But innovation in fashion, the ability to create novel garments, in addition to technique, requires ideas that give rise to creations that visually, thanks to their shape and color, are aesthetically novel. Where did Balenciaga's ideas come from? Considering that he had a long professional life, his ideas came from various sources. Among all of them, those that came from the traditional culture of his country of origin stand out. The couturier worked based on those sources, especially after settling in Paris, at a time when Spain was a particularly hot topic due to the civil war. The international fashion press were already echoing the Spanish influence in the chronicles of his first Parisian collection presented in August 1937. Coincidentally, three months earlier a new International Exhibition was inaugurated in the French capital, in which Spain wanted to be present despite the war. Picasso's Guernica, which the Republican government had commissioned, was the main draw of the Spanish pavilion (Alix). In addition, popular costumes were exhibited along with photographs from "España Tipos y Trajes" by José Ortiz Echagüe (Ortiz-Echagüe & Montero, 2011, p. 404). At that time Pablo Picasso was a great representative of the French avant-garde. This circumstance had the effect of attracting to the exhibition personalities from broader artistic circles, among whom were representatives of fashion, such as Gabriele Chanel (Madsen, 1988, p. 252). It cannot be ruled out, therefore, to think that, as the French dressmaker did, other couturiers, including Balenciaga, would come to see the "Guernica" and also enjoy the aesthetics and diversity of the popular Spanish costume. Furthermore, during the months of June, July, and August 1939, an important exhibition of works from the Prado was held at the Museum of Art and Natural History in Geneva. These paintings, among which were paintings by Diego de Velázquez and Francisco de Goya, had been evacuated from the Prado Museum during the Spanish Civil War and were exhibited before their return to Madrid (Vivas, 2006). Subsequent references in the fashion press to the influence of Spanish aesthetics in some Parisian collections are also understood in the context of this large exhibition of the Prado paintings (Miller, 2017, p. 26).

It would be consistent to deduce that all these cultural events led Balenciaga to make the decision to cultivate the aesthetics of the Spanish tradition in his future Parisian collections because he was, among all the couturiers established in the French capital, one who could better interpret it as it formed part of his original visual imagery. In his autumn-winter 1939 collection, Balenciaga presented various dresses inspired by Velázquez's portraits of the ladies of the Spanish court, which the fashion press dubbed the Infanta style. The couturier sold some adaptation licenses of this dress in the United States so they could be replicated in cheaper versions. The specialized press of the time echoed the success of this Balenciaga dress at the threshold of World War II (Women's Wear Daily 1939, 20 September). There are also two documentary pieces of evidence that confirm Balenciaga's express intention to develop the aesthetics of traditional Spanish clothing. The first of these is his collection of historical clothing, in which some samples of popular Spanish clothing stand out. This compilation of garments did not have, in itself, a simple desire to collect, but was compiled by the couturier as a source of inspiration and work material. The second is the appearance of a copy of "El traje regional de España" among the work documentation of the couturier. It so happens that this book was also exhibited at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition (Alix, 1987, p. 169). This book, by Isabel de Palencia and published in 1926, is a compilation of texts, photographs, engravings and paintings of traditional costumes from the different Spanish regions, written with the intention of displaying the considerable wealth and diversity of traditional Spanish apparel (Palencia de, 1926, p. 9).

Fashion historians consider Balenciaga an innovator for having presented alternative proposals to the fitted Dior silhouette, which dominated the 1950s fashion world. Many of these new silhouettes were inspired by popular costumes. The Spanish cape, typical of men's clothing, and the mantle of feminine attire, are especially present and reinterpreted in multiple variations in his collections from the 1940s and 1950s. Also present in these collections were the loose shirts worn by sailors and peasantry around his native Getaria. From these garments emerged the sailor blouse and jacket and the cocktail coats made of gathered yoke, dressed by the most elegant women on the international scene. This exploration by Balenciaga of folk costume not only demonstrates his expertise in interpreting the patterns and the ornamental richness of the costume, that is, his mastery of the trade, but also his ability to innovate and to do so from tradition, thereby disseminating his cultural heritage (Balda, 2019).

### 2.2 Balenciaga the Businessman. The Art of Converting Problems into Opportunities

Balenciaga triumphed on the international fashion scene in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. That success was built first by his mastery of the trade and subsequently by his innovative capacity. But fashion is not just art or skill; to succeed in this area also requires entrepreneurship. Unlike today's fashion business models, where the creative and business responsibilities are often divided amongst different people, in the traditional high fashion business model of the Balenciaga era, especially in the run-up to World War II, the majority of responsibilities fell to the same person. The couturier was a creator and, although he had financial support or the help of third parties for the different non-creative tasks, he was also a manager, in the sense that he also had to make decisions of, among other things, a commercial, financial, or legal nature. If Balenciaga is studied from this point of view, it is discovered that he had to face a multitude of problems, many belonging to the fashion sector, but others of a totally different sort. By facing these problems, his company became one of the most successful in the industry.

The couturier opened his first fashion store in San Sebastián in 1917, in the middle of World War I when the city became the destination of an international and cosmopolitan population with a high degree of purchasing power that was fleeing the war (Unsain, 2016, pp. 216–217). Thanks to Spanish neutrality and the characteristics that had made it a favorite summer vacation spot for Spanish royalty, the city offered the possibility of a quiet, luxurious life, far from the rumblings of war. The increase in wealthy population further boosted economic activity around the luxury sector and was a propitious setting for the couturier to undertake his first business venture. He was 22 years old, but with his previous professional experiences he had acquired knowledge about the city's clientele, about their tastes, and thanks to his trips to Paris as head of the women's fashion section at the Au Louvre department store in San Sebastián, he would already have notions about the modes of operation of the city's fashion sector. In the concept of haute couture devised by Worth, the houses that produced this type of fashion had to be centrally located, in the same area where his potential clientele resided. In addition, their salons, the rooms where clients were received, had to be decorated in the same luxury standard in which their houses were decorated (Cerrillo, 2019, p. 67). These requirements represented a significant initial financial outlay. In addition, he would have to hire the necessary personnel: cutters, dressmakers, embroiderers, ironers, models, etc...., prepare a suitable workspace for them and make an initial investment in the purchase of fabrics and all the materials necessary for the manufacture of garments that were successful with his target audience. He opened the business in Vergara 2, a central street in San Sebastián, but judging from the documentation that is preserved, his first investment must not have been enough, since in 1918 he associated with the Lizaso sisters, who were dressmakers, under the name Balenciaga y Compañía for a period of six years. While they contributed 60,000 pesetas in cash, he contributed stocks of materials valued at 7362.25 pesetas, which would come from his professional experience during the previous year. This documentation also states that the company would be dissolved in the event of the death of the couturier, which would not happen if one of his partners died.1 All this information gives testimony to the role the couturier played as the pillar of the business and to his ability to obtain the financial resources that were not at his disposal. In 1924 he established himself as "Cristóbal Balenciaga. Couturier. San Sebastián" on Avenida de la Libertad 2, a location that improved on the previous one. In October 1925, El Pueblo Vasco, a

1 Public Documentation from 2-8-1919, page 1.419 Registro Mercantil de San Sebastián.

local newspaper, even described the luxury atmosphere of this new House (Andia de, 1925, p. 2). So, it can be deduced that his association with the Lizaso dressmakers was profitable and that thanks to the profits obtained he was able to start his business alone, in what would be the definitive headquarters of his business in the capital of Gipuzkoa.

In the mid-1920s, the emerging middle-class bourgeoisie was replacing the aristocracy in San Sebastián (Unsain, 2016, p. 223). Moreover, the success that he had already achieved by this time gave rise to illicit copies of his designs (Arzalluz, 2010, p. 153). These factors are among the reasons that explain Balenciaga's decision to expand and diversify his offerings. Thus, in 1927 he opened another business dedicated to dressmaking. It consisted of offering a series of designs with the possibility of being adapted to clients, or of being reproduced with fabrics less expensive than those available in his haute couture workshop. In this way, he managed to lower the final price of the garments and satisfy the demand of a new type of client, who, although she did not belong to the aristocracy, was well versed in fashion and held in high esteem the Balenciaga brand.

The couturier would subsequently go back to being bold on numerous occasions. The fall of the Spanish monarchy in 1931 did serious harm to the luxury business in San Sebastián and, therefore, also his own. Instead of closing the business, as others in town did, he decided to settle where he could increase his clientele, and open his headquarters in Madrid and Barcelona, in 1933 and 1935, respectively (Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum, 2019, p. 38). The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 set another stage of great economic and social uncertainty in the country. It did not seem like an auspicious moment to invest in new locations, however, Balenciaga went forward: it was the moment chosen to open his Paris headquarters and make himself known in the international fashion market (Jouve & Demornex, 1989, p. 31). World War II and, especially, the German occupation of Paris in June 1940, opened another turbulent moment in the Parisian fashion sector where Balenciaga had already successfully presented several collections since August 1937, and it turned out to be another critical moment for his business. Nevertheless, the war years were for him a period of intense work and sales in the United States. Balenciaga opened this commercial avenue thanks to Spanish neutrality during the war, and he did it not only for himself, but also for other Spanish couturiers who needed to revive their businesses after the Spanish war, such as Pedro Rodríguez and Ferrer Artigas (Vogue, 1941, p. 15).

Despite the stiff competition that the appearance of the Christian Dior brand in 1947 represented for Balenciaga, the late 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s were years of undeniable success. In this period, what is known as the Balenciaga style was developed, characterized by loose lines that abstract the female waist. Balenciaga's researches had an impact on the extent of his innovation and the technical and aesthetic excellence of his creations during this stage. But above all we must see in all this, Balenciaga's entrepreneurial vision for offering a remarkable and a differentiate style in order to maintain and improve his share of the luxury fashion market.

These successes, intensely praised by the international press of the day, also gave rise to an international market for illegitimate copies that caused him significant damage. The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture was in charge of organizing the Paris fashion shows since it was institutionalized in 1908 with the intention of making French haute couture known to the international press and buyers from prestigious fashion establishments. But the plan, according to which the fashion shows were held, gave rise to a breeding ground for illicit activities. An initial showing was held in the morning for the press, who were expressly forbidden to draw or to take photographs of the collections so that they could not immediately publish any graphic material that would generate the illicit production of copies. In the afternoon, another show was held for department store purchasing agents (Dior, 2007, pp. 114–115). Wholesalers and individual customers would see the collection in the following days. Representatives of department stores and wholesalers, unlike the others, had to pay a high fee for entering the fashion show. In the case of Balenciaga, the figure could reach the equivalent price of two evening dresses, generally the most expensive designs in a collection, but set at considerably higher prices, more than twice the usual price for private clients. It was a practice that the couturier used to avoid an excess of copies in the market, which could vulgarize his image and, consequently, harm the exclusivity for his final clients (Miller, 2017, p. 101). Despite the fact that the Chambre expressly prohibited the press from publishing information until four weeks after the shows were held, many fraudulent copies were made from sketches or photographs that were published in violation of the norm, immediately after these presentations, and it was even common for them to appear in store windows before the licensed copies. To deal with this problem, the couturier decided to dissociate himself from the official protocols stipulated by the Chambre and offer two passes separated in time: one for department store buyers, wholesalers, and private clients and the other, four weeks later, for the press. This guaranteed the exclusivity to his licensees for a month; the period necessary for the Balenciaga licensed copies to reach the points of sale (Balda, 2013, p. 422). This measure turned the press against the couturier, but served to protect his licensees and restore their confidence in his brand.

Balenciaga could have determined this problem was unsurmountable and decided, consequently, to retire. Let's not forget that on this date he was already 61 years old, that he had been working since he was 12 and that in 1956 he was enjoying undeniable recognition. However, he tried to contain the damage and, thanks to the action taken, he was able to extend the life of his business for another 12 years, until 1968, the year he decided to retire. Fashion historians consider this farewell as the end of the most flourishing era of haute couture.

