Nick Begley

“For some identify happiness with virtue, some with practical wisdom, others with a kind of philosophic wisdom, others with these, or one of these, accompanied by pleasure or not without pleasure; while others include also external prosperity. Now ... it is not probable that these should be entirely mistaken, but rather that they should be right in at least some one respect or even in most respects.” Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book 1, Chapter 8

Introduction

The above quote, from one of the West’s most eminent philosophers, Aristotle, illuminates the complex nature of defining an answer to one of humankind’s most important questions, “What makes us happy?”

Is happiness enough for a good life? This question is becoming increasingly prominent in positive psychology. Is feeling good an adequate measure of someone's quality of life? Do we really know what it means to be subjectively well when we assess someone's subjective well-being?