My research centers on the connections between human nature and value
theory, particularly the ways in which a better understanding of human
psychology can inform ethical and political thought. In recent years
this work has focused on the psychological dimensions of well-being, specifically happiness. Animating this project is the conviction that the psychology of well-being—“prudential psychology”—merits a central place in ethical and political thought, and indeed is crucial to our understanding of the world. Knowing what it means for human beings to flourish psychologically will ramify broadly, I believe, for value theory and our grasp of human nature. Besides well-being, I have worked in virtue theory (focusing on moral evil) and connectionist models of mind. Currently, my research has three main strands, extending and broadening the themes explored in my recent book, The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being. The first concerns the basic notion and structure of a good life, including the proper understanding of well-being as well as the relation between well-being and other values in a good life. A second line of research takes up the various forms of sentimentalism (or perhaps more accurately, "nonrationalism") that have characterized much recent work in moral and prudential psychology, including my own. A variety of results seem to point to an emerging view of human functioning on which rational processes properly play a less central role than much of the philosophical tradition has assumed. A third set of questions concerns the ramifications of work on well-being for social and political thought, for instance the role measures of happiness should play in setting policy. Papers etc. on: Happiness and Well-Being Other papers |