Thesis (M.A.)--Duquesne University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-59) and index.

Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-108). Also available online.

Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 1990. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-151).

Este estudo visa construir um entendimento filosófico e psicanalítico acerca da estrutura subjetiva da felicidade a partir de uma análise da proposta ética de Sêneca. Tal empreendimento vem a serviço de que se possam levantar reflexões que venham contribuir para um reordenamento do sujeito contemporâneo em direção a uma vida feliz. A problemática se faz, portanto, na constatação de que os meios que a cultura aponta para que se atinja a felicidade, através de objetos e imagens, estão na direção oposta à que os pensadores assinalam como sendo o caminho para uma vida feliz. Daí resulta que o homem de nosso tempo se lança na existência em uma busca infinita e desordenada pela felicidade, por vias totalmente equivocadas, que só resultam em angústia, desespero, e um vazio avassalador. Como método de pesquisa, propõe-se a análise do conceito e dos enunciados que, nos escritos de Sêneca, circunscrevem a questão da felicidade. Como resultado, conclui-se que a felicidade pode ser compreendida como a condição subjetiva resultante da consistência de uma estrutura ternária que, ao produzir uma falta irredutível, opera de forma a livrar o homem das angústias e dos tormentos da alma. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2015-07-06T18:48:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Bernardo Mantovani.pdf: 938538 bytes, checksum: 182195477f16a16f9942ef9fbe75f88d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-06T18:48:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Bernardo Mantovani.pdf: 938538 bytes, checksum: 182195477f16a16f9942ef9fbe75f88d (MD5) / This study aims to build a philosophical and psychoanalytic understanding about the structure of subjective happiness from an analysis of the ethics proposal of Sêneca. Such study serves to raise reflections that contribute to a reordering of the contemporary subject towards a happy life. The issue, therefore, is in the finding that the means the culture indicates to achieve happiness, through objects and images, are in the opposite direction to the ones that thinkers indicate as being the path to a happy life. Then it results that the man of our time plunges into existence in an infinite and disordered pursuit of happiness, by totally misleading ways, which only result in anguish, despair, and overwhelming emptiness. As a research method, the analysis of the concept and statements that the writings of Sêneca circumscribe the question of happiness is proposed. As a result, it is concluded that happiness can be understood as the subjective condition resulting from the consistency of a ternary structure that, when producing an irreducible lack, operates to free the man from the anguish and torments of the soul.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / A presente pesquisa à uma anÃlise, à luz da filosofia de Schopenhauer, da problemÃtica tradicional acerca do livre-arbÃtrio, ou liberdade de indiferenÃa, termo mais utilizado por Schopenhauer. Trata-se de investigar atà que ponto se pode falar de uma liberdade dos atos particulares e como esta suposta liberdade poderia ser conciliada com a necessidade causal do mundo fÃsico. Para tanto à preciso refazer o percurso realizado por Schopenhauer na sua investigaÃÃo Ãtico-metafÃsica acerca da liberdade. Por outro lado, à extremamente importante extrairmos as consequÃncias existenciais surgidas da sua resposta negativa acerca da liberdade moral, ou seja, à preciso tambÃm entendermos de que modo a liberdade, ou a sua ausÃncia, estÃo relacionadas ao sofrimento e o quanto este faz parte da vida. O percurso feito no presente trabalho inicia-se com a exposiÃÃo dos pressupostos e conceitos fundamentais da filosofia de Schopenhauer, mais especificamente no que se refere à sua teoria do conhecimento e à sua filosofia da natureza. Segue-se uma abordagem acerca do problema da liberdade a partir do ponto de vista Ãtico-metafÃsico, baseado fundamentalmente na obra principal de Schopenhauer, O mundo como vontade e como representaÃÃo, mais precisamente o quarto livro. Num Ãltimo momento abordaremos a problemÃtica a partir de um ponto de vista empÃrico, tendo como texto base os Aforismos para a sabedoria de vida, textos que compÃem a obra Parerga e Paralipomena, considerados por Schopenhauer como escritos menores, por serem textos que se situam exteriormente à perspectiva mais elevada, a Ãtico-metafÃsica.

