Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T13:01:21.341Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Well-Being Policy: What Standard of Well-Being?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2015

DANIEL M. HAYBRON  and
VALERIE TIBERIUS
DANIEL M. HAYBRON
Affiliation:
SAINT LOUIS [email protected]
VALERIE TIBERIUS
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper examines the norms that should guide policies aimed at promoting happiness or, more broadly, well-being. In particular, we take up the question of which conception of well-being should govern well-being policy (WBP), assuming some such policies to be legitimate. In answer, we lay out a case for ‘pragmatic subjectivism’: given widely accepted principles of respect for persons, well-being policy may not assume any view of well-being, subjectivist or objectivist. Rather, it should promote what its intended beneficiaries see as good for them: pleasure for hedonists, excellence for Aristotelians, etc. Specifically, well-being policy should promote citizens’ ‘personal welfare values’: those values—and not mere preferences—that individuals see as bearing on their well-being. Finally, we briefly consider how pragmatic subjectivism works in practice. While our discussion takes for granted the legitimacy of well-being policy, we suggest that pragmatic subjectivism strengthens the case for such policy.

Keywords

political philosophyethicsnormative ethicsphilosophy of sciencephilosophy of economicsphilosophy of social sciencewell-beinghappiness
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the American Philosophical Association , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , Winter 2015 , pp. 712 - 733
Copyright
Copyright © American Philosophical Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, M. (2011). Well-Being and Fair Distribution: Beyond Cost-Benefit Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Adler, M. D., and Fleurbaey, M.. (2015) The Oxford Handbook of Well-Being and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Adler, M. D., and Posner, E. A.. (2006) New Foundations of Cost-Benefit Analysis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Alexandrova, A., and Haybron, D. M.. (2012) ‘High Fidelity Economics’. In Hands, W. and Davis, J. (eds.), The Elgar Companion to Recent Economic Methodology (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar), 94–117.Google Scholar
Anderson, E. (1995) Value in Ethics and Economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Angner, Erik. (2010) ‘Are Subjective Measures of Well-Being “Direct”?’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 89, 115–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angner, Erik. (2012) ‘When and Why Subjective Well-Being Matters’. Available at: SSRN 2157140.Google Scholar
Arneson, R. J. (2000) ‘Perfectionism and Politics’. Ethics, 111, 37–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, Daniel J., Heffetz, Ori, Kimball, Miles S., and Szembrot, Nichole. (2012) ‘Beyond Happiness and Satisfaction: Toward Well-Being Indices Based on Stated Preference’. NBER Working Paper Series No. 18374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhutan, R. G. O. (2013) ‘The Report of the High-Level Meeting on Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm’. The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United Nations.Google Scholar
Coons, C., and Weber, M.. (2013) Paternalism: Theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Darwall, S. (2002) Welfare and Rational Care. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., et al. (2009) Well-Being for Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dworkin, R. (1978). ‘Liberalism’. In Hampshire, S. (ed.), Public and Private Morality (New York: Cambridge University Press), 113–43.Google Scholar
Fleurbaey, M. (2012) ‘The Importance of What People Care About’. Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 11, 415–47.Google Scholar
Fleurbaey, M., and Blanchet, D.. (2013) Beyond GDP: Measuring Welfare and Assessing Sustainability. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Graham, C. (2011) The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hausman, D. M. (2010) ‘Hedonism and Welfare Economics’. Economics and Philosophy, 26, 321–44.Google Scholar
Hausman, D. M. (2011) Preferences, Value, Choice, and Welfare. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausman, D. M., and McPherson, M. S.. (2006) Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy, and Public Policy. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haybron, D. M. (2008) The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haybron, D. M. (2013) Happiness: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haybron, D. M., and Alexandrova, A.. (2013) ‘Paternalism in Economics’. In Coons, C. and Weber, M. (eds.), Paternalism: Theory and Practice (New York: Cambridge University Press), 157–77.Google Scholar
Heathwood, C. (2011) ‘Preferentism and Self-Sacrifice’. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 92, 18–38.Google Scholar
Helliwell, J., Layard, R., et al. (2012) ‘World Happiness Report’. New York: The Earth Institute.Google Scholar
Hurka, T. (1993) Perfectionism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kagan, S. (1992) ‘The Limits of Well-Being’. Social Philosophy and Policy, 9, 169–89.Google Scholar
Klosko, G., and Wall, S.. (2003) Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Kraut, Richard. (1979) ‘Two Conceptions of Happiness’. The Philosophical Review, 88, 167–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraut, R. (2006) ‘How to Justify Ethical Propositions: Aristotle's Method’. In Kraut, R. (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (Malden: MA: Blackwell Publishing), 76–95.Google Scholar
Layard, R. (2005) Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. (2000) Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. C. (2011). Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Overvold, M. C. (1980) ‘Self-Interest and the Concept of Self-Sacrifice’. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 10, 105–18.Google Scholar
Parfit, D. (1984) Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Raibley, J. (2010) ‘Well-being and the Priority of Values’. Social Theory and Practice, 36, 593–620.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1993) Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, Henry S. (2002) Democratic Autonomy: Public Reasoning about the Ends of Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rosati, C. S. (2009) ‘Self-Interest and Self-Sacrifice’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 109, 311–25.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. (1975) ‘Preference and Urgency’. Journal of Philosophy, 72, 655–69.Google Scholar
Schmuck, P. E., and Sheldon, K. M., eds. (2001) Life Goals and Well-Being: Towards a Positive Psychology of Human Striving. Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (1977) ‘Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 6, 317–44.Google Scholar
Sen, A. (2009) The Idea of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sher, G. (1997) Beyond Neutrality: Perfectionism and Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobel, D. (1998) ‘Well-Being as the Object of Moral Consideration’. Economics and Philosophy, 14, 249–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiglitz, J. E., Sen, A., et al. (2009) ‘Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress’, Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, Paris. Available at: http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm.Google Scholar
Sumner, L. W. (1996) Welfare, Happiness, and Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tiberius, V. (2000) ‘Humean Heroism: Value Commitments and the Source of Normativity’. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 81, 426–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiberius, V. (2008) The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tiberius, V. (2013a) ‘Philosophical Methods in Happiness Research’. In Boniwell, I. and David, S. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Happiness (New York: Oxford University Press), 315–25.Google Scholar
Tiberius, V. (2013b) ‘Recipes for a Good Life: Eudaimonism and the Contribution of Philosophy’. In Waterman, A. (ed.), The Best Within Us: Positive Psychology Perspectives on Eudaimonic Functioning (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association), 19–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ura, K., Alkire, S., et al. (2012) ‘A Short Guide to Gross National Happiness Index’. Thimphu: Centre for Bhutan Studies.Google Scholar
Wren-Lewis, S. (2013) ‘Well-Being as a Primary Good: Towards Legitimate Well-Being Policy’. Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, 31, 2–9.Google Scholar