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What is it to be mentally healthy? In the ongoing movement to promote mental health, to reduce stigma, and to establish parity between mental and physical health, there is a clear enthusiasm about this concept and a recognition of its value in human life. However, it is often unclear what mental health means in all these efforts and whether there is a single concept underlying them. Sometimes, the initiatives for the sake of mental health are aimed just at reducing mental illness, thus implicitly identifying mental health with the absence of diagnosable psychiatric disease. More ambitiously, there are high-profile proposals to adopt a positive definition, identifying mental health with psychic or even overall well-being. We argue against both: a definition of mental health as mere absence of mental illness is too thin, too undemanding, and too closely linked to psychiatric value judgments, while the definition in terms of well-being is too demanding and potentially oppressive. As a compromise, we sketch out a middle position. On this view, mental health is a primary good, that is, the psychological preconditions of pursuing any conception of the good life, including well-being, without being identical to well-being.

Asian economies have experienced extraordinary growth in recent decades, and yet individual employee happiness and satisfaction has remained relatively stagnant. This can be explained in part by a related shift toward materialist goal aspirations. Goal Contents Theory (GCT) suggests that not all goals are created equal: intrinsic goal orientations are more strongly related to subjective well-being, for example. Using one of the most comprehensive surveys of Asia ever conducted, the current study examines the central tenets of GCT in several ways. Results show intrinsic (i.e., health, safety and security, affiliation, community feeling, self-acceptance and growth) relative to extrinsic goal orientation (i.e., money and materialism) is more strongly related to higher levels of satisfaction with one’s income, job, life, and accomplishments. Additionally, results of linear and nonlinear modeling display the diminishing marginal utility of income (the most widely utilized extrinsic incentive) on satisfaction. This curvilinear effect is exacerbated by extrinsic orientation. Finally, Multilevel Item Response Theory (MIRT) analysis confirmed a hierarchical ordering of intrinsic need strength and displayed the positive effect of national human development (i.e., Human Development Index) on individual intrinsic goal orientation. Results demonstrate the importance of organizational and national policies that emphasize human as well as economic development.

Western societies are aging, and many older adults need or will soon need care in care homes. Life quality and well-being are widely discussed also concerning older adult residents in care homes. However, no studies have attempted a comparative approach to investigate life quality from the perspective of all the central stakeholders in care homes – residents, care workers, relatives, and management. The present study seeks to illuminate and compare life quality perceptions among residents, care workers, relatives, and managers in care homes. 14 participants from the stakeholder groups were interviewed in semi-structured open-ended interviews. Data analysis was conducted in accordance with the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework. The study underlines the diversity of older adults. Rather than considering older adults as one homogeneous group, older adults hold diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas on life quality. Additionally, values on life quality and well-being are different between the four groups. Care workers and managers have the added difficulty of trying to balance values on good health and good health care while still incorporating the residents’ and relatives’ values in care work. These differences can lead to disagreements and potential conflicts. Care work should be considered a complex task where the personal values of each involved party can easily conflict with others.

By most accounts in popular press and in academic journals, we are in crisis. Regardless of the geographical scale in question, there are pressing social crises concerning soaring rates of wealth i...

Africa in the 21st century is still troubled by myriads of problems. These problems include neo-colonialism, modern slavery, ethnicism, racism, xenophobic attacks, environmental degradation, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, war, famine, terrorism, conflicts, etc. All these problems gravely impede human security. Human security is more than military or national security and refers to all that constitutes the good life and makes life more abundant for the people. Human securities include the access to food, portable water, education, good environment, human rights, etc. Resolving and combating these problems will require concerted efforts on the part of many if not all African nations in the continent and Diaspora. Some of these problems cut across national boundaries. Problems like terrorism, illegal migration, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, xenophobic attacks, etc cut across national borders. Though Pan-Africanism may have waned in strength it can be repositioned to harness African cultural and historic values to combat its contemporary problems in the 21st century. A hermeneutic method will be used to interpret the meaning and import of Pan-Africanism and human security. A critical analytic method will be used to discuss the issues. The paper finds and concludes that Pan-Africanism can be re-positioned to enable Africa combat the problems facing her.

Urban visions of modernity and nostalgia constitute two competing visions of the good life in Asia, which are both materialised in urban neighbourhoods. When and where old historic neighbourhoods a...

