Bridging the Philosophy of Well-being with Corresponding Empirical Researches

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25580007
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Philosophy/Ethics
• Research Institution: Kansai University of Welfare Sciences (2015); Nanzan University (2013-2014)
• Principal Investigator: Suzuki Makoto 関西福祉科学大学, 社会福祉学部, 准教授 (30536488)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 哲学 / 倫理学 / 幸福・不幸 / 経験科学 / 測定

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research aimed at bridging philosophical studies on happiness and its measurement with corresponding empirical works. Specifically, this research proposed to pragmatically revise the question, what happiness in the sense of well-being, i.e., what makes one’s life better, is. Partly depending on the results of empirical sciences, such as psychology and neuroscience, this study examined what constitutes well-being, and defended a response-dependent theory, the view that takes one’s well-being to consist in his ex post facto liking. And it rebutted an objection to response-dependent theories, i.e., the criticism that these theories underestimate the level of one’s well-being when his relevant mental states have been adapted to dire conditions. This study further concluded that, for happiness to be real in such a way as to be comparable and measurable, we need to weaken assumptions about good for an individual, reflecting on what in the world can fulfill the roles of well-being.

Free Research Field

哲学