Abstract
Critical Realists have long argued that social science has an axiological concern with “human flourishing.” But they have rarely spelt out what they mean by this term. It is urgent that they do so, in order to respond effectively to the post-humanist movement’s appropriation of the flourishing concept. This article sketches a theory of human flourishing that is: (1) rooted in the Aristotelian tradition that underlies most versions of CR; (2) compatible with central tenets of CR such as “emergence”, “ontological stratification”, “actualism” and “transcendence”; and (3) allows for a critical assessment of the posthumanist vision. The conclusion reflects on the implications of human morphogenesis for social morphogenesis and social theory.
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Notes
- 1.
This premise is explored in at least two science fiction movies: “The Matrix” and “Vanilla Sky.”
- 2.
In a subsequent book, Smith argues that human beings have six basic needs related to: “body”, “knowledge”, “integrity”, “agency”, “morality” and “sociality.” However, these are inductively derived from existing research on human well-being and are not systematically grounded in his account of human personhood. See (Smith 2015).
- 3.
Note that this is quite similar to Martha Nussbaum’s distinction between (real) “capacities” and (actualized) “functions” (Nussbaum 2011).
- 4.
For a similar view from a pragmatist standpoint, see also (Joas 2000).
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Gorski, P. (2017). Human Flourishing and Human Morphogenesis: A Critical Realist Interpretation and Critique. In: Archer, M. (eds) Morphogenesis and Human Flourishing. Social Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49469-2_2
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