Cuando se habla de paz en la Amazonía colombiana reviven en la memoria hechos de violencia, muerte y sometimiento de siglos; desde las bonanzas caucheras hasta las vividas hoy con la coca, el petróleo y la minería que destruyen la madre tierra, desplazan y siembran, a su paso, desolación y muerte. En los pueblos ancestrales, sus luchas diarias por sobrevivir motivan la resistencia y en sus saberes culturales; ignorados, negados e invisibilizados por el poder hegemónico, sustentan su identidad; cual tesoros milenarios amasados en la experiencia tradicional de comunicar y compartir en la chagra, la tulpa, la maloca, en el mambeo; en el tejer artesanal o el carnaval del perdón (Día Grande); donde se mingan pensamientos para el buen vivir. Es admirable la capacidad heroica de resistir y levantarse de las cenizas; su voz no se acalla para exigir con valentía sus derechos al territorio, respeto de su dignidad y a vivir en paz. Es de destacar que representantes del Pensamiento Complejo denuncian el epistemicidio histórico de los saberes alternativos de las culturas y sensibilizan sobre la importancia de visibilizarlas reconociendo su sabiduría ancestral, digna de enseñar, en una sociedad globalizada que ha perdido la brújula de su andar al reducir sus aspiraciones a fines económicos y al consumo irracional precipitándose inevitablemente a la autodestrucción. La tarea desde los procesos educativos es tender puentes de encuentro entre el saber científico y los saberes culturales de los pueblos invisibilizados, estigmatizados; para reconociendo las diferencias, en cooperación y solidaridad tejer la paz.

Purpose. The paper is aimed to explicate a recently emerging anthropological model of homo eudaimonicus from its secular framework perspective. Theoretical basis. Secularity is considered in three aspects with reference to Taylor’s and Habermas’ ideas: as a common public sphere, as a phenomenological experience of living in a Secular Age, and as a background for happiness to become a major common value among other secular values in the Age of Authenticity. The modifications of happiness interpretation are traced from Early Modernity till nowadays. The preconditions of the contemporary appeal to Aristotle’s eudaimonic theory of happiness are elucidated. The main characteristics of homo economicus anthropological model and reasons for its collapse in the contemporary world are analyzed. Specificities of the contemporary interpretations of eudaimonia are described with reference to the works of MacIntyre, Haybron, Hamilton, Kekes, Melnick, and others. A moral foundation and a behavioral strategy of homo eudaimonicus model are expounded and the role of this model in the life of a contemporary individual person and society is revealed. Originality. For the first time in the Ukrainian philosophical discourse, it is shown how secular ethics enables the rise of a new homo eudaimonicus model within a sphere of secularity; and it is argued that homo eudaimonicus is the result of overcoming the values crisis. It is revealed how homo eudaimonicus along with being descriptive becomes also a normative model of a new effective behavior strategy of a contemporary person facing the current social, economic, political, and environmental challenges. Conclusions. According to the contemporary interpretation, happiness as eudaimonia is a combination of the good life and the meaningful life; it is a human flourishing in this world (saeculum) through the accomplishment of a person’s life plan in the sphere of secularity. Homo eudaimonicus manifests the overcoming of values crisis and the rediscovery of purpose and meaning, this time on the secular basis. Homo eudaimonicus implies the realization of a person’s project of a happy and fulfilling life through moral behavior and socially useful activities., Мета. Стаття спрямована на пояснення змісту нової антропологічної моделі homo eudaimonicus крізь призму її секулярного підґрунтя. Теоретичний базис. Секулярність розглядається у трьох аспектах із покликанням на ідеї Тейлора та Габермаса: як спільна для всіх публічна сфера, як феноменологічний досвід життя в секулярну добу і як підґрунтя, завдяки якому щастя стає найважливішою загальною цінністю серед інших секулярних цінностей в добу автентичності. Простежено модифікації інтерпретацій щастя від раннього модерну до сьогодення. Висвітлено передумови сучасного покликання на Аристотелеву евдемонічну концепцію щастя. Проаналізовано основні характеристики антропологічної моделі homo economicus та причини її занепаду. Описано особливості сучасних інтерпретацій евдемонії крізь призму праць Макінтайра, Гейброна, Гамільтона, Кікса, Мелніка та інших. Роз’яснено моральну основу та поведінкову стратегію моделі homo eudaimonicus та розкрито роль цієї моделі в житті сучасної людини і суспільства. Наукова новизна. Вперше в українському філософському дискурсі показано, як секулярна етика уможливлює появу в сфері секулярності нової моделі homo eudaimonicus та доведено, що homo eudaimonicus є результатом подолання кризи цінностей. Розкрито, як homo eudaimonicus, будучи дескриптивною, стає ще й нормативною моделлю нової ефективної поведінкової стратегії сучасної людини перед лицем актуальних соціальних, економічних, політичних та екологічних викликів. Висновки. Згідно з сучасною інтерпретацією, щастя як евдемонія є комбінацією доброго (благого) та значущого життя. Це процвітання людини у цьому світі (saeculum) шляхом реалізації життєвого плану в сфері секулярності. Homo eudaimonicus свідчить про подолання кризи цінностей та віднайдення мети і смислу на секулярному ґрунті. Homo eudaimonicus передбачає реалізацію людиною проєкту щасливого та повноцінного життя завдяки моральній поведінці та соціально корисній діяльності.