### 3 Balenciaga. His Social Contribution. Concept of Fashion and Legacy

With his creations, Balenciaga contributed to the enhancement of his clients and, consequently, contributed to their flourishing because it made them, in some way, happier. It was, indeed, the purpose of his fashion. His obsession with perfecting technique must be understood within the framework of this objective. In his mind, fashion did not consist of an exaltation of the body, but in an exaltation of the person, of the woman, hence, design should serve to enhance the virtues and hide the imperfections of the body, which was never perfect. Diana Vreeland, fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, contemporary with the couturier, captures that concept well in her memoirs: "(...) He believed totally in the dignity of women. Balenciaga often said that women did not have to be perfect or beautiful to wear his clothes. When they wore his clothes, they became beautiful" (Vreeland, 1997, p. 106). Hence, some of his innovations responded to his search to find technical solutions to enhance the body, which was always limited. However, his designs were not considered by specialists as revolutionary innovations, which changed drastically from season to season, as was the case with other renowned couturiers. His latest innovations were a progression from the novelties that he had introduced in the previous season (Chavane, 1950).

The testimony of his own dressmakers corroborates the idea of the concept that inspiredBalenciaga. "Many times, we performed surgery," recalls Elena Aizpitarte, a seamstress at the Barcelona workshop, trying to explain that, on occasions, it was necessary to dress more difficult bodies, which required solutions that could be satisfied only with the knowledge and mastery of extraordinary sewing (interview with the author 2018, 12 October). The couturier himself took steps to insure that his teams learned and mastered all those techniques. Various testimonies from the workers at his shops in Spain and France confirm the couturier's attention to these details because they learned how to produce garments of excellent craftsmanship. "If you showed interest, he would go to great lengths, he would show you all the secrets," said Carmen Carriches, executor of the dress of Queen Fabiola of Belgium (interview with the author 2010, June 11). He also knew that some of these workers would start their own businesses in the future, and he made sure they would be thoroughly prepared. This is the case of Emmanuel Ungaro and André Courrèges, who started their own businesses once they had achieved and acquired sufficient experience (Emilas, 2017, 143–144). Thus the couturier created a fashion philosophy, he needed to share his knowledge and experience with those who were interested and knew they would perpetuate his craft into the future. Like good masters, he contributed to the flourishing of his disciples.

This mentality of enhancing women is not original to Balenciaga himself. The French haute couture tradition, to which the couturier was an heir, worked in this direction in the period before World War II. The prestigious specialized magazines emphasized the art of the couturiers, more than other issues, such as the beauty of the models. The fashion editors saw to it that the photographers and illustrators faithfully portrayed the Parisian creations from the point of view of their inner characteristics: degree of innovation, quality of the materials used, originality with the use of color, etc. Their art had to be subordinated to display the art of fashion creators. "Concentrate completely in showing the dress, light it for its purpose and if that can't be done with art then art be damned," was the maxim of Edna Woolman Chase, the first editor of Vogue, in her demands of illustrators and photographers in order to work for her magazine (Angeletti & Oliva, 2006, p. 84). This concept gradually changed throughout the 1950s and by the end of the 1960s, it was practically forgotten. The economic development of the United States and Europe had promoted a massproduced fashion industry, inspired by the designs of Parisian haute couture, but at much more affordable prices, which satisfied the demand from middle-class women who also wanted to dress in fashion. Throughout these same decades the fashion press was already publishing articles with original photographs, never seen before in the sector, in which the art of photography supplanted that of the creators of fashion. In the same vein, the model's physiques, their beauty and the idealized bodies that appeared in the magazines, were also supplanting the aesthetic qualities of the clothes they were wearing. Thus, prêt-à-porter was gaining relevance to the detriment of haute couture, and the concept of elegance, which had inspired couturiers like Balenciaga, disappeared. It was at this point that the couturier decided to retire. Haute couture had ceased to be a business, but not only that, fashion would no longer move along the coordinates of enhancing women, the coordinates in which he had worked since his beginnings in San Sebastián. So it is easy to understand that some of his clients cried when they found out about the closure of the House of Balenciaga; they felt that no one would dress them like him anymore (Vreeland, 1997, p. 107).

Balenciaga's expertise was widely praised by clients, industry specialists and, as we have seen, even by his competitors. But contemporary design and conservation scholars continue to praise Balenciaga's excellence and underscore the timelessness of his fashion. Herein lies the mystery of his legacy. His work developed patterns that have not been surpassed and which continue to be solutions, to this very day, to compensate for the body's limitations and enhance its strengths, and has made him the creator of timeless fashion par excellence. Hence, the justification for Balenciaga's entry into museums is also evident. Those most critical of the conception of fashion as art recognize that Balenciaga is the exception. His creations are, due to their aesthetic qualities, worthy museum pieces. However, his fashion is not simply a matter of good taste; above all, his legacy is mostly technical. Thanks to the donations that many of his clients have made to various museums, future generations of designers will continue to study Balenciaga creations as prototypes to transform imperfect bodies into elegant silhouettes.

### 4 Conclusion

The study of practical cases is one of the possible methods for investigating the influence of art and creation in human flourishing. The work should be carried out researching a statistically significant number of cases and following a common methodology to obtain valid conclusions that could be the basis of a consistent theoretical corpus, which would be helpful, above all, in the field of education. This article, focused on specific chapters of Cristóbal Balenciaga's professional career, is an initial contribution to this avenue of research. It is a practical case, presented at the Human Flourishing Experts Meeting, which may already be complemented and contrasted with the case of Antonio Gaudí, presented at the same event by Josep Maria Tarragona. From everything that has been analyzed about Balenciaga from the point of view of human flourishing, at least four conclusions can be drawn.

The first one is the importance of setting goals and being bold enough to achieve them. The chapter on the prodigious copy, narrated by the couturier himself, is clairvoyant in this sense. Balenciaga's childhood request of the Marchioness to copy one of her dresses reflects an unusual audacity, from which we can intuit a strong desire to know more and, probably, to be part of a world that, a priori, was inaccessible to him. That courage changed the course of a life, professionally linked to the sea, to a brilliant career in international fashion. From a perspective afforded by the passage of time, and with the evidences we have today on Balenciaga, the first lesson that can be extrapolated to other careers and lifes is that boldness is an essential attitude for personal flourishing. But there is a second one, which should not be overlooked. It is commonly considered that to achieve a fully enriched life, the vital context of one's beginnings is decisive, as if one's initial circumstances were to impede progress on the path of life in a definitive way. From this point of view, Balenciaga's circumstances to dedicate himself to the world of haute couture were insurmountable: he was geographically and socially far from the fashion arena. However, his experience shows that the background (family, country, moment in history), while they may limit or make it more difficult to attain certain achievements, they do not make them impossible; a bold decision at the right time can eliminate barriers considered, a priori, as insurmountable (Csikszentmihaly, 1996, pp. 128–133). Subsequently, once he started in the profession in San Sebastián, he set another goal: to learn from the best and master their techniques. And for two decades, the 1920s and 1930s, he traveled to Paris regularly and worked intensely to achieve this mastery. The fact that he set himself this goal explains how he mastered the craft and is at the heart of his subsequent innovations.

The second thing we learn from his example is the necessity of resilience to achieve a fulfilling life. Balenciaga forged ahead with his creative task thanks to his persistence to not let himself be overcome by adversity. The outbreaks of the Civil War and World War II placed him in scenarios that were not exactly prone to developing a successful career in international fashion and they would have been justified occasions to abandon the profession, at least temporarily; he could have waited for the situation to improve. However, for him they became contexts to keep moving forward. This is a particularly interesting reading in light of current events. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the health and economy of a large part of the world's population and, consequently, has canceled many projects that were underway. However, the case of Balenciaga serves to understand that persevering in one's work, despite the economic limitations that appear on the horizon, can be fruitful and even profitable, once the storm has passed.

Thirdly, Balenciaga's fashion, which sought proportion and balance, in short, beauty, was based on a fact, a fundamental truth; the limitations of the human body. This truth was the basis of his creative process and is at the origin of the consistency of his brand image. Being consistent with his concept and following his path in that direction, regardless of changes in tastes or market circumstances, also explain his

Table 1 Learnings and implications from Balenciaga as creator

success. For his customers, Balenciaga was a safe asset. It is a lesson that is applicable to the sphere of branding in the business aspect, but also applicable to that of branding from the point of view of one's own personal brand in the broader context of fulfilling one's lifelong project. The definition of objectives and the audacity to achieve them are not enough, if those objectives vary constantly, depending on the context, even to the point of contradicting each other, which only makes it more difficult to reach the ultimate goal of living a full life.

Finally, Balenciaga's experience shows that the creative process with clear and coherent objectives expands to the point of forming its own philosophical following.  Balenciaga and his disciples continue to create a school of style for those who want to learn. In much the same way, the individual process of seeking a full life does not end in the subject who carries it out, but rather, thanks to the social nature of man, expands to his family, work and friendships, in other words, contributes to the construction of a flourishing society (Table 1).

### References

Miller, L. (2007). Balenciaga. Modisto de modistos. GG.

Vogue, J. (1941).

Vreeland, D. (1997). DV. First Da Capo Press.

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# Travel Literature as an Example of Human Flourishing

Ángel Pérez-Martínez

Abstract Travel Literature can be a way of approaching eudaimonia and an interdisciplinary meeting point. When travelling, the individual is exposed to a multiple encounter experience. On the other hand, travelling is an intergenerational experience, and it will be increasingly so. From this perspective, it is possible to enrich studies by focusing on tourism and globalization, but also on relationships with technology. It is also possible, from this angle, to open new ways of developing new narratives that deepen in the encounter with oneself, with other cultures and that define new values in an ethics of human flourishing. The attempt to synthetize Travel Literature, an "elusive genre", does not only contribute to sort out a tenuous typology, but also evidences the need to keep thinking about two fundamental dimensions of human existence; the dimension of circumstance, and the dimension of imagination.

Keywords Travel literature · Human flourishing · Hispanic literature · Narrativity · Cervantes

Narrativity can be a form of knowledge, or a tool to build our identity. And the literary description of travels are a materialization of this type of narrativity. Not in a journey forced by circumstances, but the travel dictated by one's own desires and which determines some sort of personal growth. The Grand Tour tradition in Europe is, in a sense, a paradox compared to other many types of journeys that have taken

Á. Pérez-Martínez (\*)

This text was produced thanks to a sabbatical from Universidad del Pacífico within the framework of the research project "Cartocronografía de los relatos de viajes españoles contemporáneos (siglo XIX y XX)." Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades del Gobierno de España. Instituto de Lengua, Literatura y Antropología (CSIC), 2018–2021 (FFI2017-86040-P).

Department of Humanities, Universidad del Pacífico, Lima, Peru e-mail<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
place throughout the history of humankind. The encounter with others is also described in it and is, in some ways, a study on otherness.

During travel knowledge expands in multiple directions. It is not only one type of exterior understanding, of the places and the people that the traveler chances upon during the journey. It is also a way of asking individual questions. The pursuit search for certainties begins with our own circumstance that gives shape to our way of learning. This has geographical and temporal variables. The places we visit are located, described, and appreciated based on it and they also help us change our paradigms. Therefore, the journey will allow us to expand them or alter them. In this process we transit through more or less objective spheres that overlap with our inner world. The question is: What does this have to do with human flourishing? The journey as a freely exercised option is one of the keys to deepen in its meaning.

### 1 Some Chronological Notes

For centuries, traveling was a possibility reserved to only a few, and this explains its fictional success. For a long time, with very few exceptions, there was no place for leisure cruises or scientific expeditions. Most journeys were the result of obligations related to the military or trading activities, or mere survival.

Nomadism, military exploration, migration, and the knowledge of our surroundings are—in one way or the other—phenomena that were part of human condition. These were necessary actions, although among the exceptional journeys of the ancient world it is worth mentioning those of Herodotus of Halicarnassus or Polemon of Athens. Herodotus claimed that he traveled to obtain certainties about those places that he had heard of. About Phoenicia, he wrote:

I moreover, desiring to know something certain of these matters so far as might be, made a voyage also to Tyre of Phoenicia, hearing that in that place there was a holy temple of Heracles (Herodotus., 2002).

