What is human flourishing? And why are the arts and humanities integral to it?
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September 2022
HUMANITIES AND HUMAN FLOURISHING PROJECT
A newsletter about advances in the understanding, assessment, and cultivation of well-being by means of a deep and sustained collaboration between the arts, humanities, and the social sciences
What is human flourishing? And why are the arts and humanities integral to it?
What does it mean to live a “good life,” to experience well-being - in short, to flourish? According to the World Health Organization, it involves “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Certainly, an important piece of flourishing is not being sick or being plagued by negative experiences, but surely, there must be more to flourishing than the absence of ill-being?
Increasingly, social scientific researchers understand flourishing as a multi-faceted way of approaching overall quality of life that emphasizes experiencing low levels of ill-being and high levels of well-being. To experience low ill-being (e.g. the absence of diseases, disorders, and other negative states and traits), you might focus on mitigating or reducing existing ill-being and to prevent future ill-being. High well-being, on the other hand, concerns the presence of strengths, meaning, and other positive states and traits. To experience high well-being, you would preserve existing well-being and promote future well-being.
There are many factors that impact our flourishing, and a wide array of research studies suggest that integrating the arts and humanities into our lives is vital for flourishing. People who regularly engage with the arts and humanities tend to live longer, have a reduced risk of developing several mental health conditions, and subjective well-being. Engaging with the arts and humanities, such as visiting art museums, also can be important for improving our mood, through increasing our positive emotions and decreasing our negative emotions.
The arts and humanities are an ever-present force in shaping communities and individuals and are a central means for the cultivation of human flourishing. For those of us who choose to engage with the arts and humanities, we experientially know how deeply they can improve our well-being: how they ground us and offer pathways for reflection, make us feel more connected to our identities and communities, allow us to express ourselves creatively, lead to states of flow or transcendence. While some scientists, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers are already engaged in this work, there remains a great deal to learn - and do - about the impact of arts and humanities on human flourishing.
Take a moment to think about the role the arts and humanities play in your own life. What activities do you engage in? How do you feel during these activities? How do they connect to your own flourishing?
The Humanities and Human Flourishing Project
The Humanities and Human Flourishing Project (HHF) at the University of Pennsylvania, directed by Dr. James O. Pawelski, seeks to explore the ways in which the arts and humanities relate to individual and community flourishing. A founding contributor to the emerging field of the Positive Humanities, HHF brings together the wisdom of the arts and humanities and the empirical precision of the sciences to understand, assess, and advance the role of culture in human flourishing.
For more information on HHF, please visit www.humanitiesandhumanflourishing.org
Partners in Well-being Research and Application
As part of our ongoing work, HHF collaborates with arts institutions and other organizations to conduct research and identify ways in which to apply the science of well-being within their institutions. Recently, HHF has partnered with a network of art museums, including the Andy Warhol Museum, the Barnes Foundation, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, to examine the flourishing impacts of these cultural institutions as part of our “Art Museums: Institutions for Well-Being” initiative.
Further Reading
To learn more about HHF and read the research that serves as the foundation for our work, check out the following:
Conceptual model for the Humanities and Human Flourishing (Tay, Pawelski, & Keith, 2018; Shim, Tay, Ward, & Pawelski, 2019) - or, read the overview
An introduction to the Positive Humanities (Pawelski, 2022), part of the Oxford Handbook of the Positive Humanities
Literature review on the flourishing outcomes of visiting an art museum (Cotter & Pawelski, 2021) - or, read the research summary
What do we actually mean by “positive”? (Pawelski, 2016a; Pawelski, 2016b)
Upcoming Events
As part of the HHF colloquium series, we will be hosting a series of conversations between scientists and practitioners on the arts, culture, and well-being. This fall, we will hear from innovators working in research communities and art museums on how the work of art museums can promote well-being in individuals and communities. We welcome you to join us for these virtual events and take part in these important exchanges:
- September 21, 3:30 to 5:00pm ET - Jeff Smith + Karleen Gardner (register here)
- October 19, 10:00 to 11:30am ET - Matthew Pelowski + Kate Mulligan (register here)
- November 16 10:00 to 11:30am ET - Rebecca Chamberlain + Dana Bishop-Root (register here)