PurposeThis paper offers a conceptual discussion of repetition and joy in the context of information and their relation to the good life.Design/methodology/approachJoy is defined as an integrative element of the good life which can be achieved through repetition. This may be surprising, given that our most ready-to-hand associations with “repetition” are negative in tenor rather than positive. Building on the work of repetition theorists Søren Kierkegaard and Gertrude Stein, we can discern three different forms of repetition: that looking backwards (e.g. rereading), that looking forwards (e.g. art-making) and that looking inwards (e.g. chiasmus). Throughout this paper, information-related examples are given and discussed as vignettes that move the conversation forward.FindingsThese examples lead to a nascent theory of why the repetition of information can spark joy and not just tedium. First, its stability and predictability that instill comfort in us. Second, its unifying force that brings us to experience wholeness. Third, its invitation to keep the repetition going through creation, further helping us feel part of the world. And finally, its paradoxicality—as strict repetition is impossible—which requires change, paving the way for satisfying surprises and delights.Originality/valueRepetition is a ubiquitous and theoretically interesting phenomenon when it comes to information, and though it is implicit in some information science research, it has not yet been theorized directly. Moreover, this paper connects this issue to an emerging “positive” orientation in information studies.

There is increasing attention to the idea of bringing about what is termed a wellbeing economy, and recognition that a coherent story or narrative is important in countering the strength of today’s dominant economic narrative--neoliberalism. Yet there has been relatively little consensus on what such an idea might mean in practice, despite the proliferation of many different initiatives attempting to bring such an economy about. Many of these initiatives have allied with an aggregator called WEAll, the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. In an effort to determine what new economics/next economies initiatives mean by wellbeing economy, this study assesses the statements provided by WEAll allies to WEAll when seeking membership to see whether there is a consistent narrative about wellbeing economy that emerges. Four nuanced, yet related, versions of the wellbeing economy narrative emerged. “Transformation” is mainly a critique of business as usual, emphasizing transformation towards a wellbeing economy that critiques neoliberalism and emphasizes wellbeing of all people. The Nature-Centric or Planetary Boundaries perspective takes a more ecological perspective, emphasizing humanity’s need to live and operate within planetary boundaries. The Good Life or People-Centric perspective offers a people-oriented narrative that emphasizes sustainability while ensuring that basic needs of all are met. The Integrated perspective is an integrated life-centered perspective that combines these interests and focuses on the wellbeing of both people and planet, recognizing the complexity and holistic nature of that task.

The Norwegian high-school drama series Skam is produced and published by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, a publicly funded institution distinguished by an explicit obligation to the public interest, not only serving their audience as consumers but even as citizens. Generally, the normativity expressed in Skam may be summarized by treating all with respect, involving not only moral considerations of what is right, but also ethical conceptions of what is good, offered, opened up and obstructed by the living social order established there. In season three, given attention here, the plot revolves around issues concerning same-sex relationships, mental disorder and religion. Here Skam becomes interesting for the field of moral education, elaborating on how to encounter the challenges of pluralistic societies that undergo continuous changes and in which common values have become open questions. In this paper attention is drawn toward Skam’s ethical dimension, considering Skam as an instance of public moral education. Faced with tensions, hindrances and conflicts, the norm of treating all with respect, irrespective of how trivial it may appear outside of context, becomes loaded with meaning, while the actualization of the good life is at risk. Appalling is the way hegemonic religion is transformed in the living social order. Decisive is the active role taken by the youths in the series, recontextualizing the norm. The social order here is not a static, given condition, but a continuous, moving, cultivating project. In that respect, a certain democratic aspect of the public moral education of Skam also becomes visible. Together, the youths portrayed in the series seem to accommodate a variety of expressions of life emerging within their community.

Background Research suggests there is a lack of post-diagnostic support to enable people living with dementia to fulfil social and active lives throughout their dementia journey. Gardening has been found to have many benefits for people living with dementia. Although such research is important, most research frames people with dementia as passive recipients of stimulation. Research into the impact of a community-based gardening group, where people living with dementia are active in the development of an outdoor space, is underdeveloped. Knowledge about the impact of participating in such groups is also sparse. The Good Life Club (GLC) was co-developed and evaluated to respond to these gaps. Objectives The primary aim of this article is to present the findings regarding the impact of attending the GLC on the self-reported well-being for people living with dementia and care partners. Methods Qualitative data were collected via 22 semi-structured interviews. Fourteen interviews were conducted before the GLC and eight after the GLC. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Dementia Care Mapping data were collected to supplement the interview data. Findings Four key themes were identified. The first was that participants considered having active participation in social life to be a key aspect of living a good life. The second was that the way that the GLC was set up and delivered gave the participants ownership of the GLC and within this they felt able to contribute. The third was the importance of social connectedness and peer support to the well-being of both people living with dementia and care partners. Fourth, positive mood and well-being was directly experienced through gardening. Conclusions The combination of long-term investment of time and energy to the GLC, ongoing friendships and in-session autonomy act as key ingredients in creating a group that is relaxed, full of humour and highly valued.

Access to an adequate level of uninterrupted, high quality, affordable, sufficient and useful energy services varies dramatically across countries. While some nations still experience energy povert...

The presence of green, open spaces within Danish post-war social-housing estates is visually discernable, however their role and understanding beyond modernistic incentives and ideas of living in h...

