From “Abundant Lives: A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing” by Amanda Udis-Kessler
All people, without exception, ought to have the opportunity to flourish and to avoid unnecessary suffering.
A humane approach to ethics begins with this claim rather than with a claim based on abstract principles and values such as rights, freedom, equality, or justice that can be used to cause suffering as well as flourishing. We can move on to make the following claims:
Morally good ideas, principles, values, beliefs, actions, cultural norms, organizations and large-scale social institutions are those that support human flourishing – both our own flourishing and that of all other people.
Morally problematic ideas, principles, values, beliefs, actions, cultural norms, organizations, and large scale institutions are those that block human well-being or that contribute to otherwise avoidable suffering.
These claims allow us to evaluate the morality of specific ideas, principles, and actions based on their consequences. Do they lead to flourishing or to suffering, and for whom? We can ask these questions about any and every aspect of our lives from our smallest daily decisions and actions to our religious organizations, economic systems, and other institutions in society.
An ethic of flourishing does not approach rights as the final goal. Rights are, rather, a way to reach the goal of human well-being. Rights used to promote human well-being are a moral good; rights used to cause human suffering are a moral problem. Rights are morally neutral until put into practice and can be put into practice in beneficial or detrimental ways. The same could be said of all other moral and political principles, and indeed of the many concepts, practices, and organizations that make up society.