The spiritual dimension centrally involves the depth and integration of our human orientation to life. In my view, we are inescapably spiritual animals and any adequate eudaimonics must take this into account. |
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| ISSN: | 1467-9744 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Zygon
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/zygo.12749 |