Theme 3: History and Politics
This seminar series, like the previous two in our research programme on Education, Purpose and Human
Flourishing in Uncertain Times, explores how we might better understand the ‘idea’ or indeed the ideal of
flourishing, and the importance of education as a pathway to it. Previously, we first examined a variety of
important concepts concerning personhood and society as it relates to flourishing, such as character and
virtue, and asked whether flourishing lies in the development of these. In the second seminar series, we
turned our attention to other notions interdependently related to flourishing, specifically the notions of
culture and context. We asked whether and how the development of mind and socio-emotional qualities
such as character, virtue, open-mindedness, resilience, and actualisation are differently, but no less
meaningfully, shaped by history and culture across world contexts. In this third series we are turning to the
impact of history and politics on pathways and understandings of human flourishing. We ask to what
extent we should consider enabling and disabling historical factors in national and international contexts,
and point towards examples of collective endeavour and struggle in response to adversity.
The following seminars will be given at 5pm on Tuesdays in the Pavilion Room, St. Antony’s College.
These seminars are open to the public, and can be joined virtually.