Beyond human flourishing: an argument for ecological education

In this article I engage with the literature on human flourishing as an aim of education to argue that we need to look beyond human flourishing and embrace ecological education—an education that acknowledges and reflects the networks of interdependence of all that lives, including ourselves—inspired by an ecological ethic. The article is structured as follows. I begin by briefly introducing the problem and raising the question: is human flourishing too narrow an aim of education, from an ecological perspective? The next section discusses the value of human flourishing as an aim of education, recent objections, and rebuttals to those objections. I then turn to an ecological critique, arguing that the focus on human flourishing is ultimately (unjustifiably) anthropocentric. Even if human flourishing would require the flourishing of ecosystems, other species, biodiversity, and so on—which on standard conceptions of human flourishing is only partly true—ecological concerns cannot all be assumed to be implicit in human flourishing; and more importantly they should not be approached through human flourishing alone. I end by considering a pragmatic question: is ‘ecological flourishing’ still a plausible overarching aim (or justification) of education, or is it too far removed from the everyday reality of education and its individual and societal functions? I argue that it is fairly easy to make sense of in practical terms, and more easily embodied in concrete educational content and activities than ‘human flourishing’.