Darrin M. McMahon - History and Human Flourishing

Series editor: James O. Pawelski, University of Pennsylvania

Other Volumes in the series

Philosophy and Human Flourishing

Edited by John J. Stuhr

History and Human Flourishing

Edited by Darrin M. McMahon

Literary Studies and Human Flourishing

Edited by James F. English and Heather Love

Religious Studies, Theology, and Human Flourishing

Edited by Justin Thomas McDaniel and Hector Kilgoe

Theater and Human Flourishing

Edited by Harvey Young

Cinema, Media, and Human Flourishing

Edited by Timothy Corrigan

Music and Human Flourishing

Edited by Anna Harwell Celenza

Visual Arts and Human Flourishing

Edited by Selma Holo

The Humanities and Human Flourishing

Edited by James O. Pawelski

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McMahon, Darrin M., editor, author.

Title: History and human flourishing / edited by Darrin M. McMahon.

Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2023] |

Series: The humanities and human flourishing |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022026852 (print) | LCCN 2022026853 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780197625279 (paperback) | ISBN 9780197625262 (hardcover) |

ISBN 9780197625293 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: HistoryPhilosophy. | Success. | Conduct of life. | Well-being.

Classification: LCC D16.9 .H548 2023 (print) | LCC D16.9 (ebook) |

DDC 901dc23/eng/20220616

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026852

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026853

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197625262.001.0001

For Robert and Leslie Bonner, students of the past and human flourishing, friends in history and in life

Darrin M. McMahon

D. Graham Burnett

David Armitage

Maya Jasanoff

Peter N. Stearns

Peter T. Struck

Dan Edelstein

Suzanne Marchand

Darrin M. McMahon

Nicole Eustace

Mia Bay

Imagine being invited to a weekend meeting to discuss connections between the humanities and human flourishing. You talk about ways in which the humanities can help us understand what human flourishing isand is not. You explore how the humanities can help increase human flourishing. And you consider whether human flourishing is an absolute good, or whether it comes with certain limits and even potential dangers. How do you imagine the conversation playing out? What contributions might you make to the discussion?

The volumes in this series were borne out of just such a meeting. Or rather a series of such meetings, each gathering including some dozen scholars in a particular discipline in the humanities (understood to be inclusive of the arts). These disciplines include philosophy, history, literary studies, religious studies and theology, theater, cinema and media, music, and the visual arts. Participants were asked to consider how their work in their discipline intersects with well-being (taken to be roughly synonymous with human flourishing), along with a series of specific questions:

How does your discipline conceptualize, understand, and define well-being?

What does your discipline say about the cultivation of well-being? How does it encourage the implementation of well-being?

In what ways does your discipline support flourishing? Do some approaches within your discipline advance human flourishing more effectively than others? Are there ways in which certain aspects of your discipline could more effectively promote well-being?

Does your discipline contribute to well-being in any unique ways in which other endeavors do not?

Are there ways in which your discipline can obstruct human flourishing?

As might be expected, the conversations in these meetings were rich and wide-ranging. Some of them headed in expected directions; others were more surprising. Each of them yielded opportunities to question assumptions and deepen perspectives. The conversations were rooted in disciplinary contexts and questions but yielded many generalizable insights on how to conceptualize human flourishing more clearly, how to cultivate it more effectively, and how to avoid negative consequences of understanding it in incomplete or overblown ways. I cannot properly describe or even summarize the richness of the discussions here, but I would like to point out a few of the highlights included in each of the resulting volumes.

Philosophy and Human Flourishing, edited by John J. Stuhr, addresses a number of fundamental questions. What is the value of discussing human flourishing in a world that in so many ways is decidedly not flourishing? In what ways is flourishing similar to and different from happiness? What is the role of morality in human flourishing? How does it relate to systemic privilege and oppression? To what degree is flourishing properly the concern of individuals, and to what degree is it a function of communities and societies? What are key factors in the fostering of flourishing? In addressing these questions, philosophers explore concepts such as mattering, homeostasis, pluralism, responsibility, and values, and consider the roles of individuals, educational institutions, and governments.

History and Human Flourishing, edited by Darrin M. McMahon, centers on the question, What is the value of history for life? This core question leads to a number of further inquiries. Is history only about the past, or does it have important implications for the present and the future? If the latter, then how can historical inquiry most effectively contribute to well-being? Does such inquiry currently focus in an imbalanced way on ill-beingon prejudices, class struggles, and wars? Such work is doubtless of great importance, not least by investigating how claims about happiness can serve as propaganda for continued oppression. But would hope for the future be more effectively kindled and concrete steps toward its realization more adeptly guided by increased attention to what has actually gone well in the past and what we can learn from it, or by more focus on how human beings have responded positively to adversity?

Literary Studies and Human Flourishing, edited by James F. English and Heather Love, focuses on the transformative power of literature. Scholars examine a range of topics, including the reparative possibilities of a literary encounter, the value of bibliotherapy and of therapeutic redescription, the genre of uplit, and evolving methods for studying the activities and experiences of actual readers. A central question of this volume concerns the limits on transformations effected through literature. Several contributors worry that harnessing literary studies to the enterprise of human flourishing might lead readers merely to conform rather than to transform. To what extent might human flourishing serve as a palliative, enabling and encouraging readers to adapt to individual lives that lack moral depth and to social conditions that are rife with injustice, and thus obstruct the difficult and unsettling work of disruptive transformation needed for lasting individual and collective betterment?