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The essays in this volume examine the nature of human flourishing and its relationship to a variety of other key concepts in moral theory. Some of them trace the link between flourishing and human nature, asking whether a theory of human nature can allow us to develop an objective list of goods that are of value to all agents, regardless of their individual purposes or aims. Some essays look at the role of friendships or parent-child relationships in a good life, or seek to determine whether an ethical theory based on human flourishing can accommodate concern for others for their own sake. Other essays analyze the function of families or other social-political institutions in promoting the flourishing of individuals. Still others explore the implications of flourishing for political theory, asking whether considerations of human flourishing can help us to derive principles of social justice

Despite considerable reform over the past several decades, family law is still failing families. Instead of strengthening relationships long before problems arise, too often family law waits for a crisis and then intervenes, typically in a heavy‐handed, adversarial fashion. This essay, an extended précis of a forthcoming book, argues that family law should be fundamentally oriented toward fostering strong, stable, positive relationships to prevent crises. Then, if a conflict does arise, family law should intervene in a manner that preserves and repairs relationships.Key Points for the Family Court Community:
Despite considerable evidence demonstrating the essential role families play in ensuring the well‐being of the next generation, family law does far too little to strengthen families.
Once conflicts do arise, family law pits one family member against the other, undermining the relationships that will almost certainly continue long after the legal action ends.
Family law should be fundamentally oriented toward fostering strong, stable, positive relationships, which will require changes to both the structural relationship between families and the state and the dispute‐resolution system.

Early in Peter Abelard's Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian, the philosopher (that is, the ancient Greek) and the Christian easily come to agreement about what the point of ethics is: "[T]he culmination of true ethics … is gathered together in this: that it reveal where the ultimate good is and by what road we are to arrive there." They also agree that, since the enjoyment of this ultimate good "comprises true blessedness," ethics "far surpasses other teachings in both usefulness and worthiness." As Abelard understood them, both fundamental elements of his twelfth-century ethical culture — Greek philosophy and Christian religion — held a common view of the nature of ethical inquiry, one that was so obvious to them that his characters do not even state it in a fully explicit way. They take for granted, as we take the ground we stand on, the premise that the most important function of ethical theory is to tell you what sort of life is most desirable, or most worth living. That is, the point of ethics is that it is good for you, that it serves your self-interest.

Peter Toon is the leading writer on primary care virtue ethics and this thought-provoking book builds on the thinking of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. A Flourishing Practice? looks at the moral problems that currently seem prevalent in health care. Common moral dilemmas highlighted by the media include threats to continuity of care, inappropriate care at the end of life, problems associated with commercialisation and privatisation of health care, defensiveness and risk aversion, and unrealistic expectations of care.

The author argues that these all arise from a fundamental fragmentation of the value systems guiding our lives. The solution to these crises of professionalism and the pervading sense of moral crisis is the creation of a shared narrative. In this model of health care professionals and patients work together to cultivate the personal qualities that they need to flourish.

Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; PART I: The liberalism of flourishing: Two versions; 1 Intellectualist-moralist liberalism of flourishing; 2 Comprehensive liberalism of flourishing; 3 The liberalism of flourishing and autonomy liberalism: Some comparisons; PART II: Flourishing, art, and the state; 4 Art and flourishing; 5 Art and the liberal state; PART III: Liberalism, art, and religion; 6 Liberalism, religion, nationalism: Liberalism in the domains of meaning; Bibliography; Index.

What does it entail to foreground water flourishing as a stance toward the Anthropocene? During an exercise at the Anthropocene Campus Melbourne, about twenty participants individually drew images of 'water flourishing' leading, with only one or two exceptions of Edenic representations, to a wall of images depicting no humans. That small experience reproduced a larger cultural and environmental management configuration: people-less water flourishing. If we face such constraints in imagining, representing, and enacting hydro-flourishing, we remain stuck in familiar loops either of: 1) elemental thinking that excludes the human; or 2) anthropocenic thinking that too often addresses the human primarily as destroyer. How do we imagine our being with water in different ways? How do we move away from pervasive narratives of water crisis without, at the same time, romancing water? Feminist, decolonial, and Indigenous approaches to water and its cultural politics ask us to consider the elemental not only in substance, but also in rights regimes and in the project of flourishing. In this paper, we present examples of water flourishing projects and impasses from three sites: Kathmandu, Nepal; Perth, Australia; and the Florida Everglades, United States. All show both the problems and the promise of co-centering the human and nonhuman in their interdependent relations when it comes to water flourishing.

Opposition to legalizing surrogacy often involves the argument that it commodifies or objectifies women and children. When surrogacy involves consenting parties claiming to benefit from the transaction, commodification- or objectification-based arguments seem unpersuasive. This article argues that new natural law theory offers an alternative case against legalizing surrogacy based on the violation of basic goods of human flourishing, a notion which unpacks afresh what is really at stake in the commodification/objectification arguments. Exploring the new natural law approach through John Finnis's theory, this article suggests that the new natural law case against surrogacy hinges on the link between childbirth and raising children, which turns out to be the major bone of contention in the surrogacy debate. The establishment of the link turns on answers to empirical questions as to what is in the best interests of the child, as well as on contested notions of motherhood, raising questions of a philosophical or normative nature. This article elucidates for policy makers and legislators the precise issues they must face squarely in order to determine whether to legalize or prohibit surrogacy arrangements.