Jane Austen's Mansfield Park can be read through the lens of a Kierkegaardian interpretive option that allows us to see the novel as endorsing inwardness, a choice for the internal over the external, for that which is identical to our selves over that which is distinct from our selves. There is freedom in choosing inwardness, Kierkegaard maintains. So, since Fanny Price, Mansfield Park's beleaguered protagonist, chooses a life lived in pursuit of inwardness, we can see her as securing her own emancipation: she is free, liberated, in a way that distinguishes her from other characters in Mansfield Park.

This article focuses on the topic of the young adult’s cleft habitus influenced by a housing affordability crisis in the Czech Republic and examines how this situation affects the young adult’s relation to the imagination of a temporally structured life course and synchronization of life spheres (housing, family, and work). This article is based on qualitative in-depth interviews conducted in the four cities most affected by the house and rent price increase. The general question addresses if and how social inequalities, sharpened by the current housing affordability crisis, affect the process of narrative life course coherence creation (the connection of past, present, and future) in relation to an orientation toward a vision of “the good life.” We furthermore complement the already existing ideal types of the young adult’s relation toward time— confident continuity and cautious contingency—with two other two types— cautious continuity and total contingency—defined on the basis of our data. We argue that the ability of young adults to envision a coherent future is related to the feeling of secured housing and that the idea of the good life is depicted to a large extent through the ideal of homeownership, although the precarity of the housing market makes homeownership harder to reach for those from unprivileged backgrounds.

At Philebus 53c4-55a12, Plato's Socrates identifies pleasure as an ontologically inferior "becoming" (γϵνϵσiσ) rather than a "being" (ouσiα) and then uses this information to infer that pleasure, somehow, lacks value. This paper argues that Plato's γϵνϵσiσ argument is not about the goodness of individual, particular episodes of pleasure but instead targets the identification of pleasure as the good around which we ought to organize our lives. It also shows that the argument is made up of two subarguments-the argument from finality and the argument from a life not worth living-both of which conclude that, as a γϵνϵσiσ, pleasure cannot be the good our life as a whole is aimed at reaching. Read in this way, the much maligned γϵνϵσiσ argument turns out to be more cogent and more interesting than is usually thought.

In this study, I emphasize that pastoral practice revitalizes the significance of spiritual life as an alternative way to negotiate the science of well-being. This article is written from the perspective of practical theology, which is framed as a way of “living well” in which it is doubtful for both the individual and community to fulfill the good life without spirituality. Such an approach entails a degree of a transformative and transcendent life created by new senses, attentions, knowledge, ontological understanding, and disciplines out of the experience of the triune God. This study responds to the vocation of practical theology according to Ruard Ganzevoort and Johan Roeland, who assert that, “In its focus on praxis, practical theology has evolved out of three historical different styles of theology with differing concepts of and methodological approaches toward praxis: pastoral theology, empirical theology, and public theology.” They suggest that pastoral practice should be something that contributes to the culture of well-being and that the roles of spiritual life in the formation and reformation of the good life should be clarified.

Background: Lately, patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease use telemonitoring services from home. We discuss three professional groups&rsquo, idea of good care in terms of living as a chronically ill patient. Methods: We scrutinize a workshop consisting of the following: (1) presentation of pre-workshop interviews focusing on good patient flows, (2) presentation of the participants&rsquo, photos illustrating their idea of the good life with telemonitoring, (3) discussion of what the three social worlds of care can do together. We understand workshops as learning events founded on the symbolic interactionist idea of learning as reflexism. That is, the process where participants make joint action an object of attention. Results: We propose that not only people, but also objects such as applications, gold standards, and financial arrangement are actively involved in hampering collaboration across social worlds. The contribution is a discussion of the contemporary challenges of technological intensification into healthcare processes seen as a learning event. Conclusion: Workshops constitute useful tools to understand more of how professional groups seek to adopt new technologies and learn about the larger structure of telemonitoring. Developing joint action among social worlds appears to be one of the main challenges of technologically driven innovation in healthcare.

Mexican immigrant women come to the United States in pursuit of what they call la buena vida (the good life) for themselves and for their children. The research described here attempts to better un...

This paper examines the association of opportunity and choice enhancing societal conditions and perceived autonomy with life satisfaction in Europe. Building on the capability approach, I investigate whether the positive effects of six basic functionings—safety, friendship, health, financial security, leisure, and respect—on people’s life satisfaction are weaker when people have more opportunity and choice. This paper addresses two main questions: (1) Are people more satisfied with their life when they have more opportunity and choice? (2) Do basic functionings play a smaller role for life satisfaction in societies that enable more opportunity and choice and for individuals with more perceived autonomy? The analyses are based on the European Quality of Life Survey (2016), covering 36,460 individuals in 33 European countries and using multilevel linear regressions. My study finds that both choice and opportunity enhancing societal conditions and individual’s perceived autonomy are positively associated with on life satisfaction. Further, all six basic functionings are conducive to individual life satisfaction. The positive effects of health, financial security, respect, and friendship are reduced when people experience a great deal of autonomy over their lives. Societal conditions that provide people with more opportunity and choice further lower the positive effects of financial security, leisure, respect, and safety on individual life satisfaction. This corroborates the importance the capability approach attributes to individual opportunities and freedom of choice.