The impulse that drove Herodotus to set off on his journeys bears a certain resemblance to the attitude that characterized philosophers of the Socratic school. These philosophers also set themselves apart from the other citizens of the polis, whose motivations were rather pragmatic or linked to immediate purposes. This link, which at first may seem as barely significant, provides an interesting clue.

According to the Apology (Plato, 2003), one of the allegations against Socrates is that he distracted younger minds away from public affairs to wonder about the heavens and earth. The big paradox of the Socratic school is that it is there where the scientific pattern is marked: The love for a knowledge lacking immediate or practical applications. And the departure point for this knowledge is, precisely, the awareness of his famous ignorance (Plato, 2003). Building on this carefulness, the Socratic school embarks on a project that seeks to understand the cosmos building on a logical and rational basis. In other words, searching for certainties. These are the foundations—probably invisible—of a new type of knowledge that will also be linked to ethics and aesthetics.

Similarly, Herodotus heralded a new way of traveling, based on the idea of "exploring to look at the world" (theoríes héneken), detached from any obligations, which became the prelude to the journalistic article, ethnography and modern tourism. Even more interesting is that his forays had a textual dimension from the start. His travels took him across the Persian Empire, Egypt (as far as Aswan), Libya, Syria, Babylon, Susa in modern Iran, Lydia and Phrygia. With Herodotus begins the tradition of the descriptive voyage and, even more, that of the annotation of the ancient city (Vignolo, 2001). But maybe, at this point, what is more important is that the travel has the possibility of becoming a way of acquiring knowledge, as, for example, Ryszard Kapuściński claimed (Kapuściński, 2008). The relationships between itinerancy and reflective capacity will linger afterwards. The Greek tradition did not stop there, but instead enlightened the West for a long time. The concept of the kosmopolita, used for the first time by Diogenes Laërtius, will have an important connection with the experience of the trip (Nussbaum, 2019).

Perhaps religious pilgrimages were another type of journeys that were not necessarily linked to classical necessities. It is necessary to take a closer look at its roots to better grasp the role it played in the history of travel, especially considering that here's where the first travel guides were written (Adams, 1983). It is also probable that the purpose of these pilgrimages was linked to some type of imperative or penance. But the truth is that both their origin and end were far from being merely pragmatic. The first pilgrimages date back to polytheistic antiquity. The Egyptians visited the sanctuary of the goddess Serket or the oracle of Amun in the Siwa desert. The Greeks traveled to Delphi to seek advice from the god Apollo and to the sanctuary of Asklepios in Epidaurus to pray for healing. Mexicans visited the Quetzal temple, Peruvians journeyed—and still do to this day—to Cuzco to partake in the Festival of the Sun celebrations, while Bolivians attended ceremonies held in lake Titicaca (Jarrett, 1911).

Traveling was also a key element in the traditions of all major religions. Buddhists started making pilgrimages to holy sites during the second century BC and the Muslim tradition the pilgrimage to Mecca is also an ancient one, although in this case there is an explicit obligation. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem—where the Ark of the Covenant rested—finds its roots in the Old Testament. In Christian Occident, there are landmarks such as the journey of Empress Saint Helena to the Holy Land in the third century, the accounts of a Gaul pilgrim's journey or Egeria's pilgrimage in the fourth century. In his work Church History, Eusebius of Caesarea also provides an account about of Bishop Alexander's pilgrimage from Cappadocia to Jerusalem.

Other travelers whose accounts could be considered akin to travel guides were the chroniclers. Their antecedents can be traced back to the so-called general histories penned by authors such as Isidore of Seville or Gregory of Tours in the early Middle Ages. Some were commissioned by the ruling monarchies, while others pursued more academic interests. Many of their works are indeed accounts of travels like those by British authors Raphael Holinshed or James Howell in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Álvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, Bartolomé de las Casas, or Bernal Díaz del Castillo were some of the so-called chroniclers of the Indies, whose works built on the legacy of Columbus or Vespucci's travel logs. Although it should be noted that these descriptions are the result of a political necessity to record conquests and new explorations. It is also worth mentioning the travels of explorers or merchants such as Marco Polo, whose Il milione, as Luis Alburquerque notes, is a descriptive story that focuses—first and foremost—on the sense of sight (Alburquerque, 2019). In other works Alburquerque also pointed at the differences between literature that includes travel-related passages and travel writing (Alburquerque, 2004).

It was erudite travelers who paved the way for a new type of narrative. With the arrival of the industrial revolution, possibilities also broadened. Since the end of the twentieth Century, thanks to large infrastructures and modern means of transportation, traveling has become democratized and an experience related to leisure, pleasure, and well-being. And this is evidenced by the phenomenon of tourism and the studies around it.

Among the authors that drew inspiration from the exploratory dynamism and enlightened pursuit, in Emile ou de L'Education Jean-Jacques Rosseau promoted a pedagogy of exploration and knowledge of the world which he later be applied in Les Rêveries du promeneur solitaire. Some of the travel works of the same era were written by authors as relevant as Daniel Defoe, A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1729), Henry Fielding, Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon (1755), Louis de Bougainville, Voyage autour du monde (1771), James Cook, A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World (1777, John Barrow, Travels in China (1804), Melchor de Jovellanos, Diarios (1810) or Mesonero Romanos, Recuerdos de Viaje por Francia y Bélgica (1862).

The Grand Tour tradition, which began in the seventeenth century in Europe before spreading to other continents, was one of the key movements that contributed to expanding the concept of liberal travel. Although always reserved to the most privileged classes, it can be pointed out as a direct precedent of tourism. Afterwards—and this is a crucial point—it started expanding socially, thematically, and geographically, until there came a time where traveling became a type of action aimed at self-sufficiency and personal enjoyment. Obviously, this travel model is also linked to a narrative tradition.

We can easily access many of the travel books published during the mid and late twentieth century. And there is a whole body of travel-related literary works from the last decades of the nineteenth century that is virtually awaiting to be discovered. These works are linked to the Grand Tour tradition which saw traveling as a rite of passage for young aristocrats. Only a few could afford to have their experiences published. The description of the technical and scientific innovations of the first industrial revolutions can also help trace a timeline across the different chronological strata which can be extremely useful in a number of ways. For example, regarding the way cities are currently laid out, the knowledge of new cultures, tolerance or appreciation of other cuisines. As Helen Carr noted in Modernism and Travel transit facilities developed not only as a result of technological progress, but also of city growth, migrations, and the expansion of trade (Hulme & Youngs, 2002).

### 2 Literature and Travel in the Spanish Tradition

The relationship between literature and travel is very old. From the time of Homer the narratives included transfers. In the Odyssey Ulysses goes through "many cities." Some of them are Thrace, Libya, or the Italian peninsula. This is how a very special network of trails and navigations is drawn up. This network had a subjective and objective character at the same time. Because in the history of literature many fictional characters toured real places. In the Hispanic tradition, these relationships are maintained.

The Spanish tradition includes the treatment of the trip from its beginnings. For example, in the transfers described in the Lazarillo de Tormes. Or the roads that Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar visits in the Cantar del mío Cid. In Don Quixote, the hero blooms when he begins to walk. And his travels allow him to meet other people. In these encounters the protagonist makes decisions. These possibilities transform the character and make him a better knight. Cervantes makes a new configuration of virtue. The narrative exposure of a madman to the world of decisions is paradoxical. And this character flourishes by cultivating virtues in the realm of fantasy.

In the contemporary Hispanic tradition, we can cite Miguel de Unamuno, Benito Pérez Galdós, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Camilo José Cela, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Javier Reverte, or Alfonso Armada. In Latin America we can mention Domingo Sarmiento, José Martí, José Juan Tablada, José Clemente Orozcco, Gilberto Owen, Ricardo Rojas, José de la Riva Agüero, Luis Rafael Sánchez, or Alejo Carpentier. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many authors in Spain and Latin America made numerous trips from new perspectives. From the betrayal of the travel story, that is the non-fiction, we find works such as the Viaje a Rusia by Josep Pla, published in 1925. The author, a young journalist, describes Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is the chronicle of a traveler who arrives from Catalonia and who contributes precisely with his new vision of the others.

### 3 Some Notes on Cervantes

The idea of travel is found in Cervantes' work in several ways. In the Quijote we find it on the routes that the protagonist undertakes. For example, in the Novelas ejemplares in the mentions of the routes and places where the characters move. Cervantes projects his life experience and his own travels into his works. There is a very interesting theoretical background in Cervantes' works that relates travel and movement. This, apparently redundant, is embedded in more complex reflections. In some way the trip is also connected with the inner experience of the traveler. Precisely because every trip is a change, and change affects us. Deep down, Cervantes invites us to experience movement on the moral plane. This idea is found in many of his works. For example, in La Gitanilla, one of the so-called Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Novels). In La Gitanilla the protagonist is a young dancer. The prejudice about the young dancers was a reality in the writer's time. But travel is a form of movement. For a long time it was thought that this change could affect people's moral lives. Cervantes exposes a young woman in La Gitanilla to two types of movements: travel and dance. And its protagonist has extraordinary moral qualities.

Following this tradition, Cervantes takes the protagonist of the Quijote through different places in Spain such as Ávila, Barcelona, Cartagena, Ciudad Real, Córdoba, Cuenca, Madrid, or Seville. Other sites such as Sicily, Ceylon, Brittany, Crete, Germany, Denmark, or Egypt are also mentioned. There is a certain global consciousness in Don Quixote, which, adapted to its time and circumstances, is part of a cosmopolitan tradition. This breadth of horizons has generated different ways of approaching the novel.

And on the other hand, there is the impulse or the energy that these journeys have generated in many authors. The real places that drive the creation of fictional places. Or the routes that the characters in the novel have traveled, and that travelers want to follow.

Among the travelers who arrived in Spain following the Don Quixote route we find writers such as Theóphile Gautier, August Jaccaci, and Waldo Frank. The first of them wrote a book entitled Voyage en Espagne (Paris, 1843). In this book the author approaches Spain with the spirit of nineteenth century French Romanticism. The second is entitled On the Trail of Don Quijote (London, 1897) and is a much more Cervantine journey. Here Jaccaci proves to be a great reader of Cervantes' novel. Jaccaci follows the same route as Don Quixote and is a good example of a traveling reader who recreates the novel with a travel story. Another famous writer who traveled these roads was Waldo Frank with Virgin Spain: Scenes from the Spiritual Drama of Great People (New York, 1926).

Jaccaci's work later influenced Hispanic authors. This is the case of Azorín with his Ruta de Don Quijote (Azorín, 1905). There the Spanish author proposed a new way of reading the novel by Cervantes. In it the reader goes through the places related to Don Quixote. Most are small towns. This attention to the smaller populations is a new way of traveling. It is in some way opposed to the European Grand Tour. It is also interesting that a journalist like Azorín cares about these humble places to portray the flow of existence there. Other writers who were inspired by Jaccaci were the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, who published an article entitled "En tierra de don Quijote" (Darío, 1905). In that sense, the work of the North American author was the initiator of the quixotic literary routes (García Naranjo, 2010).

A new type of traveler is developed, the literary traveler, as Felisa Ferraz (Ferraz Gracia, 2020) has well pointed out. It is very interesting to observe how fiction can generate social phenomena such as the literary journey. In some ways this type of journey is also a path for the encounter with oneself and for human flourishing. The idea of following the same paths as the characters in novels and stories is fascinating. Some readers even confuse fact and fiction. An attempt has been made, for example, to discover the place that the narrator of Don Quixote did not remember. And on the route of Don Quixote, several towns are crossed that could be the protagonist's homeland. The Lonely Planet guidebook recommends, for example, five essential places on the Don Quixote route: Puerto Lapice, Argamasilla de Alba, Campo de Criptana, El Toboso, Ruidera, and the Montesinos' Cave.

