In this video, Templeton World Charity Foundation President, Andrew Serazin, D.Phil, shares a brief overview of what to expect at The First Annual Global Scientific Conference on Human Flourishing.
Andrew Serazin:
"Now is an essential time to bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to examine what's possible for the future of human flourishing. Over the past decade, we've seen a tremendous amount of research activity in positive psychology in philosophy, technology, cognition, in neuroscience, that's driven by a real human need — that we need to find ways to move past survival as the end goal for our society. Our goal for society should be more than that. It should be about growth and flourishing and resilience and adaptation to change and learning and possibility and creativity.
So, this is the first annual global scientific conference on human flourishing. What is different about it is its broader scope — to not just be about research but also engage policymakers, innovators, and practitioners who are trying to use this knowledge for good — and also, its global nature. We will host workshops all across the world, and as many continents as we possibly can, to get that global perspective. While we have a very good working definition of some of the major dimensions of flourishing, there are some clear gaps. Flourishing isn't a static thing — what may be flourishing — what matters for flourishing and adolescence may be different from middle age, so we lack that kind of nuanced understanding of the life course. Another knowledge gap that we have is we don't really understand how core aspects of human experience like suffering and adversity and problems and challenges can actually create the conditions for future growth. Sir John Templeton had a phrase that he loved to say which is that he thought about the earth as a school. The models we have for flourishing don't necessarily incorporate that sense of adversity as being core to the human experience.
There may never be one grand unified theory of flourishing. I think that would be a mistake. I think it will always adapt and change to circumstances. I think this experiment, this grand journey that we're on, is going to create a kind of much more nuanced and rich description of flourishing which accommodates the range of human experience. I see this conference as the can't-miss opportunity for sharing the most fascinating and important discoveries in human flourishing. We can expect a tremendous focus on new data that you need to know about. We all can also expect an aspect of celebration, so that we are celebrating that this community has come together and realized that as much intellectual and financial horsepower that we've applied to many many other subjects should be applied to the topic of flourishing. It is the most important topic of our time so one of the things we want to get past is thinking about flourishing as this idealized set of concepts which have no real purchase in the real world. What you can expect is this really global dialogue, in a virtual plenary fashion, to showcase the best new ideas and flourishing. You will also have a number of workshops which will be held in person in various locations around the world that are all happening simultaneously. We will also have an open call for abstracts where anyone can contribute their new ideas or showcase them. We envision this to be a global annual event that brings together many different funders, many different media brands, platforms, and kinds of expertise. We've already set up a world-class program advisory committee which brings together a number of the world's best minds and thought leaders on the topic of flourishing. We see this as a broad community. It's not something that's solely owned, or something that is solely focused on the Templeton World Charity Foundation. We want this to be something that's a broad tent that anybody who's interested in the topic can contribute to in the future."