The new generations of bioenhancement technologies and traditional Virtue Theory both try to make a meaningful connection between the improvement of human states and characteristics on one hand, and attainment to the good life, on the other. Considering the main elements of virtuousness in Farabi’s thought—namely rational inquiry and deliberative insights, alongside volitional discipline within various social contexts, one can conclude that although the trajectories of enhancement technologies—be they in the field of genetic engineering, neurostimulation technologies, or pharmacology—do not in themselves satisfy the constitutive determinants of virtuousness, they function as having both mediative and amplificative/reductive roles in a life which is dedicated to the pursuit of happiness in the light of the cultivation of virtue.

In this paper we engage in a conversation speaking from three different perspectives and discuss the ways literature and our personal life experiences can inform policy and practice in relation to the concepts of well-being, education, and culture. We gathered around a metaphorical kitchen table, bringing to it our life experiences, as well as the literature that informed our individual research programs (positive psychology, Indigenous world view, and narrative inquiry) and we began to unpack the questions: “What role does culture play in understanding and educating for well-being and why should an education system be concerned about it?”

Residents of informal settlements in urban centres in Africa are known to suffer disproportionate burdens of environmental and socio-economic inequalities and are often excluded from macro-level visions and policies that seek to make cities safer and prosperous (Birkmann, 2007; da Silva & Braulio, 2014; Dodman et al., 2013). This tension undermines the validity of orthodox, ‘expert-led’ visions, policies and measures of prosperity that are distant from the lived-experience of marginalised urban residents. Based on new empirical work with communities in three informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this article argues that novel methodological and theoretical approaches to co-producing context-specific policy-relevant knowledge about pathways to prosperity (translated by the communities as maisha bora, ‘the good life’) creates inclusive spaces for both community participation in processes of urban knowledge production and critical social enquiry that can lead to grounded theory building. By co-producing both an agreed and relevant methodological approach for the study, and its subsequent documentation and analysis, this work contributes valuable empirical insights about the capacities and capabilities of local communities to shape and influence urban policy-making and in this way speaks to calls for a global urbanism (Ong, 2011; Robinson, 2016) that brings diverse voices and geographies to urban theory to better account for the diversity of urban experiences and processes found in twenty-first century cities.

The article explores the scope and the limits of virtue ethics from the perspective of critical theory (Habermas) and critical realism (Bhaskar). Based on new research in moral sociology and anthropology, it ponders how the self-realization of each can be combined with the self-determination of all. The article adopts an action-theoretical perspective on morality and defends the priority of the right over the good. It suggests that in plural and polarized societies, there no longer exists a consensus on any version of the good life. It therefore limits the scope of virtue ethics to personal life and pleads for a minima moralia at the social and political level.

This article explores the contribution of religion and spirituality to the happiness of people who have lived with quadriplegia over the medium to long term. It arises out of a qualitative study on living the good life with quadriplegia, which was grounded in the logic of the virtue tradition. This tradition holds that happiness is not principally about short-term pleasure but is concerned with the larger goal of living a meaningful and purposeful life. From this perspective, happiness (eudaimonia) is not easily measured but is best understood and communicated by narrative. And because narratives evoke meaning and can themselves be a form of analysis, this article provides and analyzes 3 summarized narratives of people with quadriplegia whose life story emphasized the importance of religion and/or spirituality. It uses their stories to show how religious and spiritual concepts and practices contributed to their posttraumatic growth by helping to reconstruct their storied identity; by adding meaning and purpose to their life; and by aiding in the development of the virtues needed to deal with pain, hardship, and dependency.

BackgroundYoung people’s processes of meaning-making in relation to what it means to live well are supported by the shared understandings of the good life that are available in their particular sociocultural and historical contexts. These understandings are tied to questions of environmental impact and social justice, as each ‘good life’ entails different levels of material throughput and some may undermine the ability of others to pursue their chosen ‘good lives’. This paper draws on the insights from an exploration of Instagram posts tagged #goodlife to consider the role of Instagram in the constitution of good life narratives that are available to young people. Using network analysis tools, the researchers analyse the relationships between themes of hashtags appearing on 793 posts tagged #goodlife. The findings from the thematic approach to network analysis are used to support a thematic qualitative exploration of a subsample of 200 of the posts.FindingsThe paper gives an overview of three good life narratives that can be found on the platform: the good life of the self-made affluent entrepreneur, the good life of the world-traveller, the good life as shared experience. Additionally, it highlights the differing levels of popularity of each narrative on the platform, and considers their respective implications for environmental and social sustainability. The paper then provides a conceptual reading of the platform that enables considerations relating to its place in the creation and maintenance of good life narratives. Conceptualising Instagram as a social conversation, the paper suggests that adequate participation on the platform may require engaging in less sustainable practices.ConclusionsThe paper concludes by arguing that while the most popular narratives on the platform are less likely to support sustainable lifestyles, more sustainable understandings of living well are also promoted by users.

