HAPPINESS RESEARCH

I have a special interest in happiness, which has led me to research in many fields, such as economics, history, neuroscience, philosophy of mind, psychology and sociology.

I am also very interested in hedonism and will write a book-length attempted revival of it in the near-ish future.

 

My Current Happiness Research

I am now officially a collaborator in the exciting International Wellbeing 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.

I am currently thinking about the first chapter of my thesis, in which I intend to create a scientifically robust account of pleasure that will satisfy Benthamite Hedonists. Of course, I will do my best to rubbish the incumbent definitions in the process.

Updated PhD abstract:
This thesis contains several academic investigations into happiness organised into three sections. Within each section are a chapter on pure philosophy and a chapter on a combination of science and philosophy. The goal of this thesis is to demonstrate some of the philosophical problems involved with happiness and show how they can be dealt with. Although occasionally referring to ancient texts, all of the chapters are engaging in a current debate that either has happiness at its core or can be greatly enlightened by considerations of happiness.

Section1: Pleasure and Happiness
Section2: Happiness and Well-Being
Section 3: Happiness in Practice

 

Some of My Past Happiness Research

I have written a review of The Pleasure Center: Trust Your Animal Instincts (2009) by Morten Kringelbach, which will appear in Metapsychology Online very soon . I begun researching the neuroscience of happiness (better described as affective neuroscience) a few years ago while I was trying to forge a definition of happiness that had a measurable physical basis. This exciting area of investigation is producing results and could yet provide considerable assistance to philosophers in their analyses of emotion and well-being. See it here.

In a paper in Real-world Economics Review (2009, issue 49, pp83-89) on happiness studies and public policy, I argue against 'The Unhappy thing about Happiness Economics'. My paper argues that happiness studies do in fact provide useful information that could be used for public policy mainly by providing examples and pointing out the 'cherry picking' in the other article. Click here to view.

In my Masters thesis, I argued that hedonism about well-being has not been given the fair chance it deserves (mainly) because of the misuse of the Argument from False Pleasures. The Experience Machine and Deceived Businessman thought experiments are thought to show that pleasures based on reality are more valuable than those which are not (false pleasures) and that, therefore, hedonism about well-being is an implausible theory. I use extensive psychological evidence to show that both of these thought experiments actually offer no evidence to support the Argument from False Pleasures. See the pdf here.

In my Honours dissertation, I (somewhat controversially!) argued that, if it becomes possible, using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to check for happiness should be considered morally mandatory. Click here to view.

 

Some Useful Happiness Research

For philosophers: sign up for philpapers and browse the well-being section for a comprehensive list of philosophical articles and books related to happiness.

Bentham, J. (1789/1996). An Introduction to Morals and Legislation, J. Burns & H. Heart (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Berridge, K.C. & Robinson, T.E. (2003). Parsing Reward, Trends in Neurosciences, 26(9): 507-513.

Davidson, R.J. (2004). Well-Being and Affective Style: Neural Substrates and Biobehavioural Correlates, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 359: 1395-1411.

Gilbert, D. (2006) Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Kringelbach, M.L. & Rolls, E.T. (2004). The Functional Neuroanatomy of the Human Orbitofrontal Cortex: Evidence From Neuroimaging and Neuropsychology, Progress in Neurobiology, 72: 341–372.

Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. New York: Penguin Books.

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K.M., Schkade, D., (2005). Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change, Review of General Psychology, 9: 111-131.

Nettle, D. (2005). Happiness: The Science behind Your Smile. New York: Oxford University Press.

Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2001). On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being, Annual Revue of Psychology, 52: 141-166.

Urry, H.L., Nitschke, J.B., Dolski, I., Jackson, D.C., Dalton, K.M., Mueller, C.J., Rosenkranz, M.A., Ryff, C.D., Singer, B.H., & Davidson, R.J. (2004). Making a Life Worth Living: Neural Correlates of Well-Being, Psychological Science, 15(6): 367-372.