The Meanings of ‘Happiness’ and What They Mean for Policymaking

The Meanings of ‘Happiness’ and What They Mean for Policymaking Dan Weijers 20 October 2011

Well-Being The life that is good for the one living it • What makes someone's life go better/best for them? The prudentially good life Well-being

Happiness ≠ well-being? • Some accounts just use happiness • Some don’t use it at all • Key Questions: • What are the ultimate bearers of prudential value for us? • What directly makes our lives go better for us?

Policy-making Sustainability Fairness ↑ Well-being (WB) Equality Justice Subjective WB Objective WB Overall Domain-Specific Quality of Life Indicators Traditional Economic Indicators Happiness HAPPINESS Brain scan Mental state/ hedonism Life Satisfaction theories Objective List/ Flourishing Health/ healthcare Freedom Trust Safety Environ-ment Education Equality Employ-ment Income Behav-ioural Wealth • Survey • Pager • Day reco-nstruction • Survey • “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life?” • Survey • Rate agreement “I have good friends” Production

Mental State Theories • Folk: get pleasure now! • Philosophers: maximise pleasure over your entire life • Key: All that matters is how you feel (your mental states) Well-being Happiness +ve net balance of good over bad mental states Especially hedonism

What about Truth & Freedom? • Compare two lives • Same experiences • Different reality • Double agent partner • Sponsored children all died • Whose life is better? • What should we do about a happy slave?

Measuring Mental State Happiness • Survey Questions • “How happy are you these days?” • Pager method • “What are you doing now and how are you feeling?” • Day reconstruction method • Note down activities and mood from previous day

Life Satisfaction Theories Having most or more of your desires satisfied • Based on desire/preference-satisfaction • Informed: adequately informed desires only • Ideal: desires that fit some objective criteria only • Key: All that matters is getting what you want Happiness Well-being Sometimes

Is the Satisfaction of Our Desires Good for us? • Actual and informed desires are often for things that are, on balance, bad for us! • Ideal desires require some kind of objective standard • We choose to desire things because we think that their satisfaction will provide us with some value or meaning • D-S accounts put the value in the satisfaction, not the ultimate reason for having the desire

Measuring Life Satisfaction Happiness • Survey Questions: • “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole?” • “Compared to what it could have been, how satisfied are you with your life?”

Flourishing Theories • Developing excellencies in one or all of your species’ fundamental traits • Only some versions include or require happiness/enjoyment of life • Aristotle: Flourishing is the soul expressing virtue • Virtues are ‘golden means’ • E.g. cowardice – courage - rashness • Key: All that matters is being the best you can be (given that you’re a human) Well-being Flourishing Developing & expressing natural capacities

Flourishing = Objective List • But, which traits do you prioritise? • Is excellence in reasoning or long-distance running better for us? • Unnatural things can be good for us too! • E.g. Pacemakers, wings etc. • We end up with a list of things that are good for us

Objective List = ‘Objective’ List • A list of the ultimate goods • Most objective list theories lack justification for their irreducible goods • E.g. Ross’ account: • Knowledge, Pleasure, Virtue and the proper apportionment of pleasure to virtue • Can’t we explain knowledge with pleasure or desire-satisfaction? • Why is it ultimately better for me that my pleasure comes from virtue?

Who Are We to Write the Objective List? • Is there any objective truth to what constitutes the prudential good life?

Measuring Objective List/Flourishing Well-Being • Survey Questions: • “Rate the extent to which you agree with the following statements” • I maintain many good friendships • My life is meaningful • I am a virtuous person • I am rarely deceived • I am very knowledgeable • I am free to act as I please (when not harming others) • I live in a pristine environment

SWB Survey Problems • Appraisal biases • Test-specific • Greater context • Aspirational biases

Conceptual Problem • It’s so subjective! • Is there an objective basis for happiness? • Brain scans • Behavioural analysis (e.g. smiles)

Case: Income vs. Happiness • Measures of income: • Used by economists & politicians • Key indicator of ‘national progress’ • Income is an indicator of ability to satisfy preferences • More income is good because it makes you more free and more happy

Does $$ Make Us Happy?

Materialism Doesn’t Pay Very High

Why Not Measure Happiness & Freedom? • But which measures to use? • Which measures capture the most of the prudential good life? • Is it more important to be happy or satisfied? • In a capitalist democracy, we might have to put these things to a vote or let the market decide…

The Meanings of ‘Happiness’ and What They Mean for Policymaking