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Chapter 2 24 flourishing is worth striving for, so that (c) flourishing should be perceived as intrinsically worthwhile. 2. The actualisation of the human potential We state that the core of flourishing is that it focuses on a notion of optimising ‘the human being qua human being’; the actualisation of human potential. 42 When we say that someone is flourishing, we mean that someone is functioning at a top-level – an optimal level. This ‘top’ is agent-relative; how well someone is doing depends on her potential and the possibilities she gets in her life, although a certain minimal threshold is defined objectively. 43 If someone is not or barely capable of actualising any potential (because of, for example, congenital disabilities or severe trauma during life), we will not say that she is a flourishing human being. How well someone (who is above this minimal threshold) is doing in developing towards that optimal level can also be judged. People can, in that sense, be compared with each other on their level of flourishing, by comparing the progress they have made relative to their own optimum. De Ruyter uses the term ‘optimiser’ for someone who develops herself in an optimal way. 44 Flourishing persons, in her words, are ‘persons who have developed (and are still developing) their possibilities to the full’. 45 Developing in an optimal way, and in that sense to the full, should not be mistaken for ‘getting the most out of something’ (i.e. your life or a given situation), a phrase that is popular in our current society. Children are sometimes encouraged to become the ‘best’, which can be very confusing if the difference between becoming ‘the best version of yourself’ and ‘the best pupil in school’ has not been made clear. The notion of ‘actualising the human potential’ shows that human flourishing is not the same as happiness (in a subjective sense). To feel happy, someone does not have to strive to actualise their potential. For example, the famous character Oblomov from the novel by Gontsjarow is quite happy living his life doing literally almost nothing, leaving a large part of his potential un-actualised. 46 Unless it is argued that ‘doing nothing’ is what makes Oblomov the best version of himself he can be, we would not say that he has had a flourishing life. 2a. Life as a whole To be able to say that someone is flourishing or has flourished, one has to look at her life as a whole. 47 ‘Life as a whole’ can be interpreted in a temporal sense, as referring to life from birth until 42 For instance in Aristotle 2009; Kraut 1979; Rasmussen 1999; De Ruyter 2012; Huta 2013. 43 See also Lawrence 1993. 44 De Ruyter 2012, p. 28. 45 Ibid., p. 27. 46 Gontsjarow 1958. 47 See Aristotle 2009; Annas 1993; MacIntyre 1981.