Karl Popper is famous for favouring an open society, one in which the individual is treated as an end in himself and social arrangements are subjected to critical evaluation, which he defends largely by appeal to a Kantian ethics of respecting the dignity of rational beings. In this essay, I consider for the first time what the implications of a characteristically African ethics, instead prescribing respect for our capacity to relate communally, are for how the state should operate in an open society. I argue that while an Afro-communal moral foundation does not prescribe a closed society, it supports an open society politics and law of a sort different from the ones that Popper specifies. For Popper, the state in an open society should improve social arrangements albeit without seeking to promote a particular conception of the good life, should protect rights that merely serve the function of facilitating individual choice, and should employ majoritarian democracy to be able to avoid unwelcome rulers and policies. On all three counts, I show that a relational ethics typical of the African philosophical tradition entails different, intuitively attractive approaches to politics and law.

The concept of ‘middle class’ in African societies has been recognized recently but at the same time it resists clear-cut definition. Rather than seeking clearer classification, I propose to embrace its contested nature as productive, seeing ‘middle class’ not as a category that we can find ‘out there’ and measure, but as a classification-in-the-making. Middle-class status, or a particular idea of the good life, is a position people strive towards, but what this entails depends on context and place. The study of the pursuit of social mobility in Ghana during colonialism, independence and the post-Cold War period – of those who have successfully improved their livelihoods – provides knowledge about the middle class in the making in different eras and under different conditions. I propose a three-pronged approach to study this processual nature: Raymond Williams’ notion of ‘structures of feeling’ helps unravel the shifting affective qualities of the changing political economy, while Sara Ahmed's focus on the ‘feelings of structure’ zooms in on agency as an important tool to analyse how middle-class trajectories unfold over time. Lastly, the availability of advantageous conditions is not enough to stimulate change; one needs the savoir faire to enact them.

It takes material as well as immaterial elements to have a good life. Among some upper middle-class Iranians, there is a growing interest in having a healthy lifestyle and increase one’s quality of life to the extent that we can talk about a culture of health and wellbeing in which different rituals and body management practices are employed to help people follow their sense of the good life. This is studied in this paper from a “resource culture” perspective wherein resources are the means to create, sustain, and alter social relations, units, and identities within the framework of cultural ideas and practices. This paper examines how undertaking a new health-based lifestyle transforms people’s social network, sense of identity, or group memberships, providing them with new opportunities to pursue what they think is the good life. Participants of the study include 30 members of a social media group named “Our keto Lives” in Tehran who were interviewed in two intensive, online focus group sessions. The result of the study indicates that as an increasingly popular dietary movement, Keto is capable of inspiring its followers to significantly change their life circumstances through a variety of body management practices.

This paper explores the concept of skill in Zhuangzi and Stoicism, and argues that the role of the Stoic techne in practicing the art of living can be better understood if we introduce some perspec...

The goal of this paper is to justify the view that hermeneutical practice as a philosophical proposal cannot be reduced to the extraction of hidden meanings or the explication of text structures but instead contains ethical assumptions and implications. Following Ricœur’s work, I will show that literary texts are part of ethics insofar as they create different mental experiments about ideas and values. I will show that the interpretation of literary texts, woven by the free play of imagination, constitutes a practice in which readers have the possibility of reconfiguring their way of looking at the world and acting. The reading of literature is an exercise of practical wisdom by enabling readers to rehearse and enable the implementation of the good life in just institutions. To achieve the paper’s goal, I initially discuss ethical assumptions present in literary texts. I then develop Ricœur’s notion of hermeneutics as used for the interpretation of literature. Finally, I propose several ethical implications resulting from the hermeneutical practice that is related to literary texts.

Much empirical literature describe how future thinking is shaped by structure. However, the ways in which relational and structural embeddedness come to bear down on disadvantaged young people’s aspirations still lack specificity. Looking through the lens of aspirational horizons, this paper seeks to texture our understanding of how aspirations become shaped and stunted, with the subjective accounts of young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage. The findings from this study suggest that limited exposure and opportunities, lack of social resources and material inequalities associated with living in a rural town or disadvantaged neighbourhoods dovetail to create limited aspirational horizons and imaginations about the future. This suggests a powerful affinity between structural conditions and cultural ideas of the good life, emphasizing that it is not low expectations that constrain choice, but dominant cultural and socio-economic conditions inducing a lowering of future aspirations. Additionally, the inability to experience oneself as the author of one’s destiny appears to be a profound constraint on the participants’ aspirational horizons.

This chapter shows that the idea of a common future is highlighted through awareness that a global collapse may impact the entire planet. Living with a pandemic like Covid-19, since March 2020, has shown that this is a concrete fact and what it means for the planet. For this reason, the choice and recognition of the Global Agendas, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Available: un-org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights, 1948), and Agenda 2030 (UN, Transforming our World: The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Available: un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/RES/70/1&Lang=E, 2015) are concrete options that lead us to recognize that we do have a Common Future. Our predatory way of acting, and the absence of criticism of this model of development, need to be rethought whether through a radical critique of this model or by building new values and ways of living, or the good life.