### 4 The Liberal Travel

We come to an interesting crossroads. From the twentieth century on, the phenomenon of travel favored liberality over formal approaches. As we saw above, with the advent of the industrial revolution, the possibilities of travel also increased. Since the end of the twentieth century, thanks to large infrastructures and modern means of transportation, traveling has become democratized and an experience that can be linked to leisure, pleasure, and well-being. And this is evidenced by the phenomenon of tourism and the studies around it. A definition may help us to delimit the concept. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, tourism is: "The act and process of spending time away from home in pursuit of recreation, relaxation, and pleasure, while making use of the commercial provision of services" 1 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2015).

There are several elements that stand out in this travel modality compared to preceding ones. The first is the relationship between temporality and recreation. This definition of "spending time" in search of recreation opens a path for solving the classic paradox between leisure and business. From a philosophical standpoint, for example, travel is an area where more work could be conducted. There is a connection between the reflective leisure of philosophers and their journeys, as Jean-Jacques Rosseau explained in his Confessions:

I am unable to reflect when I am not walking: the moment I stop, I think no more, and as soon as I am again in motion my head resumes its workings (Rousseau, 1903, pág. 205).

On this topic and more, we have access to quite interesting works such as The meaning of travel by Emily Thomas which devotes passages to authors such as Confucius, Michel de Montaigne, Descartes, Bertrand Russell, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, Henry David Thoreau, or Albert Camus.

Travel as a form of knowledge will be a pattern that many thinkers, writers, and artists will follow. "A journey to strange countries," wrote Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset "is a spiritual artifice that enables a rebirth of our personality; therefore, a new childhood, a new youth, a renewed maturity, a new life with its complete cycle" (Ortega y Gasset, 2020). This idea is closely linked to the concept of human flourishing. In recent decades, philosophy has also reflected on the importance of narrativity in human development. Some authors who have participated in

1 Tourism. (2015). Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica.

this debate are Edmund Pincoffs (Pincoffs, 1971), Alasdair MacIntyre (MacIntyre, 1981), and Stanley Hauerwas (Hauerwas, 1975).

Tourism as an activity linked to recreation or happiness is also a singular event. Being removed from the realm of obligation, free action in pursuit of pleasure also seems to be the object of a certain level of judgment. According to Anscombe, connecting with that which is necessary is one of the formulas of moral rebirth (Anscombe, 1958). In this line, considering the leisure trip as a necessity may seem preposterous from a merely pragmatic perspective, but it fits into this new formula proposed by Anscombe. And it is an interesting way of connecting the human flourishing with some aspects of contemporary travel.

Another key facet of contemporary travel is that it has been markedly global since its inception. It is true that tourism is such a broad phenomenon that we need to be careful when analyzing it, since its consequences are not always positive. Besides, we here are not referring to mass tourism alone, but also to those individual trips that are possible thanks to a complex and functional travel system. And also, as we will see below, journeys that can be described and which combine a narrative side and human expansion. The tourist trip is a democratization of the Grand Tour. Mass travel can also transform destinations to an extent such that the influx of visitors has a detrimental impact on them. This has happened in landmarks such as Venice, Machu Picchu, or Taj Mahal.

In the midst of the twenty-first century, traveling has become an experience within the reach of more than half of the world's population. "Millennials" view it as an enriching activity that adds to their vital experiences and consider it a top aspiration, even more so than saving, according to a report by Bank of America (Bank of America, 2017). In a technologically and linguistically connected world, the best way of learning is traveling. There are many ways to travel, and tourism has become tremendously diversified. A study of the experiences linked to voluntary travel, of its possibilities and its impact on the lives of human beings, would be highly connected to the aforementioned eudaimonic notions.

### 5 The Narrative Description and Its Value for the Journey

According to Ferrater Mora's dictionary of philosophy, happiness has different definitions (Ferrater, 2005). Aristotle links it to practical wisdom or the exercise of virtue. This definition is very close to the idea of the liberal, narrative journey that we are considering. Going back to some of Hauerwas' tenets, narrativity can be a key to coherence between existence and experience. In that sense, the account of a journey is a way of becoming aware of one's own self and a description of his/her place in the cosmos. And if the world is also an alien one, then the description takes on a special significance. Chancing upon new territories and on other inhabitants enriches us because it enables us to acquire new perspectives that can offer epistemological, psychological, and social novelties. A world where communication systems enable different ways of traveling, results in many experiences worthy of narration. Here, the trip is open to the possibility of becoming a shared experience, thanks precisely to their texts. These stories will inspire many travelers to set off on these routes and who will write about them again. Other travelers will become readers of the former, weaving in the process a network of interconnected travels and stories, similarly to a river system with its sources, tributaries, and main rivers.

The study of travel from literature has already spawned a literary genre, with works spanning a broad array of fields. A touchstone is Percy G. Adams' book Travel literature and the evolution of the novel. From travel guides to blogs such as Humans of New York, travel-related publications have taken many different shapes.

Travel writing as a genre is a narrative form that encompasses two descriptive spheres: Its very definition poses a problem that was already present in the reflective genesis of literature. It is a peculiar genre that has roamed across different areas without finding its place in the theory. It has spanned links across a wide variety of fields of knowledge, including social science, botany, cartography, or economics. But these links have lacked philological interest, at least as far as their characterization is concerned. Currently, John Larner and Luis Alburquerque's works can be considered some of the most pivotal for the genre. Tzvetan Todorov and Paul Fussell are two other seminal authors.

The attempt to synthetize an "elusive genre," borrowing from Luis Alburquerque's, does not only contribute to sort out a tenuous typology, but also evidences the need to keep thinking about two fundamental dimensions of human existence: the dimension of the personal circumstance of imagination.

These considerations will not only help heighten the appreciation for a genre of relevance for literary history, but also develop formulas and tools to maximize the value and enjoyment extracted from it. When traveling, the individual is exposed to a multiple encounter experience. On the other hand, it offers an intergenerational experience. And will become increasingly so in the future.

Following this line of work, we can set forth several notes. Travel writing can be a way of approaching eudaimonia and an interdisciplinary meeting point. From this perspective, it is possible to enrich studies by focusing on tourism and globalization, but also on relationships with technology. It is also possible, from this perspective, to open new ways of developing new narratives that deepen in the encounter with oneself, with other cultures and that define new values in an ethics of human flourishing.

Although the relationship between literature and travel goes a long way back, it was during the second part of the twentieth century when it became an important condition for many writers, as Peter Hulme notes in Traveling to Write (1940–2000). I will also mention here some more contemporary authors who have also written about their journeys: DH Lawrence, Graham Greene, George Orwell, Hillaire Belloc, John Steinbeck, Paul Theroux, Salman Rushdie, or Cees Nooteboom.

This bond became an important part of contemporary travel and later spread to other media such as radio, television, and—today—Internet platforms. Blogs, for example, broadened the spectrum of this narrative to many other social spheres and allowed many to share their experiences with a public forum.

The journey linked to freedom, and ultimately well-being has been addressed from multiple points of view in recent times. One of the areas of work has been, for example, the studies on tourism. This is attested by repositories such as the UNWTO Library. However, due to its descriptive—and therefore, reflective—nature, most of the work has focused on the genre of travel literature. This point of view integrates many intersections, including the travel guide. But perhaps another confluence is possible from ethics and the pursuit of Eudaimonia by many travelers.

### 6 The Liberal Journey and the 2020 Pandemic

The COVID-19 crisis has confirmed that liberal travel depends largely on scientific, social, and technological progress. And this something that has become increasingly clear in the current scenario. This is the first time in contemporary history that the global transportation system has been compromised in such a way. Traveling during these months of crisis has only been possible if justified, i.e., if prompted by some sort of obligation or necessity. The contagion threat has narrowed the possibilities of travel down to what they were centuries ago. The liberal journey is hindered by a world where hazards expose us to situations similar to those that others faced in eras long-gone.

This crisis has also laid bare the relationships between travel and the economic and social system of today's world. The tourism industry accounts for 7% of international trade. According to the World Tourism Organization's forecasts at the time of this writing, international travel is expected to contract by 60 to 80% as a result of the pandemic (Pololikashvili, 2020). When any of the building blocks of the social system falter, so does the liberal journey, and the impact of the tourism industry's crisis ripples across many other sectors of trade and the economy.

But the crisis also has an impact beyond the financial world. It also—and perhaps this is something that should not be overlooked—affects the many people's inner lives. Travel, considered as an experience of rebirth, has been greatly limited during this crisis. The right to travel because one wishes to, to travel in pursuit of eudaimonia, is faced with many hurdles. This reality resulted in a feeling of frustration among travelers, among those who have been forced to cancel trips they had planned or who simply are witnessing how their countries, regions, or cities lock down. Thus, a new form of claustrophobia, so to speak, has emerged, likely as a result of the limitations of freedoms, and linked precisely to these experiences that yield an external and internal discovery. All this confirms that the liberal journey has become one of the contemporary formulas for well-being and that confinement is a great disturbance.

### 7 Some Ideas to Conclude

It is curious that in the philosophical tradition the concept of happiness, understood as the ultimate goal of the action or the end that it pursued, was addressed by ethics. However, ethics' main area of focus since modernity has been the analysis of certain aspects of the improvement of human action: codes of moral order and their consequences. The study of the concept of happiness in its different versions has rather shifted towards the field of psychology, economics, and the social sciences. In the middle of the twentieth century, several authors drew attention to how ethics was focusing mainly on deontology and regulations. We can mention, for example, the works of (Anscombe, 1958), (Gustafson, 1968), (Murdoch, 1970), (Pincoffs, 1971), (Lawrence, 1975), (Foot, 1978), (Stocker, 1976), (MacIntyre, 1981), (Taylor, 1985) and (Hauerwas, 2001) are some of the thinkers who have engaged in a very productive exchange.

On the other hand, authors such as Felicia Huppert, Timoty So, and Martin Seligman have approached the Human Flourishing proposal from a psychological perspective (Seligman, 2011). Seligman also warned about the dangers of a coercive theory that defines happiness as a type of monistic satisfaction and proposes to enrich by means of the theory of Well-Being, interweaving the concepts of flourishing and that of eudaimonia. Travel writing fits here because it helps to learn, develop positive human relationships, foster a vital purpose, and promote new skills making us more resilient.

The bridge that spans between the aforementioned philosophical authors and the new psychological theories merits completion. The journey recounted in a textual way can be a part of this structure, contributed by philology.

The virtues of Travel Writing are not limited to their value works of literature. They are an invitation to think. The possibilities of the journey are multiplied in the questions that lie in its inception. What is beyond our borders? Is it possible that there are others like us? What are the customs in distant lands? These issues, too, drive journeys that are yet to be made, but are present in the imagination of science fiction authors. These considerations will foster not only the appreciation for a genre of relevance for literary history, but also the development of formulas and tools to maximize the value and enjoyment extracted from it. When traveling, the individual is exposed to a multiple encounter experience. On the other hand, traveling is an intergenerational experience, and it will be increasingly so.

In light of the COVID-19 crisis, we can also arrive at several conclusions: the liberal and narrative journey depends on our preventive capacities, scientific development, and global agreements. But above all, on the respect for freedoms and rights. Many people see the traveling experience as a need linked to eudaimonia, and being deprived of it is having an impact on their psychological and moral lives. The contemporary travel system is still fragile and the consumption of narrative travel in light of recent events is a confirmation of our need for well-being.

If philosophical leisure allowed using time to acquire new knowledge, this knowledge also expanded towards the achievement of aesthetics and pleasure. The former enabled scientific development and, thus, the establishment of progress in many societies. A progress that allows human beings to enjoy freedoms that used to be out of reach, one of them being contemporary travel.

Following this line of work, we can set forth several notes. Travel Writing can be a way of approaching eudaimonia and point where different disciplines meet. From this perspective, it is possible to enrich studies by focusing on tourism and globalization, but also on well-being and its relationships with technology. It is also possible to allocate resources to the development of new narratives that deepen the encounter with oneself, with people from different cultures, and contribute to the human flourishing.

