Fifteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

In this era of ecosystemic crisis, it is becoming increasingly important to renew and reform our approaches to environmental education so that they encourage, not only knowledge accrual, but also real changes in attitudes and lifestyles among our young people. This presentation proposes an educational paradigm for undergraduate teaching of sustainability centered on the theme of human flourishing. The author reports on a “test case” which was an undergraduate seminar course taught for juniors and seniors entitled “Sustainability and the Good Life.” In the course, the students entertained questions such as: What do we need to be happy? What are some obstacles to happiness and human flourishing? How does sustainability relate to happiness and the “good life”? How can the practice of sustainability foster human flourishing and the good life? Sustainability was considered in an integrated context incorporating, natural, social, economic, and cultural aspects. Students read from classical literature such as Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas and brought those readings into dialogue with contemporary readings on sustainability and creation care, by authors such as Henry David Thoreau, Wendell Berry, William McDonough, and Pope Francis in Laudato Si’. The objectives of the course were to encourage communal discussion of ideas related to human flourishing and its connection to sustainability, as well as to encourage application of these ideas to concrete situations and personal ways of living.