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The
common thread of concern within the Institute is the
problem of the “good” or of “human flourishing.” Why?
Implicit assumptions of “the good” define the
terms of meaning and moral order; tacit conceptions of “human
flourishing” form the deep structures of culture. Given
this, our core concern is to provide better accounts of human
flourishing under the conditions of late Western modernity:
how it has been and is being undermined, on the one hand,
and how it has been and is being sustained and enhanced,
on the other.
Inquiry
into the deep structures of contemporary culture requires
an approach that transcends conventional disciplinary theories,
methods, and practices, and an open space where such inquiry
can go forward. Therefore, our intellectual labor is divided
not along disciplinary lines or according to institutional
spheres but around three areas in which questions of the
good are most critical: the person, the community, and
the constitutive elements of meaning itself. These areas
of research form the heart of the Institute’s
intellectual agenda. |
