E20. Scientism, wellbeing, and the future of education | Dr Jonathan Beale

This is the podcast all about the stories behind the studies of the happiness and wellbeing research world. Support the show at: researchinghappy.locals.com This is episode 20 - a mini milestone - and really happy with the progress so far! It’s been an honour to chat with so many respected researchers all of whom are doing amazing things in the world. Thanks for all of the support for the show, feedback, and ideas - as I’ve said every episode - please keep it coming!  Dr Jon Beale is a researcher, coach and educator whose research focuses on human flourishing, particularly in the workplace and education, and the science of learning. He's a Research Affiliate at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, a Peak Performance Coach for the Flow Research Collective, and co-host of Flourish FM: a podcast for the good life. He's previously held research posts at the University of Oxford and Eton College. He's co-editor of four books, including The Future of Education, forthcoming from Oxford University Press. He's published 30 research articles and book chapters in leading academic journals, book publishers and media outlets, including The New York Times. Find out more at: https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/people/jonathan-beale and https://www.flowresearchcollective.com/team-members/dr-jonathan-beale. If anyone watched the first episode of this podcast, I said I wanted to learn more about the issue of scientism - as defined by Jonathan as the "the pernicious manifestations of an excessive belief in the power of science". I was reading a book by Seraphim Rose just last night came across this passage: the unreflective scientific specialist sees no need need for any other kind of knowledge, occupied with the demands of his or her speciality, and has, perhaps, neither time nor inclination for “abstract” questions to inquire, for example, the basic presuppositions of that speciality.  As we discuss, this issue of scientism can affect wellbeing research, a field that has so much input from alternative ways of knowing than just the scientific method. Now, Jonathan has done much more work than his focus on Scientism, and while we did focus on that, we also chat his other work on the future of Education, coaching, and wellbeing research.