The Measurement and Explanation of Happiness
Affective happiness, cognitive happiness and overall happiness are usually measured with survey questions. The reliability and validity of the answers are acceptable, even if people can be somewhat ‘positive’, for psychological or strategic reasons. The m
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Jan Ott
Beyond Economics
Jan Ott
Beyond Economics Happiness as a Standard in our Personal Life and in Politics
Jan Ott World Database of Happiness, Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
ISBN 978-3-030-56599-2 ISBN 978-3-030-56600-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56600-5 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
Confusion about the meaning of happiness and well-being can be very frustrating in deliberations and discussions. This is regrettable because happiness and well-being are important and unavoidable subjects in daily conversations and in politics. Happiness is subjective well-being, or wellbeing as experienced by people themselves. The other type of well-being is objective well-being, or well-being as defined and assessed by experts such as economists, biologists, physicians, and psychologists. If we want to understand well-being, we must pay attention to both types and their mutual relations. Happiness, as the subjective appreciation of life, is based on the adoption and application of standards. People adopt standards knowingly or unknowingly, and are free to adopt whatever standards they prefer. They may adopt very different standards and even inconsistent or immoral standards, and may change them whenever they want to. This freedom must be respected, but it can be a source of confusion. Happiness of different individuals will be incomparable if their standards are very different; it will be complicated if they adopt inconsistent standards, and it will be unstable if they change their standards very of
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