My recommendations can perhaps be understood as reading proposals. Reading about travel can enrich our perspective on the world. Not only those descriptions that come from the wonderful fantasy of many authors. Also the reading of non-fictional travel stories, which provide objective data and suggestive comparisons.

### References

¼ ¼ Lawrence, B. (1975). The Neglect of Virtue. Ethics, 85(2), 110–122. Retrieved from https:// digitalcommons.hollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article 1008&context philfac

MacIntyre, A. (1981). After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Duckworth.

Murdoch, I. (1970). The Sovereignty of God. Schochen Books.

Nussbaum, M. (2019). The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal. Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press.

Ortega y Gasset, J. (2020). Obras Completas. Taurus Penguin Random House.

Pincoffs, E. (1971). Quandary ethics. Mind, 80, 552–571.

Plato. (2003). Apology. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers.

Taylor, R. (1985). Ethics, Faith and Reason. Prentice-Hall.

Vignolo, R. (2001). Telling Wonders: Ethnographic and Political Discourse in the Work of Herodotus. The University of Michigan Press.

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# Antoni Gaudí in Human Flourishing

Josep Maria Tarragona i Clarasó

Abstract The great architect Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (1852–1926) is one of the shining lights of humanity on its path to social and individual perfection.

Through his works, his life, and his teaching to his disciples and collaborators, we can easily describe a real form of human flourishing. Millions of people from every corner of the world are interested in the works of Gaudí and the positive impact it has on humanity.

In this chapter, first we discuss human flourishing in the life and the teachings to his disciples of Gaudí, how Antoni Gaudí achieved his own flourishing; secondly, we indagate about how his art works are contributing to the flourishing of millions of human beings and, finally, we illustrate our opinions with three examples of Gaudí's works which demonstrate to others ways to flourish themselves.

Keywords Gaudí · Sagrada Família · Human flourishing · Park Güell · La Pedrera

### 1 Introduction. Why Antoni Gaudí?

Great artists are precisely those who are most aware of man's longing to flourish, and how this can be achieved. Antoni Gaudí dedicated his life to architecture, the mother of plastic arts. His process for designing and building La Sagrada Familia was similar to that of medieval architects. Not only did he design the project, but he also had his workshop on-site, was in charge of the procurement of materials, selected and managed the workers involved and directly managed all operations.

Gaudí was also a conscientious citizen of his home country, Spain, and played an active role in social, intellectual, political and religious circles. And in looking at his works, his life and his teachings to disciples and collaborators, we can clearly see an authentic form of human flourishing. Millions of people from every corner of the world are interested in Gaudí's work and the positive impact it has had on humanity.

J. M. Tarragona i Clarasó (\*)

Independent Researcher, Barcelona, Spain

His example is a light for humankind on its path to social and our individual improvement.

In this paper, first we discuss Gaudí's own flourishing by examining his life and the teachings he imparted to his disciples. Second, we explore how his work contributes to millions of people's flourishing. And lastly, we offer our opinions of ways to flourish based on Gaudí example.

However, before delving into these three realms, we must understand the concept of human flourishing. The myriad of philosophical schools, moral systems, spiritual trends and religions gather humanity's experience of living a happy life. The concept of human flourishing goes back to the Ancient Greeks, to the concept of eudaimonia. We can look at the four schools that deal with the concept.

Plato considers eudaimonia to be achieved through virtue, giving the individual a harmonious and coherent soul. All factors related to eudaimonia are within the soul. Aristotle tells us that to lead an eudaimonic life, in addition to personal virtue, five external goods are needed: health, wealth, physical beauty, good friends and good children. Epicurus' school of thought is more pragmatic. It identifies the purpose of human life to be achieving maximum pleasure and the absence of pain. And the Stoics, within their moral philosophy, practise restraint, converting virtue into the greatest good.

All the teachings within these Greek schools of thought have their foundations in Socrates. They all believe in the existence of a world beyond the material one. And call it what you like, my reader: spirits, demons, gods, souls, angels, etc., but Socrates demonstrates that the individual soul, the spiritual part of man, survives beyond death and is itself immortal.

This is the framework within which Westerners tend to situate themselves. Around the world, we find other philosophies, spiritualities, religions, paths of wisdom that also tell us of the existence of a world beyond and of souls that survive death.

Jesus of Nazareth, four centuries after Socrates, five after Buddha, Confucius and Laozi, 12 after the oldest Vedas, 14 after Moses and a lot more centuries still after the wisdom and religions which were orally passed on within Africa and America, expounds on what these philosophers, moralists and religious leaders were so eager to seek. According to him, happiness has eight components, which happy individuals live so deeply and so closely that together they constitute their very personalities. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake (Mt. 5, 1–12) (THE BIBLE, n.d.).

Finally, with science's progress, we can count on the many happiness-related contributions from the field of psychology. For example, while there are no pills for happiness, we do know what dopamine is, and what the neurological foundations of our emotions and attitudes are in the brain.

Human flourishing cannot be understood from positive psychology alone. Mathew T. Lee—also an author for this book—states that "Determining whether a person is flourishing therefore requires a holistic appraisal of the most important ends of human life. There will always be some disagreement about the ends that are most important, but it is clear which domains most people would include" (Lee, 2021).

In this chapter, we consider five areas that allow for credible quantitative measuring: Happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. As VanderWeele explains, "Each of these is nearly universally desired, and each constitutes and end in and of itself" (VanderWeele, 2021).

It is difficult to imagine a flourishing human that does not possess these five domains in their life.  It is a world where Beauty is absolute, and where the relative beauty of the things of this world is but a mere reflection of it, a small participation in it. In that world, Beauty transcends individuality and materiality; that is, the identifying traits of a truly human life, of a life at its fullest, are community with others (over individualism), and spiritual life (over materialism). As Gaudí once said: "Man without religion is a spiritually lacking man, a mutilated man" (Bergós, 1954, p. 50).

### 2 The Architect Behind La Sagrada Familia

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was born in Baix Camp (Catalonia) on June 25, 1852. He was a sickly child, which prevented him from going to school and forced him to spend long periods of time in his family's farmhouse in the small village of Riudoms. There he observed and learned the light of the Mediterranean and nature's shapes, which he would always consider his great teacher. Helping his father in his boilermaking workshop, he learned the virtues of hard work and how surface volume can be transformed, which greatly developed his spatial imagination.

He eventually studied at the Piarist Fathers of Reus School. During the Glorious Revolution of 1868, he moved to Barcelona to pursue a degree in architecture, his life's passion. He was a bad student, but he spent a lot of time contemplating photographs of oriental buildings and he frequently listened in on philosophy, aesthetics and history classes. He also attended concerts (classical and contemporary), plays, poetry readings and intellectual gatherings. Gaudí also visited and studied all of the monuments and landscapes of Catalonia. And eventually would become one of the most influential figures of the Catalan renaissance, also known as La Renaixença. In 1878, Gaudí finished his studies. The director of his university's School of Architecture commented to the other members of the faculty: "Today we have given an architecture degree to a madman or a genius" (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 63).

Initially, to make a living, he worked as a draftsman for engineers and architects including Josep Fontserè, who was the landscape architect behind Barcelona's Ciutadela Park; Francisco del Villar, who restored Montserrat; and Joan Martorell, architect of Sagrado Corazon church and the Visitandines, among other noteworthy churches.

Eventually, he became a successful professional and frequented the best restaurants, enjoyed the best liquors, as well as the best Havana cigars. That's why, when he was working on La Sagrada Familia, on his feast day, (the feast of Saint Anthony), his workers gifted him a case of cigars (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 127).

Gaudí was conscious from a very young age that he was an artistic genius, and that his ideas were not a repetition or a mere continuity of other architects' work up to that time. The only thing that he feared was that no other architect had put these ideas into practice before, and that he would be the first. He had studied and learned the geometric laws throughout nature—the Creator's masterpiece—and he was trying to create art with similar principles. His aim was not to copy Creation, but to cooperate with its Creator. He affirmed that originality consists of returning to the origin.

In 1878 he met prominent businessman Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi. Güell i Bacigalupi had a great artistic sensibility and understood Gaudí and became one of his best friends and primary clients: the Güell Pavilions (1884–1887), the Palau Güell (1886–1888), the Celler Güell (1895–1897), the refuge of El Catllaràs (1905) and two of Gaudí's most creative works from the later chapters of his career: Park Güell (1900–1914) and the church of factory town Colònia Güell (1908–1917).

As a young man he lived very close to the workers behind his projects and wanted to thoroughly understand their problems, specifically the poor living conditions. At the time of the International Workingmen's Association—with the socialist trend of Marx and the anarchist trend of Bakunin—, Gaudí was an architect of the Cooperative Mataronense (1874–1885), which supported merging capital and work into one element: worker cooperatives. The Cooperative Mataronense was Catalonia's first factory and one of its first cooperatives in the world.

In 1883, at the age of 31, Gaudí was commissioned to continue the work of La Sagrada Familia, which had already begun. He moved his office on-site and deeply appreciated the religious and artistic motivation behind the temple. Throughout 43 years, until his death, Gaudí dedicated his time to developing this grand basilica, with his ideas on structure, form and symbolism working in perfect synchrony with the shapes he took from nature.

Gaudí was friends with several clergymen who had innovative ideas concerning social and liturgical reforms: poet Fr. Jacinto Verdaguer; Bishop Joan Baptista Grau from Astorga, who had entrusted him with designing and building the Episcopal Palace (1887–1893); Fr. Enric d'Ossó, founder of the congregation of St. Teresa of Jesus, who had also entrusted him to build the Central School (1888–1889); Bishop Pere Campins from Majorca, who had entrusted him to reform the cathedral (1903–1914) and Bishop Josep Torras i Bages from the town of Vic.

Simultaneous with his work on La Sagrada Família, Gaudí designed other buildings, not only for Güell and the Church, but for clients. These works include El Capricho (1883–1885), Vicens House (1883–1888), Calvet House (1898–1899), Batlló House (1904–1906), Bellesguard (1900–1909) and La Pedrera (1906–1911).

In 1894, his religious life progressively intensified. During Lent that year, at the age of 42, his fasting almost killed him. In 1906, he moved to live near Park Güell, situated at the top of the Gràcia neighbourhood. Every morning he walked down from his house to Saint John's parish in Gràcia to take part in the Eucharist. From there, he continued on to La Sagrada Família. Every evening after work Gaudí went to the Oratory of St. Philip Neri to pray and to meet with his spiritual director, Fr. Lluís Maria de Valls. With the conviction that without sacrifice improvement is impossible, he submitted himself to a life of penance and voluntary poverty.

 God granted him this desire. On Monday June 7, 1926, he was knocked down by a tram. The people who found him didn't realize that he was Gaudí. Because of his haggard appearance, they mistook him for a beggar and took him to the hospital. Three days later, on June 10, surrounded by his friends, he pronounced his last words: "Amen. My God! My God!" (Tarragona, 2018).

Droves on people took to the street on the day of his funeral and accompanied his body from the hospital down to the crypt of La Sagrada Familia, where he is buried to this day (Tarragona, 2018).

### 3 Happiness and Life Satisfaction

One afternoon when Gaudí was with Joan Matamala, they caught the tram to return home together. A couple sat behind them and the husband, turning his head towards his wife, mused:

Do you see that gentleman in the hat, right in front of us? He's the man behind La Sagrada Familia. They say he's crazy.

The wife leaned forward nosily throughout the entire trip trying to catch a better look at the crazy man, who continued unperturbed reading his newspaper.

When they got off the tram, Gaudí said to his companion:

Did you hear that? I'm a madman! What do you think?

You shouldn't pay too much notice...

"What can one do? Praise the Lord!" he replied (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 351)

Fullness, for many artists, consists of partaking in Glory. Leonardo da Vinci cried when he finished The Last Supper because he felt he hadn't been able to translate Christ's glory. Rafael, though he didn't cry, was distraught by the time he finished The Transfiguration, because the Jesus he had painted didn't match up to what he had hoped it would be (Puig-Boada, 1981, p. 226).

