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Web End = J Happiness Stud (2015) 16:10731089
DOI 10.1007/s10902-014-9561-0
REVIEW ARTICLE
Andrew K. MacLeod
Published online: 13 August 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract Well-being is dened in a range of different ways, most notably in the psychological and philosophical literatures. A dimensional scheme is presented that locates the variety of approaches to well-being according to how much they dene it by a persons positive subjective state as opposed to requiring the presence of a range of other, more objective life goods (e.g., achievement, relationships, etc.). Adopting a dimensional model allows variations from the traditional subjectivist and objectivist positions, including a variety of mixed subjective and objective (sobjective) positions. Sobjectivist positions vary in the relative weighting of feeling states and more objective elements, as well as how these two different elements are seen as relating to each other. The dimensional model also has the important effect of enabling psychological and philosophical thinking about well-being to be integrated despite their differences in emphases and concerns. A number of different ways that these two aspects can be combined are outlined, including a two-tier model with happiness as a nal good and other goods having value to the extent that they lead to happiness.
Keywords Well-being Subjectivism Objectivism Hedonia Eudaimonia
The nature of well-being is a topic of current concern to those from a range of disciplines but especially to philosophers and psychologists. There are certainly other important, related questions, such as how well-being can be measured and whether it can be increased, but these questions obviously overlap with the question of what well-being is. There are many different views on this (Brlde 2007). In the philosophical literature it is traditional to group different views into one of three camps: hedonism, objective list theories and desire satisfaction theories (e.g., Crisp 2013). Hedonism equates well-being with pleasure and lack of pain, or to move away from the narrow and somewhat misleading sensory
A. K. MacLeod (&)
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK e-mail: [email protected]
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10902-014-9561-0&domain=pdf
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Web End = Well-Being: Objectivism, Subjectivism...