Andrew Briggs - Human Flourishing: Scientific insight and spiritual wisdom in uncertain times

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The struggle for human beings to integrate a thoughtful understanding of the world as described by science and an ambitious hope of human flourishing as described by philosophy or faith is one at which humans have largely failed over the last three hundred years. This book is a major step in the right direction. It is very serious about science and very serious about human beings and their hopes and fears. I warmly commend it for a careful and thoughtful provocation towards a deeper commitment to the flourishing of human beings and of the creation.

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

The theme of this highly readable and enlightening book is broad and ambitious. Its the product of the authors deep engagement with science, ethics and religion, and analyses the requisites for a fulfilled life, highlighting those that too often elude politicians and economists. The text is enlivened with historical allusions and quotations. It offers a wise perspective thats much needed as individuals and societies contend with the anxieties of the present era.

Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society

In this magisterial book, Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss address one of the most fundamental issues confronting humanityhuman flourishing. Drawing on science and religion, they examine it from the perspective of the material, relational and spiritual. What emerges are profound insights into meaning, purpose, truth, and the reason for being. This book should be read by anyone interested in what it is to be human.

Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies, University of Oxford

What enables the good life? Material goods? Supportive relationships? Transcendent purpose? In this state-of-the-art synopsis, scientist Andrew Briggs and bioethicist Michael Reiss weave these and other threads into the fabric of human thriving. With a breath-taking sweep of scholarship that draws insights from multiple disciplines, they illuminate a path toward meaningful well-being and sustainable joy.

David Myers, Professor of Psychology, Hope College, author of The Pursuit of Happiness

A sophisticated and much-needed and insightful integration of science and humanity. As an economist I am embarrassed by my professions stunted characterization of humanity as Homo economicus, which shrivels us to hedonistic consumers. In reality, as Professors Briggs and Reiss demonstrate, we thrive from morally guided agency that transcends ourselves and our time on Earth. In this time of uncertainty and pessimism, it is a hopeful guide to meaningful lives.

Sir Paul Collier, Blavatnik School of Government, author of The Future of Capitalism

In a world where human flourishing seems somewhat more elusive and abstract than ever, Professors Briggs and Reiss capture the many dimensions of human flourishing in the 21st century. In doing so, they give us reason to hope and to work toward a world where all people flourish. This is a delightful and uplifting treatise on what it means to be human.

Heather Templeton Dill, President, John Templeton Foundation

In Human Flourishing: Scientific Insight and Spiritual Wisdom in Uncertain Times, acclaimed scholars Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss provide insight for navigating a world of uncertainty and complexity to find more meaning, purpose, and happiness all around us. Using a combination of science and ancient wisdom, they demonstrate why love is essential for human flourishing.

Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and The New York Times bestselling author

For those of my generation, who grew up with post-war austerity and the threat of nuclear annihilation, the twenty-first century promised an era of unparalleled human flourishing. But it was a mirage. Material wealth has led to problems of disparity, over-consumption, and climate catastrophe; social media has produced alienation and a retreat from shared values. Democracy and common decency look increasingly fragile. We have entered a strange new era in which extraordinary promise is coupled with a burgeoning sense of insecurity and uncertainty. Science, the powerful facilitator of progress, also threatens our undoing. In this lucid and comprehensive analysis, Andrew Briggs and Michael Reiss carefully examine the rich tapestry of religious, cultural, and scientific factors that define our current predicament, and offer a message of hope, a way ahead founded on that familiar, yet too-often elusive, human qualitylove.

Paul Davies, Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University

This book by Briggs and Reiss covers questions that are of critical importance to everyone everywhere: How do we understand human life? What is human flourishing? How do we flourish? The books rich insights and comprehensive scope will be of benefit to all readers. It provides a roadmap to flourishing in this life, and beyond.

Tyler J. VanderWeele, Loeb Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University

In the midst of a great pandemic, unprecedented poverty, and natural disasters alongside never-before-seen development of new technologies and great wealth, nothing could be more important than wrestling with what it really means for humans to flourish. Here, Briggs and Reiss provide a comprehensive, synthetic, and highly readable book that addresses this topic head on. It is the kind of book that should be read and re-read.

Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, Rice University

As I read this book, Modest Mussorgskys wonderful Pictures at an Exhibition started playing in my mind. The same sense of multiple perspective, overt spaciousness with periodic attention to intense detail, yet a persistent crescendo in continuity of purpose emerges in this elegant and comprehensive tour of a rich and pan-disciplinary subject. Briggs and Reiss have given a compelling introduction to human flourishing, and show us why, though discussed since the ancient world, it has become ever more pressing in our own times.

Tom McLeish, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of York

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Andrew Briggs and Michael J. Reiss 2021

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First Edition published in 2021

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