Gaudí said: "To portray something correctly, we must first love this something; technique comes second" (Puig-Boada, 1981, p. 170). The work of man, especially in the case of an artist, is the verbum cordis of Thomas Aquinas, "uttered, but not vocalized", an action that engages the whole person, so that the fruit of his labour is like a son or daughter (Aquinas, T.: De Veritate, q. 4, a. 1, responsio) (Aquinas, (1254-1257). In every detail, in every design, Gaudí repeatedly poured himself, and with the physical pain this meticulous and painstaking work caused.

But this process was a sort of ascension, a ladder with its rungs. Because he followed St. Ignatius of Loyola's formula of continually striving to improve himself, that man must always work to better himself (Puig-Boada, 1981, p. 171).

This path is fraught with mistakes, which are the consequences of selfconfidence. To make fewer mistakes, systematic repetition is key. Things need to be done and redone to spot and avoid previous errors. "Patience achieves everything", explains St. Teresa of Ávila (Teresa of Ávila, sixteenth century; , 1979).

Gaudí was often pleased with the results of his work. As Clarasó once said, nothing helps your well-being like being totally dedicated, fully committed to one's work. And that our maximum well-being is achieved when our interior actions coincide with our external actions (Clarasó, 1957). This was the main source of happiness in Gaudí's life. For example, in 1909 he designed the Temporary Schools for street children. Though the building materials were very humble (bricks, wooden planks, etc.), the result was a masterpiece. It cost some 8000 pesetas, which he personally covered out of pocket. The architect personally designed the windows, the furniture—including the 150 ingenious desks, which only cost 500 pesetas—and the bathrooms. He showed it off with great satisfaction to his architect colleagues and the school would later impress Le Corbusier on his visit to Barcelona in 1928 (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 262).

During the last years of Gaudí's life, some students from the School of Architecture went to offer their help at La Sagrada Familia. Gaudí expressed how much it encouraged him to see so many young faces and got them all involved in some way. He confessed to them that he worried about not having anyone to say hello to around town, since all his friends would scuttle off around the corner when they'd see him to avoid being asked for donations for his projects (Tarragona, 2019a, p.300). "Everything that we can do for the good of La Sagrada Família", he affirmed, "we must take upon ourselves as a sacrifice, because sacrifice is the only fruitful route" (Martinell, 1999, p. 39). Antoni Gaudí would explain to the young architects that joined his team: "No person can be fruitful without sacrifice".

Gaudí also said that there is no one who is not useful to society; everyone is good at something. The question lies in knowing what everyone can do. Perfection in society is achieved when everyone contributes to the best of their abilities (Puig-Boada, 1981, p. 169).

He believed that life is about loving and to love is to sacrifice. "Flourishing is the fruit of individual sacrifice for the good of the community. And when all the members of the community sacrifice for the good of the whole, flourishing is at its maximum" (Torras i Bages, 1916).

On the Feast of St. Joseph in 1926, the first bell tower, copiously lit with magnesium lamps, could be spotted from a big area of Barcelona. It was the tallest building in Catalonia at the time, measuring 102.60 m.

They had already withdrawn the scaffolding and the finished belfry could be seen perfectly, with its iron and cement frame made using the novel technique using reinforced concrete, and clad in Venetian mosaic trencadís.1 It is a magnificent abstract sculpture measuring nearly 17 metres high, with the abstract symbols of a bishop, successor of the apostles: his crozier, a ring, the mitre and the pectoral cross. The ring is oriented towards the cross of where the tower to Jesus Christ now stands. A ray of light would gleam from this cross to the ring and another from this ring to the outside ground of the basilica, as a symbol of the materialization of the words of Jesus Christ to the apostles: You are the light of the world. The doctrine of Jesus Christ reaches, through the bishops of the Catholic Church, the entire world.

Gaudí firmly believed that man without religion is a spiritually lacking creature. He experienced his most positive emotions, his brain at its best, his deepest growth as a human within the framework of his own religious practice. The progress of his religious life also helped hone and safeguard his creativity from birth, along with his resilience and kind temperament (Tarragona, 2009).

### 4 Mental and Physical Health

Though Gaudí had previously enjoyed the best food and drink money could buy, it was precisely because of his work on La Sagrada Familia that his relationship with life's pleasures changed. After reading the books of St. Teresa of Ávila looking for inspiration for the design of the basilica's Façade of the Nativity during Lent in 1894 he overdid his fasting to the point of near starvation. Neither his father nor his niece nor his friend, Dr. Pere Santaló, were able to convince him to eat. They called Gaudí's friend Josep Torras i Bages, an intellectual priest, who was skilled at forming convincing arguments:

My good friend, Antoni, although sacrifice is always the most heroic and meritorious act for achieving eternal life, it does not mean it is necessary to torment oneself in this way. Life is short and flies by very quickly! Therefore, a man should not abandon it by his own will, but by that of God. And with greater reason in your case, as your mission on this earth is clear, to carry out your work which was so desired by God for the spiritual nourishment of Christians (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 162–163).

His devoutness intensified with the years and on until the end of his life. He shared Socrates' belief that the body is only a temporary vessel for the soul and that human flourishing needs to prevent the body from sullying the soul, and therefore less capable of having a fulfilling life (Plato, 385–370 BC, 1962).

1 Trencadís is a Catalan term that literally means "chopped" and is the name for this artistic method that was popularized in twentieth century Catalan modernism by Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol. It is a mosaic-like effect, achieved by cementing together random shards and pieces of broken chinaware piece by piece like a jigsaw. Sometimes other materials are used, like glass, buttons or shells.

He decided to not use undershirts or long johns. He explained that the body is designed to put up with the cold of winter and heat of summer. When he sat on stone benches, as he liked to do, he explained that the cold of the stone did not hurt him at all. In the coldest days of winter, he would put newspaper pages between his skin and clothing, as German soldiers used to do in the trenches (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 187).

By then, the man who once was dressed by the finest tailors, ate at the most fashionable restaurants, and who took horse-drawn carriages to his construction sites to avoid dirtying his boots which shined at night during his visits to the Liceu now dressed like a popper. He only ever used one of two suits, he rarely ate out and he travelled on foot or by the public tram.

A number of unresolved problems accumulated in Gaudí's life and ultimately, at 58, his psychological health paid the toll. His dispute with Milà, the husband of Roser Segimon who owned La Pedrera,2 together with Roseta's illness, the lack of funds for La Sagrada Familia and the commercial failure of Park Güell all led to a decline in Gaudí's health.

For the first time in his life, he needed a holiday. Torras i Bages, who at the time was Bishop of Vic, settled him into the Rocafiguera family's home, one of the most sumptuous Baroque mansions in Vic, so that he could rest. Mrs. Concepció Vila, widow of Rocafiguera, was delighted to accept the task the bishop had asked of her to try to get an extremely frail Gaudí to gain a few kilos. She put him in the guest wing, with a sitting room and bedroom, and decorated with elegant curtains and sumptuous decor. The architect opted to sleep on the floor (Tarragona, 2021).

Antoni Gaudí returned to Barcelona a short time after. But in May 1911, he fell ill. Only those closest to him were aware of his suffering and could accurately understand what he was going through: the loss of his father, Roseta's increasingly compromised health, the non-completion of La Pedrera, the exasperatingly slow progress of La Sagrada Família... Dr. Pere Santaló, one of the few who knew about everything Gaudí was dealing with, diagnosed him with Malta fever.

The only possibility for a cure was bed rest at a high altitude, so Santaló chose the nearby village of Puigcerdà, where the architect could be completely isolated for a time.

Roseta remained in the hands of the maid and nuns who took care of her. The two friends settled into the Hotel Europa. Santaló prohibited visits and he gave any reports on the state of his patient on his visits into Barcelona.

Such was the severity of his condition, that on the first day of Gaudí's stay at the hotel, he heard one of the male nurses mutter, as he helped him into the bath: "He's a

2 La Pedrera, also known as Casa Mila (1906–1912) is a building designed by the architect Antoni Gaudi and commissioned by Pere Milà and Roser Segimon. Casa Mila (1906–1912) is Antoni Gaudi's most iconic work of civic architecture due to both its constructional and functional innovations, as well as its ornamental and decorative solutions. It is a total work of art. Pople would call it "La Pedrera" (i.e. stone quarry) because it resembles an open quarry in appearance, the building features forms drawn from nature. It was Gaudi's last work of civic architecture and represented a break with the conventions of his day.

corpse!". For this reason, he called for a notary and wrote his last will and testament on June 9, 1911 in Puigcerda.

Unperturbed by any bodily concerns during his long hours of prayerful meditation, he became more fervent in his conversation with the Creator. His nurse was a Spanish Camillus monk, from the same town as St. John of the Cross, whose works he would read to Gaudí (Tarragona, 2019b, p. 276–278).

The saint's poetry, which the monk read so well", Antoni Gaudí would comment later "not only consoled me, but tempered my spirit to continue meditating on the Passion façade.3 [...] As the convalescence was long, I had a lot of time to study and meditate on that façade (Puig-Boada, 1981, p. 200).

During this time of illness, Gaudí had decided to devote himself solely to La Sagrada Familia, preparing its plans for completion after his death, wholly convinced that, in addition to its artistic contribution, its purpose was spiritual and apostolic.

### 5 Meaning and Purpose

Gaudí rehearsed for his magnum opus in his creation of Colònia Güell. Because of the rustic appearance of the materials used and their shapes, which bear no comparison with any architectural style whatsoever, it seems more like a geological formation than a human creation. In this sense, it is a landmark in art history: a manifestation of ongoing Creation that did not emerge fully complete from the hands of the Creator, but, as St. Thomas Aquinas would have said, through "a state of journeying" (statu viae) towards the ultimate perfection. Antoni Gaudí was as architect who didn't depart from Creation's beauty or copy it, but rather continued it, in collaboration with the Creator (Tarragona, 2009).

When Monsignor Ragonesi, the papal nuncio of Benedict XV, visited La Sagrada Familia, he offered words of flattery and asked about the effort involved in its construction: "What a magnificent task you have achieved! What a feat of intelligence! Because this is something completely new, like nothing ever before seen... and it all came from inside your head", the priest told him.

Gaudí replied: "If anywhere, it comes from higher up. Not from me at all. I studied history closely, the world's great works and the masterpieces of our forefathers".

The nuncio, addressing Gaudí, then exclaimed:

This is an exceedingly beautiful poem sculpted into stone; you are a great poet.

3 This refers to one of the façades of Sagrada Familia, that represents the passion and the death of Jesus. Gaudí decided that the three entries of the Passion one are dedicated to the three Theological Christian virtues. Gaudí conceived this façade with the idea of transmitting the fear and cruelty of Jesus' sacrifice. To achieve this he was willing to use various geometric shapes with edges or even to sacrifice the construction, breaking arches or cutting columns, to generate a more gloomy effect.

How could anybody feel anything less than a poet with the Church by his side? replied " " Gaudí.

Then, displaying that characteristic Mediterranean smile with which cultivated Italians express their intense delight in brilliant works of art, the nuncio said to Gaudí:

"You are truly the Dante of Architecture. That is how I would describe you" (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 302–304).

The pinnacle tower of Jesus Christ would be 170 metres high. In other words, the highest point of La Sagrada Familia would be somewhat lower than the mountain of Montjuïc, the lowest of those that surround Barcelona. It was an act of humility by the human architect before God, the architect of the universe.

The aesthetic enjoyment contemplation of this beautiful masterpiece lifts our human consciousness, which is anchored within the world, up. Simultaneously, each of his works of art, inspired by nature, is a piece of Glory: visible signs of the invisible God. Human consciousness receives from them the light of the one who is Beauty Himself. As Pope Benedict once said of Gaudi, he helps us to overcome "the division between human consciousness and Christian consciousness, between living in this temporal world and being open to eternal life, between the beauty of things and God as beauty" (Ratzinger, 2010).

