Segall/The House We Live In, 4. On Flourishing

Flourishing means living lives that are decent, meaningful, fulfilling, and admirable. This chapter examines seven dimensions of flourishing: relationship, accomplishment, aesthetics, meaning, whole-heartedness, integration, and acceptance. Flourishing lives realize all or most of these dimensions. Flourishing lives realize and satisfy individually appropriate sets of values with the caveat that they must be lived not just for oneself, but also for the sake of others. Higher levels of flourishing call for lives of open-ended inquiry into values rather than lives lived in accordance with dogma.