I am currently working as a
research assistant for Dr
Ramon
Das, helping him to write a book on Ethics and
International Affairs, working on a paper about the moral
responsibility for dealing with climate change with Dr
Ramon
Das and Dr
David Eng, preparing a paper on scientific progress and the
meaning of life, and thinking about my PhD and several related papers
on hedonism and happiness (see the Happiness
page for more details).
1 MAR '10: My teaching of
PHIL106: Contemporary Ethical Issues started today.
16 FEB '10: I have been asked
to review Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness,
Love, and Wisdom for Metapsychology Online.
4 FEB '10: I have just posted
more (very positive) student feedback on my teaching page. Click here to see what I've been teaching and
what the responses have been.
16 JAN '10: I am now an
official peer-reviewer for the journal Philosophical
Frontiers
on
subjects of well-being, happiness and hedonism.
20 DEC '09: Julian Baggini has
asked me and Aaron Jarden (president of the New Zealand Positive
Psychology Association) to write an essay on what positive psychology
can really tell us about happiness for The Philosophers' Magazine that
should come out in September 2010.
16 DEC '09: Dr David Eng and I
presented our paper (Dr Ramon Das is also a co-author) on the ethics of
climate change at the Copenhagen 2009: issues, Options, Outlooks and
Outcomes seminar series in Wellington today. Click here for the presentation. Note that
the presentation is slightly different from the previous one, but he
paper is the same. Click here for the draft paper (please do
not quote without our consent).
10 DEC '09: Dr David Eng and I
presented our paper (Dr Ramon Das is also a co-author) on the ethics of
climate change at the Ethical Foundations of Public Policy Conference
in Wellington today. Click here for the presentation. Click here for the draft paper (please do
not quote without our consent).
3 NOV '09: I have updated my
brief CV. See
it here.
3 NOV '09: My review of What
is
Good
and
Why: The Ethics of Well-Being
(2007) by Richard Kraut now published in Metapsychology
Online. See it here.
23 OCT '09: My continuing
education course, Happiness: Its Meaning, Measurement and Significance,
started today.
5 OCT '09: My teaching of the
media ethics section of PHIL107: Philosophy of Media and the Arts at
Victoria University of Wellington started today.
2 SEP '09: My son, Eli Luke
Weijers, was born at 11am!
31 AUG '09: The first results
of the International Wellbeing Study are now in and it looks like
philosophers might not be as happy as non-philosophers! Still there is
a long time to go in the study and we won't jump to any hasty
conclusions. It's also not too late to join the study. Philosophers
click here for more info and
non-philosophers click here.
27 JUL '09: My teaching of the
personal identity and the meaning of life sections of PHIL105: The Big
Questions starts today at Victoria University of Wellington started
today.
8 JUL '09: I presented my
paper, Defining Pleasure for Hedonism: Lessons from Science, at the
Australasian Association of Philosophy annual conference at the
University of Melbourne today. See it here.
4 JUN '09: My review of The Pleasure Center: Trust Your Animal Instincts
(2009) by Morten Kringelbach is now published in Metapsychology
Online. See it here.
25 MAY '09: The last show of
'The Meaning of Life' radio show aired today. Thanks very much to Geoff
for all the fun we had doing it.
22 MAY '09: I debated Adrian
Currie today at the VUW Philosophy Student Seminar Series. The debate
was imaginatively titled 'Hedonism: The Debate'. The debate was about
the plausibility of Hedonism as a theory of well-being. The result was
at least mildly in favour of Hedonism being plausible!
18 MAY '09: I am now officially
a collaborator in an exciting international well-being study. My role is to try
and encourage enough philosophers to join the study for there to be a
statistically significant cohort of philosophers in the study. This
might give some insight into differences between philosophers and
non-philosophers, particularly regarding their well-being. Philosophers
click here for more info and
non-philosophers click here.
8 APR '09: My undergraduate
teaching (for three different undergraduate courses) is finished for
the trimester and I can get back to research projects! The PowerPoint
slides are available on the Teaching page.
21 MAR '09: I have received
very positive feedback from my teaching again, which has prompted me to
include links to my evaluations on the Teaching
page.
12 MAR '09: My article: The
Real Dirt on Happiness Studies: A Reply to 'The Unhappy thing about
Happiness Economics' (which you can see here) is now published!
Check out issue 49 (pp83-89) at Real-world
Economics
Review.
14 FEB '09: I was interviewed
by Helen Harvey, reporter for The Daily News, earlier this
week as part of her research for an article on the recession's likely
effects on happiness. The article came out today. Click here to view the website version. Or here
to see a PDF.
13 FEB '09: I've just updated
this website by adding a 'Happiness'
page.
If
you
have
an
academic interested in happiness, then you'll find
lots of useful links and resources here. Be sure to check back from
time to time as I'll keep this page updated.
12 FEB '09: I've been asked to
write a review of The Pleasure Center: Trust Your Animal Instincts
(2009) by Morten Kringelbach. The review will appear in Metapsychology
Online.
10 FEB '09: Work has begun on a
series of short, philosophy related videos that I'm making with my
happy-go-lucky buddy Richard Allardice. The videos are intended to make
thought experiments more memorable and be used as lecture aids. You'll
be able to access them through this website as and when they are
finished.
9 FEB '09: I'm going to be
co-hosting a radio show with a good friend of mine - Geoff Roberts. The
show, called The Meaning of Life, will include philosophical
discussions of contemporary and timeless issues, interviews with
interesting people of all sorts, and some great local music (when we
can't think of what to say). Please tune in and even call up and get
involved. The show airs on Mondays 7:00-8:30pm (starting 16th Feb) on
Human FM. You can hear the show on 88.1FM in Wellington Click here for
more details on the station (including how to contact).
JAN '09: I'm officially a PhD
student now at Victoria University of Wellington. In my thesis, I
will attempt to revive hedonism as a plausible theory of well-being.
17 DEC '08: I heard today that
I have been awarded a Doctoral Scholarship/Assistantship from Victoria
University of Wellington (I start my PhD next year).
16 DEC '08: Locals can now
check out a hard copy of my thesis (entitled Reviving Hedonism about
Well-Being: Refuting the Argument from False Pleasures and
Restricting the Relevance of Intuitive ‘Evidence’) in the
philosophy department cabinet or the library. Or see the PDF here.
14 DEC '08: I was very happy to
hear that my paper on happiness studies and public policy will be
published at the start of 2009 in Real-world
Economics
Review. The journal is run by the Post-Autistic
Economics Network who are valiantly doing all they can to try
and keep economics as relevant as possible to real life. My paper is
actually a direct reply to an earlier paper from the journal (which you can see here). My paper is
entitled The Real Dirt on Happiness Studies: A Reply to 'The Unhappy
thing about Happiness Economics' (which you can see here).
12 NOV '08: My book review of
Happiness: A Revolution in Economics by Bruno Frey has been published
in Metapsychology
Online. Click here to view
25 OCT '08: I have been awarded
a distinction for my MA thesis.
16 OCT '08: I was interviewed
on Human FM
today (on the programme Vivat Academia) about philosophy in general, my
interests and how I got involved.
