Happiness and Human Flourishing

The chapter explores the concept of human flourishing drawing on two traditions, the Aristotelian-Thomistic virtue ethics tradition, and the new research tradition of positive psychology. These traditions may seem very different in origin, but they have some fundamental similarities. Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology has summed up human flourishing using the acronym PERMA, where each letter indicate one element; Positive emotions, Engagements, Relationship, Meaning and Accomplishment. Seligman emphasizes the problems of hedonic pleasure and "happyology" in describing human flourishing.