### 6 Character and Virtue

Gaudí placed a mosaic on the lintel of the entrance to de crypt of the church of Colònia Güell. The trencadís (or broken tile mosaic) was made in 1914. At its centre there is a rhombus made to look like light. Following the shape's vertexes, one finds three more rhombi. The spaces inside them have depictions of herbs, flowers, shrubs and trees, as all nature receives the light.

In this mosaic, the artist depicts his view of virtue, which is rooted in Aristotle and Christian tradition. Gaudí was guided by the search for beauty, frequently leading him to reject materialistic values (Tarragona, 2019b Dec 3).

Once a visitor he was showing around La Sagrada Familia said to him, amazed and wanting to complement the architect:

Mr. Gaudí, you should take advantage of your intelligence... You could become an extremely rich man!

"If I had wanted to be a rich man", he answered dryly, "I would have devoted myself to business" (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 309).

Upon finishing La Pedrera, he filed a lawsuit against its owners, the Milà i Segimon family, to collect his fees. The courts ruled in his favour and the owners had to mortgage the house in order to pay the architect the 105,000 pesetas they were sentenced to pay. This money was rightly his. And it wasn't an amount that had been set from profits based on investments or speculation; he had earned it by the sweat of his brow over the years he devoted to the design and direction of its construction.

However, Antoni Gaudí hadn't sued for the money for himself. He wanted to donate it to the Church. And with a grace and class, he chose not allocate it to his beloved Cathedral of the Poor, which so critically needed financial support at that time. Nor did he use it to cancel debts with suppliers or to paying the wages of the staff so as to ensure that construction wouldn't be interrupted. Instead, he handed over the entire amount to the Jesuit priest Ignasi Casanovas, so that he could freely use it for good works (Tarragona, 2019a, p. 312).

### 7 Conclusions

Art is indeed a way to achieve human flourishing, and it has the power to move us aesthetically and religiously. Aesthetic emotion is one of the most positive emotions an individual can experience. The enjoyment of art is only possible in humans. While the majority of our emotions can be found in animals with developed mammalian brains, no other creature can relish art as we do.

Referring to religious emotion through art, Gaudí's work shows that God is the true measure of man; that the secret of authentic originality lies in returning to the origin, which is God. The artist, in opening himself up to God, experiences the maximum positive experience of being a contributor in Creation, of the triumph of the spirit over physical matter. This personal encounter with Truth and Beauty itself can be the most positive experience in one's life. The radiance of the Truth that Gaudí has made present in material shapes and designs, with the same originality with which God created our world, enlightens the human consciousness and opens it up to being able to know Truth itself.

Furthermore, Gaudí's life and words offer much wisdom, beyond flourishing, of the human struggle towards perfection. Below we've tried to summarize this wisdom in the following points.

### 7.1 Human Flourishing Is Progressive

Human flourishing is a long process with different stages that build off one another. One must always ascend step by step. Following St. Ignatius of Loyola's formula is a sure means for achieving flourishing, that is, that man must always work to better himself (Loyola, Ignatius of, 1548).

This path is fraught with mistakes, which are consequences of self-confidence. In order to make fewer mistakes, it must be repeated systematically. Repetition is paramount in this journey. Things need to be redone to avoid the previous detected errors. Patience achieves everything, as St. Teresa of Ávila put it.

### 7.2 Human Flourishing Requires Community

Flourishing in each person occurs simultaneously as the flourishing of society, in their own community (in a person's work, family, neighbourhood ...) and as a whole. Everyone is useful to society; everyone is good at something. The question lies in knowing what each one can contribute. Perfection in society is achieved when everyone contributes to the best of their abilities.

The work of each person is what contributes to the flourishing of the society as whole. Therefore, work which leads to one's flourishing is not done within an individualistic, competitive framework, but rather in cooperation and with solidarity. The main motivation for doing things and doing them well is to work for the prosperity of the community. St. Ignatius of Loyola said to "achieve excellence and share it".

Working solely for material remuneration doesn't lead to human flourishing. It is a grave mistake to do one's job solely for the income it provides. You cannot do fruitful things for compensation alone.

### 7.3 Practicing Religion Is an Ideal Framework for Flourishing

Gaudí taught that a person without religion is a person who is spiritually lacking, a mutilated individual.

Gaudí experienced his most positive emotions, his brain at its best, his most intense engagement with society, his deepest growth as a human being within the framework of his own religious practice. The progress of his religious life also helped maintain and enhance his innate creativity and resilience, as well as his kind temperament.

### 7.4 Everybody Has the Ability to Flourish

While the sciences are for those who have cultivated their intelligence, art is for everybody, which is why it can enhance everyone's flourishing. However, when basic needs are not met, this appreciation for art is more difficult. Furthermore, the appreciation of art and its consequent positive effect on our flourishing depends largely on a person's education level. This is why people who control and manage capital accumulation must take responsibility for helping others out of poverty and ensuring that everyone is able to access their right to education.

### References

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

# Conclusion: What We Have Learnt From Multidisciplinary Views on Human Flourishing

María José Bosch

Abstract Wellbeing and flourishing are two interconnected concepts. Usually both are studied from just one discipline. In this book we combine research from academics look to combine the evidence on how flourishing has an impact and is influenced by health, art, entrepreneurship, and work life, among other factors. These influences and impact can be categorized in three groups. First, the interconnection with the self that is how we construction the image of ourselves impacts how we interpret and perceive different stimuli or experiences, and this has an impact on our flourishing. Second, the interconnection with others impacts the relationship we build with them, and this relationship impacts our flourishing. Finally, the interconnection with the environment shows us that being aware of the impact that our behaviors and traditions the environment can foster behaviors and changes that look to promote flourishing.

Keywords Interconnection · Self · Others · Environment

### 1 Introduction

Our lifestyle has changed throughout the last decades. Globalization has impacted many aspects of our lives, leading, for example, to an increase in the number of hours we spend working, as many people collaborate from different countries and time zones. Another change is connectivity. Though it has helped us in many ways, it has also made us dependent on the instantaneity of communications. While these are only a few of the changes we've seen in more recent years, they are changes which, in general, have impacted not only our private lives, but also how we work. In addition to these changes, we should also consider the impact of Covid-19. The pandemic has forced us to change how we work, live, and travel, among many other aspects of our lives. No one is indifferent to its effects. All of these changes are present across different cultures, age groups, etc. Therefore, it is especially relevant

M. J. Bosch (\*)

ESE Business School, Universidad de los Andes, Las Condes, Chile e-mail<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
that we understand how we can live happy lives in this tumultuous and changing context. Or, in other words, how can we promote flourishing within our families, organizations, and societies to foster our wellbeing?

We could attempt to answer these questions from different fields of study and by examining a range of theories, but it would give us an incomplete answer. Rather, in this book we combine research from academics across several disciplines to understand how to move forward towards a healthier and more sustainable society specifically through flourishing. We hope that after reading the previous chapters, you have a deeper knowledge of this concept.

In this last chapter, we are going to lay out and examine the main findings. Doing so will help us to implement and promote flourishing within our families, organizations, societies, and personal lives. Oftentimes, the ever-increasing rhythm of our lives hinders the opportunity to be conscious of the time and energy we are exerting, and if they are aligned with our purpose.

Throughout the previous chapters of this book, the concept of flourishing has been examined in detail. In doing so, we offer information which is oftentimes scattered across different disciplines and countries. Academics also tend to work in silos, and thus an important contribution of this book is that it gathers different academics' research, offering an interdisciplinary work, where we combine relevant content from the realms of art, medicine, psychology, and business.

One of the main learning points of the book is the light it sheds on the relationship that exists between wellbeing and flourishing. Also, we have learned that flourishing has an impact and is influenced by health, art, entrepreneurship, and work life, among other factors. The different chapters provide information and evidence about how flourishing affects our day-to-day life from different points of view, and how we can promote it.

As an ever-changing society, it is important to move forward and be aware that if we only focus on maximizing certain aspects of our lives, organizations, and societies, it may be harder to find sustainable solutions. What's more, if we approach problems from just one discipline, any solutions found run the risk of being incomplete. Consequently, works such as this one are important to highlight the relevance of interdisciplinary research.

The chapter is divided into two parts. The former organizes what we have explored throughout this book into three dimensions. The latter part proposes actions to move forward and suggests studies that could be carried out to continue understanding human flourishing.

### 2 Learning from This Book

Although human flourishing is a novel concept, it is related to the state of wellbeing and valued across cultures (Pawelski, 2021). It has many benefits, as we have seen, and in this last chapter we are going to group them into three dimensions: interconnection with the self, interconnection with others, and interconnection with the environment.

One of the main consequences of human flourishing is its impact on health. Frequently, as explained in chapter "Health and Flourishing: An Interdisciplinary Synthesis", health is seen as the absence of diseases or pain. But if we focus not only on reducing pain, but also on improving wellbeing and life, we can foster actions that promote human flourishing and aim to generate positive outcomes in different areas of life. Related to this positive approach to health, we can understand it within a wellbeing ecosystem, where we can promote flourishing from different angles, like within our personal lives, our relationships, and our contexts.

If we are to continue looking for the loftiest feats achievable through human actions, as Ryff explained in Chapter "In Pursuit of Eudaimonia: Past Advances and Future Directions", we should strive throughout our lives to promote the best version of ourselves from within. There is evidence that a person can try to do so on their own. But even if a person dedicates significant time to their personal growth, we do not live like islands, isolated from others. Rather, we live in society and are interconnected and influenced, and impact one another. Nonetheless, despite forming part of a society, we each are part of a specific context. For example, living in a city is very different than living in a town. Also, living in a developing country is very different from living in a developed one, etc. All these differences also impact our flourishing.

We can summarize this reality by stating that our flourishing is influenced by the ecosystem in which we find ourselves. Therefore, we should try to understand this ecosystem as much as we can and comprehend how we can expand its positive impacts. In doing so, we can contribute to important progress in the knowledge on human flourishing.

To categorize the learnings presented in this book about the interconnections within the ecosystems of human flourishing, we propose three sections. The first ecosystem is that of the interconnection with oneself, that is, how each person can influence their own flourishing. The second one pertains to the interconnection with others, i.e., how we influence each other, and how we can promote flourishing in families, organizations, and societies. Finally, the third realm is our interconnection with our context, that is, our surroundings, like the room or the city where we live, or the moment in history that we are living in, affects the human flourishing of a person or a society.

### 3 Interconnection with the Self

How we see ourselves is extremely relevant to promote flourishing. The construction of this image and how it impacts our self-esteem is affected by how we interpret and perceive different stimuli or experiences. These perceptions are unique to each person. Our perception of ourselves affects how we approach our daily lives and how we make decisions. It can also have an impact on our health and our relationships and how we relate to the environment.

Our interpretations are influenced by different factors. One of these factors, personality traits, is explored by Waugh in chapter "An Affective Neuroscience Perspective on Psychological Flourishing; How the Brain Believes that Things are Going Well". These traits are correlated with our wellbeing. He describes personality traits as trait-relevant behaviors and proposes that there may be areas of the brain which influence a person to believe that he/she is flourishing. This implies that there are multiple ways to flourish, and that this interpretation is very important. The brain may believe itself to be flourishing in its positive interpretation of life events. How we evaluate these events is related to our life circumstances, whether, for example, we have had people in our lives that haven taken care of us, how we see ourselves, etc.

Having a purpose in one's life also affects the brain's interpretation of different events. We can understand purpose as "the feeling that there is meaning in one's present and past life" (p. 707) (Ryff & Singer, 1998). Alternatively, "purpose is a stable and generalized intention to accomplish something that is at once meaningful to the self and of consequence to the world beyond the self" (p. 121) (Damon et al., 2003). Purpose therefore serves as a compass in our lives and helps us make choices and take one path over another. The personal evaluation of those decisions has consequences for our personal flourishing. This impact purpose plays is crucial, as it not only affects our wellbeing but also our health. Higher wellbeing, like personal growth, positive relationships, and purpose in life, among others, is related to different positive health indicators, as presented in chapter "Health and Flourishing: An Interdisciplinary Synthesis" written by Lee and Mayor. Therefore, our flourishing is dependent on having a positive view of our purpose in life and our capacity to materialize that purpose.

