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Full Idea
Basing ethics on human flourishing tends towards utilitarianism or consequentialism; actions, character traits, laws, and so on are to be assessed with reference to their contributions to human flourishing.
Clarification
'Flourishing' translates the Greek word 'eudaimonia'
Gist of Idea
Basing ethics on flourishing makes it consequentialist, as actions are judged by contributing to it
Source
Gilbert Harman (Human Flourishing, Ethics and Liberty [1983], 9.2.2)
Book Ref
Harman,Gilbert: 'Explaining Value and Other Essays' [OUP 2000], p.156
A Reaction
This raises the question of whether only virtue can contribute to flourishing, or whether a bit of vice might be helpful. This problem presumably pushed the Stoics to say that virtue itself is the good, rather than the resulting flourishing.
| 177 | If a person is good they will automatically become happy [Plato] |
| 5972 | Living happily is nothing but living virtuously [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
| 2903 | A good human will be virtuous because they are happy [Nietzsche] |
| 5938 | Virtue is superior to pleasure, as pleasure is never a duty, but goodness is [Ross] |
| 5121 | Basing ethics on flourishing makes it consequentialist, as actions are judged by contributing to it [Harman] |
| 4358 | Virtue may be neither sufficient nor necessary for eudaimonia [Hursthouse] |