Although considerable research has examined the traits and features involved in living a good life (Baumeister et al. in J Posit Psychol 8(6):505–516, 2013; Ryan et al. in Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness, Guilford Press, 2006; Wong in Can Psychol/Psychol Can 52(2):69–81, 2011), little research has examined personal philosophies of the good life and the motivational outcomes associated with these views. Through a prospective longitudinal study across one academic year, we examined whether perceiving oneself to be living coherently with personal conceptions of the good life was associated with greater autonomous goal motivation and, subsequently, goal progress and greater subjective well-being (SWB) over time. We hypothesize that perceiving oneself as living coherently in terms of one’s own philosophy of flourishing relates to greater volition, goal progress and happiness. Our results suggest that when individuals assess themselves as following their own philosophy of the good life, they tend to experience greater autonomous motivation, goal progress and SWB. Implications for personality coherence and Self-Determination Theory are discussed.

Gradually since 1990 a growing number of critical analyses from within science have been published of how science was organized as a system and discussing its problems, despite, or paradoxically because the growing size of its endeavour and its growing yearly output. Because of lack of openness with regards to sharing results of research, such as publications and data but in fact of all sorts of other products, science is felt by many to be disappointing with respect to its societal impact, its contribution to the major problems humanity is facing in the current times. With the financial crisis, in analogy, also the crisis of the academic system as described in Chap. 3 was exposed and it seemed that similar systemic neoliberal economic mechanisms operated in these at first sight seemingly different industries. Most of these critiques appeared with increasing frequency since 2014 in formal scientific magazines, social media and with impact reached the leadership of universities, government and funders. This raised awareness and support for the development of new ways of doing science, mostly intuitively and implicitly, but sometimes explicitly motivated by pragmatism aiming for societal progress and contribution to the good life.To get to this next level we need the critical reflection on the practice of science as done in previous chapters in order to make systemic changes to several critical parts of the knowledge production chain. I will discuss the different analyses of interactions between science and society, in the social and political contexts with publics and politics that show where and how we could improve. The opening up of science and academia in matters of problem choice, data sharing and evaluation of research together with stakeholders from outside academia will help to increase the impact of science on society. It ideally should promote equality, inclusion and diversity of the research agendas. This, I will argue requires an Open Society with Deweyan democracy and safe spaces for deliberations where a diversity of publics and their problems can be heard. In this transition we have to pay close and continuous attention to the many effects of power executed by agents in society and science that we know can distort these ‘ideal deliberations’ and undermine the ethics of these communications and possibly threaten the autonomy and freedom of research.

This study investigates the role of worldview in moral case deliberation (MCD). MCD is a form of clinical ethics support which aims to assist caregivers in reflection on moral dilemmas, experienced in daily practice. Bioethicists acknowledge that existential and religious aspects must be taken into account in the analysis of ethical questions, but it remains unclear how these elements are addressed in clinical ethics support. We investigated how facilitators of MCD address worldview in MCD. MCD facilitation is often done by spiritual caregivers, but not in their role as spiritual caregiver. Discussing worldview is no standard part of the procedure in MCD. This study was qualitative, focusing on the views and experiences of the facilitators of MCD. Semi-structured interviews (N = 12) were conducted with facilitators of MCD. Grounded theory was used for analysis. The results show that worldview plays both an explicit and an implicit role in the MCD process. The explicit role concerns the religious beliefs of patients and professionals. This calls for avoiding stereotyping and devoting attention to different visions. The implicit role comes to the fore in addressing core values and spiritual fulfillment. In order to clarify the fundamental nature of values, more explicit attention for worldview might be useful during MCD. However, this should be done with caution as the term ‘worldview’ might be interpreted by participants in terms of religious and personal beliefs, rather than as an invitation to reflect on one’s view of the good life as a whole.

Palmyra's capture and destruction by ISIS resonated widely with an international audience. Drawing on Lefebvre's theory of the production of space and affect theory's key insights on object attachment, this article argues that the attachment to Palmyra manifests desire for a particular “good life” of an idealized liberal multiculturalism: a virtuous cycle of trade and tolerance represented by aesthetic flourishing. This widely circulated representation is grounded on excisions of power and inequality. I analyze the political stakes of such excision through the invisibility of Tadmor, positioned as a neighboring town rather than an afterlife of Palmyra in this representation. Through Tadmor, we see Palmyra as entangled in economic inequality and consolidation of power and complicit in their elision through its aesthetic representation as a multicultural haven. At stake is the question of what it means to attach the desire for coexistence to this representation of Palmyra at the detriment of places like Tadmor. While this paper makes its key intervention into the affective terrain and limits of a current global political moment, my argument also contributes to discussions of the global production and circulation of affect, bringing into view its attachment to sites and spaces.

Hartmut Rosa’s research has been extremely influential in promoting the view that modernity and late modernity are characterized by “speeding up,” or structural “dynamic stabilization.” More recently, Rosa has turned to describing the existential effects of living in late modernity, and the particular view of the good life it encourages. Late modernity began with the promise to make the world more available, attainable, and accessible. Unfortunately, however, the high-level instrumentalization that characterizes these changes led to feelings of alienation. Rosa’s solution is to develop a philosophical method for fostering what he calls “resonance.” In this article, I will introduce the Daoist notions of the “mechanical heart-mind,” “self-so,” “nonaction,” “knowing satisfaction,” and “rambling” as potential complements to Rosa’s concept of resonance. I argue that they can serve to bolster Rosa’s view and provide a more active way to conceive of the good life through engagement with our social and natural environments.

