The Challenge of Measuring Well-Being as Philosophers Conceive of It

Abstract

Many philosophers find the prospect of working with researchers in the social and behavioral sciences exciting, in part because they hope that these researchers might be able to measure well-being as the philosopher conceives of it. In this chapter, the author considers how the measurement of well-being, as it is conceived of by philosophers, might be facilitated. She proposes that existing scales can be employed for this purpose, and she supports this conclusion through an in-depth discussion of an example. The author explains how a scale of psychological well-being validated in more than 750 empirical studies may be employed to measure the extent to which a person has realized an ostensible basic good. This discussion is illustrative of the general method that may be employed to bring empirical researchers and philosophers into contact in a way that will facilitate the measurement of well-being as philosophers conceive of it.