In this video, Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) President Andrew Serazin, D.Phil, highlights the Foundation's call to action for the future of human flourishing. He emphasizes the importance of seeking solutions to global challenges using an approach based on the virtues, values, and ideas that drive human flourishing. On this path, lies an opportunity to revolutionize research, practice, and policies, to go beyond just surviving and forge a future of thriving and flourishing.
The field of human flourishing is more concerned with “how progress is made than what progress is achieved,” explains Dr. Serazin. Taking actions that stem from character and virtue; that build fulfilling and affirming relationships; that encourage agency; and that keep in mind a sense of humility, wonder, and gratitude are at the heart of this strategy.
TWCF turns to an array of global luminaries in a broad range of fields such as psychology, education, spirituality, and the arts to get their perspective on what flourishing means and what a flourishing world could look like. In this video created by veteran journalist Richard Sergay, we hear from a variety of thought leaders including African human rights activist Hafsat Abiola; co-inventor of the Internet Dr. Vint Cerf; founder of The Chopra Foundation Dr. Deepak Chopra; Bishop of Oxford Rt Revd Dr. Steven Croft; President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson; AGRA President Dr. Agnes Kalibata; internationally acclaimed musician and advocate of American culture Wynton Marsalis; first woman president of Ireland and chair of The Elders Mary Robinson; Yale University cognitive scientist Professor Laurie Santos; and OECD education leader Andreas Schleicher.
This is the second installment in a video series that includes insights from those mentioned above, as well as Harvard social scientist Professor Arthur Brooks; University of Pennsylvania Character Lab’s director Angela Duckworth; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Emerita Director Judith Jamison; and Harvard’s director of Human Flourishing Professor Tyler VanderWeele.
Templeton World Charity Foundation’s “Stories of Impact” videos by journalist and senior media executive Richard Sergay feature human stories and critical perspectives on breakthroughs about the universe’s big questions. The inspiring narratives and observations in these award-winning videos portray the individual and societal impacts of the projects that bring to life TWCF-supported research.
