To flourish or destruct: a personalist theory of human goods, motivations, failure, and evil

353 Pages·2015·1.184 MB·English

by  Smith, Christian

To Flourish or Destruct

To Flourish or
Destruct
A Personalist Theory of Human Goods,
Motivations, Failure, and Evil
christian smith
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Sociology at the University
of Notre Dame, where he directs the Center for the Study of Religion and Society and
the Notre Dame Center for Social Research. He is the author or coauthor of several
books, including What Is a Person? and Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual
Lives of American Teenagers.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2015 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 23195- 2 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 23200- 3 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226232003.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Christian, 1960– author.
To fl ourish or destruct : a personalist theory of human goods, motivations, failure,
and evil / Christian Smith.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-23195-2 (cloth : alkaline paper) — isbn 978-0-226-23200-3 (e-book)
1. Persons. 2. Motivation (Psychology). 3. Good and evil. I. Title.
bf503.s53 2015
153.8—dc23
2014025470
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Critical Realist Personalism— Some Basics 27
2 Rethinking Motivations for Action 62
3 Against Social Situationism 91
4 Human Nature and Motivation in Classical Theory 119
5 On Basic Human Goods, Interests, and Motivations 159
6 Toward a Theory of Flourishing 201
7 Understanding Failure, Destruction, and Evil 223
Conclusion 266
Notes 279
Index 337

Some think there is no such thing as human nature.
For some people this idea becomes translated as,
“everything is possible for man,” and in that they fi nd some hope;
for others, “everything is permissible to man,”
and with that they abandon all restraint;
and others, fi nally, “everything is permissible against man,”
and with that we have arrived at Buchenwald.
— emmanuel mounier, Personalism

Acknowledgments
Numerous valued colleagues and friends read and provided helpful feedback
on parts or the whole of this book’s manuscript. These include Doug Por-
pora, Brian Brock, Bill Hurlbut, John Evans, Heather Price (who also helped
to design some fi gures), Roy Bhaskar, Jason Springs, Atalia Omer, Steve
Vaisey, Margaret Archer, Keith Meador, Margarita Mooney, Nicolette Man-
glos, Mehrdad Babadi, Brandon Vaidyanathan, Hilary Davidson, Trish Snell
Herzog, Brad Gregory, Todd Whitmore, and Mark Chaves. Meredith Whit-
nah, Katherine Sorrell, Cole Carnesecca, Daniel Escher, and Karen Hooge
provided a helpful group discussion of the drafts of the fi nal two chapters.
Very early on, Chris Eberle posed some provocative ideas about the inescap-
able nature of beliefs that helped get gears turning in my mind. I am grateful
to them all for their insights, support, and critical ideas. Part of this book
was written while on an Alan Richardson Fellowship at Durham University,
in Durham, England, awarded by the Department of Theology and Religion.
Many thanks to the Department and Durham University—i n particular to
Matthew Guest, Paul Murray, Douglas Davies, and Richard Song—f or help-
ing to provide me the time, space, and good conversations that helped moved
this book toward publication. Thanks also to the University of Notre Dame
for providing me a semester’s leave to work on this book, during a spell in
North Carolina and on the Richardson Fellowship. I presented overviews of
this book’s argument in two lectures—t he Cheryl Frank Memorial Lecture at
the International Centre for Critical Realism at the University of London, and
the annual Alan Richardson lecture at Durham University—a nd received
helpful questions and suggestions by the audiences of both, for which I am
grateful as well. Thanks also to the John Templeton Foundation for fund-
ing and organizing a two- day discussion of this book’s manuscript in Fort