Emotions are another aspect that influence one's self and one's relationship with flourishing. People's emotions affect their environment, as they are spread to others. Consider happiness. If we are happy, we can spread our happiness and help make those around us happy. This interconnection between people's feelings exists with positive and negative emotions alike. We have also learned that being aware of this relationship is important, as how we feel is related to our health. When we understand the interconnection between our emotions and flourishing, we learn about our emotions, understand them, identify them, and differentiate them, which not only affects our feelings and health, but also the feelings and health of others.

If we deepen this effect of emotions, we can understand the changes that happen with a person that is going through intense suffering or loss. In Lee and Mayor's chapter, they explain that when someone experiences an intense emotion, the way it is experienced can transform the person and even have the effect of "changing the way they see the world." These experiences with intense emotions can also change our purpose and whether we perceive that we are flourishing or not.

In another interesting chapter, Lee and Contreras (chapter "Flourishing with Moral Emotions Through Conversational Agent") explore how artificial agents can be used to bolster moral emotions like compassion, which is linked to human flourishing. According to the authors, two critical components for flourishing have been overlooked: the promotion of moral emotions, and the use of conversation agents (like chatbots) to increase such emotions. This chapter reviews different chatbots, like Vincent, that have been created for fostering compassion, selfcompassion, and gratitude.

Some of these emotions can be understood in more depth in Rodríguez-Prat and Monforte-Royo's chapter on palliative care. The authors explain that how we perceive suffering is important, as it influences our flourishing. More specifically, how we perceive and relate to death affects us. Chapter "Human Flourishing Until the End: The Core Values of Palliative Care" explains that if we reduce human beings only to their productive capacity and utility, the final stage of a person's life can be perceived as a burden, versus simply another normal stage in life. How do we treat others when they are in pain? This is an important thing to learn from this book, as it explains the interconnection between people in our society, but specifically, in this section, how we feel about ourselves. Do we consider ourselves a burden? Or are we relieved that we have others that can care for us? This will not only affect our self-esteem, but also our health. Having a safety net has important consequences for our mental and physical health.

Although not all positive evaluations are related to flourishing, flourishing requires a positive evaluation of one's life. As Waugh states at the end of his chapter, a good life depends on how the brain believes a life is good. Furthermore, how we see others and whether we forgive them, support them, or take care of them will also influence our (and their) flourishing.

In this line, Toussaint and his colleagues examine the connections between forgiveness and human flourishing in chapter "Forgiveness in Human Flourishing". According to the authors, we should consider forgiveness as a character virtue. At the same time, their model conceptualizes forgiveness, which is always experienced internally, as a possible contributor to flourish in at least three dimensions: mental health, physical health, and happiness.

### 4 Interconnection with Others

Although the previous section focused on the interconnection with the self, it shows that people do not live isolated, like islands, but rather in societies and communities, where they interact with each other regularly. The relationship we build with others is also important to promote flourishing in ourselves.

How we consider and see others impacts the relationship we build with them. Rodríguez-Prat and Monforte-Royo use an example to reflect this reality.  It also affects the perceived dignity of the patient. In their chapter, they are very specific in outlining the impact on human flourishing depending on whether a sick person is treated as an object or as person. This differentiation is also explained in the chapter by Balda, where he describes Balenciana's life and creativity. How this artist saw his clients had an important impact on his work. As Balda explains in chapter "Balenciaga and the Importance of Creativity in Human Flourishing", Balenciaga wanted to exalt the person in their entirety, and not just their bodies. In doing so, he made his clients happier.

In a similar vein, Grau-Grau examines the relationship between quality ties and human flourishing in chapter "Fatherhood Involvement as a Source of Human Flourishing". More specifically, he argued that fatherhood involvement, throughout the generation of paternal generativity and relational flourishing, contributes to human flourishing. It is necessary to put more efforts in measuring the quality of our relationships, which seems to be one of the clearest predictors of our life satisfaction.

Understanding that we have an impact on others, and that likewise they impact us, helps build the ecosystem that we have been examining throughout the book and in this chapter. Therefore, it is pertinent to understand which variables help this ecosystem and which ones worsen it. One of the variables that has a positive impact is kindness. The kindness shown by one person to another not only impacts their dyad relationship but also their support network, and consequently, this has an impact on flourishing. When we have stronger support networks, we know that we are not alone. Knowing that other people care about us is very important throughout the different stages of life. In the beginning, babies are not capable of surviving alone; they need others to help them. As described in this book, as we get older our wellbeing declines. One of the aspects that produces this negative effect on wellbeing is that many institutions have not adapted to our longer life expectancy. We can counter that, considering that positive relationships at work and with families and friends have a positive impact on wellbeing.

It is important to highlight the interaction between different dimensions in our lives and how they impact on one another. We saw in this book that work-life balance also influences our flourishing. Greater involvement in different roles promotes higher wellbeing; more specifically, parenting enhances adult wellbeing, as Barraza, Las Heras, and Rofcanin explain in chapter "Work, Family and Human Flourishing". This relationship is positive when work and family are well integrated. Therefore, in organizations it is important to facilitate this integration. We saw in depth that this interconnection is so strong that there is a positive spillover between work and family. Aware of this positive relationship between these two realms, we should foster it in organizations, as the outcomes benefit employees, their families, and the organizations themselves.

Social ties are play an important role in the work-life balance equation. We need other people. As explained in the book, people with fewer social ties face more threats to their physical health. When we have a better work-life balance, we can develop better social ties with our colleagues and family, as we spend more time with them. Developing these ties is so important that it even affects our health.

The positive and negative spillovers that exist between the members of an environment are reciprocal. Promoting a positive social exchange among members can induce greater flourishing for the entire community. For example, what is healthy for the individual is also healthy for the ecosystem, as Lee and Mayor note.

### 5 Interconnection with the Environment

The interconnection with the environment is another very important aspect of flourishing. People are related to one another, but they are also affected by the environment in which they live.

When we talk about the environment, we usually highlight the natural aspect of it. We all live on the same planet and our actions can have an impact on the earth. This is also related to flourishing. The number of people living on earth affects how much food we produce, and how much we contaminate it. But actions like changing people's diets can have an impact on the environment too. Being aware of the impact that our behaviors and traditions have on the earth can foster new ways of doing things.

The term "environment" goes beyond ecological conditions; it includes sociological ones as well. For example, social inequality also has an impact on flourishing. As explained in the book, higher income groups have better indicators on objective and subjective measures. Additionally, this also has an impact on the opportunities that people have to achieve their potential. Leveling the playing field when it comes to inequalities helps societies develop the talents of its members. Promoting art, for example, is one way to offset any worsening inequality, as it has a positive impact not only on our health but also on our wellbeing.

Art has been present throughout most of humankind's history. It can take different forms, such as painting, sculpture, furniture, and clothing. Art's impact can be limited or broad-reaching. For example, we saw that Balenciana not only impacted his clients, but also the fashions of his time. An even broader impact was seen by architect Antoni Gaudí. As explained in chapter "Antoni Gaudí in Human Flourishing", he impacted both his clients and the entire city of Barcelona. Likewise, the people who worked with him understood that when you love what you do, you can do amazing things. Both artists are examples of individuals who were deeply connected and involved with their work, and both immensely enjoyed their work.

Another impact on flourishing revealed in this book is how history can change how we perceive an event and how these perceptions can change through time. For example, we saw in Pérez-Martinez's chapter how traveling has evolved over time. From being done strictly on a military exploration basis to what is largely seen as a wellbeing experience today, traveling has changed tremendously throughout the years. Changes in the environment, such as the incorporation of modern transportation, have given us the opportunity to be able to travel to every corner of the world. Nonetheless, wellbeing linked to traveling is not only dependent on moving from one place to another, as we can flourish through literature and by "traveling" through books. Novels, traveling books, etc. can take us to different corners of the world and stimulate our wellbeing and flourishing.

### 6 A Roadmap Towards Flourishing

In recent years, we have seen how the world and our way of living can change dramatically from one day to another. Therefore, being concious of the fact that we are partically responsible of our own flourishing is important in order to promote a higher level of wellbeing. Also, we cannot deny the interconnection between ourselves and the people around us, especially with those that are close to us such as our families, colleagues, and neighbors. Or the impact the environment has on us, and vice versa.

We need to also consider the role of governments and institutions in order to foster a change. For example, Strong in Chapter "Human Flourishing Through Behavior Change" highlights that a forgotten part of flourishing is that of enacting change. Normally, we think about human flourishing as a state of being, or a place of which we have arrived or need to arrive. According to him, the act of change itself needs to be seen as a core facet of what it means to flourish.

In the same vein, Aknin in chapter "Revising Policy to Reflect Our Better Nature" outlines that the ultimate purpose of a government should be to help people to thrive, and not merely survive. Not only alleviating tensions and stress, but also amplifying positive experiences. Two of her suggestions for revising policies are allowing and enticing desirable behavior through opportunities for social connection, and offering prosocial rewards, such as the funds or time to help a personally meaningful cause.

One interesting thing we have learned from this interdisciplinary book is the concept of an ecosystem. We all are interconnected and influence each other. Therefore, promoting flourishing and wellbeing not only depends on ourselves, but on the relationships we build with others and the environment. Understanding this interconnection allows us to make changes in society, organizations, and families, as we can foster flourishing among all respective members. Flourishing, as we have seen throughout this book, has a positive impact on our health, particularly our mental health and self-esteem, which is fundamental in a postpandemic era.

Additionally, knowing that loving what we do can impact our own and others' flourishing, as in the cases of Balenciaga and Gaudí, should grab our attention. Specifically, it can help to improve the quality of our work. Dedication and not fearing mistakes are important aspects that we should promote in our jobs. Imagine all of the flourishing that we could foster by investing time in people's selfconfidence and helping them discover what they love to do. The impact would be considerable. This work could be carried out within schools and organizations.

Another important thing we have learned from this book is the broader concept of wellbeing and flourishing. Concepts such as success, the taboo of death, aging, kindness, caring and happiness, among many other concepts that we have reviewed, show us that being well, and flourishing depend more on how we define these concepts and how we include them in our lives, than on how they are defined, as their definitions have changed over time. For example, seeing people not only in terms of their productive capacity and utility helps us redefine success and value knowledge. Also, it is important to bring back the caring rituals which were once commonplace. How we accompany the dying may change how we see death, as Rodríguez-Prat and Monforte-Royo demonstrated in their chapter.

Organizations and families can change our perspective of aging. We can change how we see older people and how we include them in society. For example, we can promote job opportunities with schedules that take into account the age of the employees. Also, we can train them in new technologies or in new competencies that are important nowadays. We can see them and treat them with the respect that comes with having experienced and seen more than us, experience that can have an important impact on within organizations and societies.

In an increasingly individualistic society, another concept that we can change to promote human flourishing is caring. As the UN warned in 2018, we have a global care crisis. Human beings are social, but in recent history, we have not promoted caring, and we have even seen caring as a burden on our professional careers. We should work to change this tendency and shift towards creating cultures of care. Organizations can lead this change by boosting family friendly cultures (Thompson et al., 2004) and family friendly supervisor behaviors (Allen, 2001), so workers can have better work-life balance, turning caring into a positive aspect of society, as work and family research has proven that there is a positive spillover between work and family enrichment.

All of these learnings can facilitate and promote societies, organizations, families, and individuals' flourishing. The positive consequences of such would be much greater than any costs associated with incorporating these learnings. If we make all of these changes in our daily lives to promote flourishing, we can foster an important change in our ecosystems, and as we know, all living creatures are affected by their ecosystems. For this reason, it is important to give flourishing the weight it deserves, as in doing so, the impact will be positive for all of us.

### References

Thompson, C. A., Jahn, E. W., Kopelman, R. E., & Prottas, D. J. (2004). Perceived organizational family support: A longitudinal and multilevel analysis. Journal of Managerial Issues, 16, 545–565.

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