The neutrality of a state towards different theories of its citizens’ conceptions of the good life is an essential core of liberal, pluralistic constitutions. The purpose of this article is to analyze the extent to which various types of neutrality stated in the German constitution were respected in the parliamentary decision on assisted suicide. The author finds that the German Bundestag did not act in a sufficiently neutral way with regard to opportunities and justification when parliament made its decision to prohibit business-like assistance to suicide (“Geschaftsmasige Forderung der Selbsttotung”, § 217 Strafgesetzbuch). The law’s justification shows that the members of the German Bundestag mistakenly interpret the different concepts of conscience in Articles 4 and 38 Grundgesetz identically. In doing so, the majority of parliament has turned its individual moral concepts of good dying into a generally valid law by majority decision. As a result, the German Bundestag has considerably restricted the implementation of pluralistic moral theories of good dying that deviate from the one within the law, and thereby also the constitutionally guaranteed individual freedom of conscience of the citizens.

Over the past decades, much progress has been made in understanding the relationship between gratitude and well-being in adults, school-aged children, and adolescents (see Emmons and Mishra, in: Sheldon, Kashdan, Steger (eds) Designing positive psychology: taking stock and moving forward, Oxford University Press, New York, pp 248–262, 2011; Watkins in Gratitude and the good life: toward a psychology of appreciation, Springer, New York, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7253-3 ). However, relatively little is known about this relationship in young children (see Park and Peterson in J Happiness Stud 7(3):323–341, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-3648-6 ). The aim of the present study was to fill this gap by investigating the relationship between gratitude and happiness in young children. The general propensity for gratitude, domain-specific gratitude, and trait happiness were measured in a group of children (N = 80, Mage = 5.04 years). The results revealed that children’s domain-specific gratitude predicted children’s happiness above and beyond a general propensity for gratitude. These findings establish the presence of a relationship between gratitude and happiness in children by age 5 years, and reveal the type of gratitude, namely domain-specific, that is associated with happiness among young children.

Character strengths are morally valued trait-like personality characteristics which contribute to fulfillments that comprise the good life, for oneself and for others. In two studies, we tested the...

This article is about the socially divisive consequences of the UK’s 2016 referendum on membership in the European Union. Rather than redressing the country’s long-standing class divisions, the referendum has exacerbated them by fuelling negative stereotypes and mutual accusations between Leave and Remain supporters. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of subjectivity, the article argues that support for Leave and Remain is structured by circulations of affect, fantasies of the good life and psychic investments in different experiences of immigration, nationalism, and social and economic inequality.

Artykuł przedstawia wkład Niccolò Machiavellego w wykształcenie nowożytnej idei oraz języka polityki. Poprzez analizę kluczowych pojęć wprowadzonych do języka politycznego przez florenckiego myśliciela, autorka stara się udowodnić tezę, że chociaż wyrastał on ze średniowiecznej tradycji myśli politycznej, jednak opracowana przez niego idea państwa oraz racji stanu dały początek nowożytnej teorii państwa i prawa. W odróżnieniu od średniowiecznych teoretyków polityki, w myśli Machiavellego przetrwanie i rozwój państwa stały się najważniejszymi celami podejmowanych działań, a kluczowe dla tradycji klasycznej poję cie dobra wspólnego, zostało zastąpione przez pojęcie interesu państwa. Podobnie też podstawowym kryterium działań politycznych oraz oceny funkcjonowania państwa stała się już nie idea sprawiedliwości, harmonii czy dobrego życia, lecz skuteczność The article presents Niccolò Machiavelli's contribution to the development of the modern concept and language of politics. I embark on an analysis of the key concepts Machiavelli brought into the language of politics to show that his view of the state and raison d'état gave rise to the modern theory of the state and law, even though he had been nurtured on the medieval tradition of political thought. Unlike the medieval theoreticians of politics, Machiavelli put special emphasis on the endurance and growth of the state, making them the primary objectives of political activity and replacing the common good - the concept which was the cornerstone of the classical tradition - with the concept of raison d'état. For him the basic criterion for the assessment of political action and the way the state worked was no longer the concept of justice, harmony or the good life, but effectiveness.

Methods within visual culture studies can reveal the aesthetic stimuli that shape the way a religious group pictures or visualizes existence. Studying the visual culture of a religious movement allows one to see what formational mechanisms already exist and how the stimuli implicitly or explicitly support the movement’s theological commitments. This article suggests an approach for understanding Pentecostalism anew in its own distinct theological and sociological terms by categorizing the contours of the religious visual cultures of global Pentecostalism. This article argues that theologies of abundance are largely at play in the visual cultures of global Pentecostalism, and this can be demonstrated by identifying the visual stimuli that form religious experience and shape the way Pentecostals around the world imagine, understand, and project reality.