Este estudo visa construir um entendimento filosófico e psicanalítico acerca da estrutura subjetiva da felicidade a partir de uma análise da proposta ética de Sêneca. Tal empreendimento vem a serviço de que se possam levantar reflexões que venham contribuir para um reordenamento do sujeito contemporâneo em direção a uma vida feliz. A problemática se faz, portanto, na constatação de que os meios que a cultura aponta para que se atinja a felicidade, através de objetos e imagens, estão na direção oposta à que os pensadores assinalam como sendo o caminho para uma vida feliz. Daí resulta que o homem de nosso tempo se lança na existência em uma busca infinita e desordenada pela felicidade, por vias totalmente equivocadas, que só resultam em angústia, desespero, e um vazio avassalador. Como método de pesquisa, propõe-se a análise do conceito e dos enunciados que, nos escritos de Sêneca, circunscrevem a questão da felicidade. Como resultado, conclui-se que a felicidade pode ser compreendida como a condição subjetiva resultante da consistência de uma estrutura ternária que, ao produzir uma falta irredutível, opera de forma a livrar o homem das angústias e dos tormentos da alma. / This study aims to build a philosophical and psychoanalytic understanding about the structure of subjective happiness from an analysis of the ethics proposal of Sêneca. Such study serves to raise reflections that contribute to a reordering of the contemporary subject towards a happy life. The issue, therefore, is in the finding that the means the culture indicates to achieve happiness, through objects and images, are in the opposite direction to the ones that thinkers indicate as being the path to a happy life. Then it results that the man of our time plunges into existence in an infinite and disordered pursuit of happiness, by totally misleading ways, which only result in anguish, despair, and overwhelming emptiness. As a research method, the analysis of the concept and statements that the writings of Sêneca circumscribe the question of happiness is proposed. As a result, it is concluded that happiness can be understood as the subjective condition resulting from the consistency of a ternary structure that, when producing an irreducible lack, operates to free the man from the anguish and torments of the soul.

Happiness is consistently cited as one of the things that people consider most important in their lives and yet is a slippery concept about which it is difficult to establish a shared understanding. There is increasing agreement that Gross National Product (GDP) is not a sufficient indicator of progress and that alternative measures may need to include the subjective aspects of wellbeing, or happiness. However, if policy makers and development workers are to seriously consider happiness, clarity is required about what it means to different people and such clarity must be grounded in the everyday experiences of the people whose lives social and development polices aim to improve. Despite increasing interest in the concept of happiness within Laos, academic research focusing upon positive subjective experience is limited. Young Lao people who volunteer with Non-Profit Associations (NPAs) in Vientiane occupy a unique position at the crossroads of a country that continues to be affected by a complex political legacy, a rapidly modernising capital city and a newly visible civil society. The findings from the current research provide rich data from 18 months of ethnographic and participative fieldwork with this specific group of young people in Vientiane. The research addresses the following questions:  What do the ways that young Lao volunteers in Vientiane express happiness tell us about the ways that they conceptualise happiness?  What do young volunteers in Vientiane say makes them happy?  What beliefs do young volunteers in Vientiane have about happiness?  How do these beliefs about happiness fit with young volunteers’ expressed experiences of happiness? This thesis identifies three key conceptual models that research participants used to express happiness including ‘Being Happy’ (happiness is a present moment choice), ‘Becoming Happy’ (happiness is something to be achieved) and ‘Happy Being With Others’ (happiness is located in relationships between people). Further, three culturally constructed ‘happiness scripts’ that research participants share are outlined and discussed. The three scripts are: “The way to be happy is to be a good Lao person”, “I will be happy if I have the things that I need to be comfortable and to have an easy life” and “I am happy when I follow my heart”. These scripts each combine a conceptual mode of happiness with a focus on specific aspects of their lives that research participants say make them happy and a set of shared beliefs about happiness. These three scripts offer normative accounts of different pathways that research participants believe will lead to happiness. The research demonstrates, however, how research participants hold multiple scripts simultaneously and looks at the interactions and tensions between the scripts and between the scripts and participants’ lived experiences. The research concludes that the socially constructed nature of the happiness scripts and the multiple conceptual models of happiness used by the research participants emphasise the need for self-awareness and transparency in conversations about happiness. Any consideration of happiness at policy level must include open and critical discussion about the happiness script that is being promoted. At the individual level participants valued positive opportunities to become aware of and challenge their own assumptions about the things that are most important in their lives were beneficial to their happiness. The thesis, therefore, recommends a shift in policy focus from solely measuring happiness to promoting positive conversations about happiness at policy, community and individual levels. Happiness is both an important experience and a slippery concept. It is both critical that we consider it and vital that we remain critical of it.

British Muslims make up the second largest, and fastest growing, non- Christian religious community in Britain. Because of this, their integration into society has become a focus of interest for academic study and in broader social and political debates. Despite this, the question of how Muslims make sense of their own religious identity remains relatively unexplored in previous research. The same is true for the question of how they construct understandings of what integration means to them and of how this relates to what they say about their own wellbeing. This thesis aims to fill these gaps in extant research and to provide a platform for the voices of this minority group to be heard. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 first generation and 20 second generation Muslim immigrants and a further four focus groups were also conducted. Gender was balanced across all of these. Data were analysed using discourse analysis focusing on participants’ discursive constructions of religion, identity, integration, wellbeing, and the problems that impacted on wellbeing. Analysis showed that British Muslims adopt a variety of forms of categorization in constructing their religious and ethnic identity. Some first generation Muslims focus on presenting their identities as flexible phenomena that depend upon the culture they are living in; others display a rigid religious identity. Second generation Muslims use hyphenated identities for defining the multiplicity of their belongings to Britain and their ethnic home country. Integration in Britain is usually welcomed by both generations but is described as being restricted and guided by religious boundaries. British Muslims construct happiness and unhappiness in relation to life in Britain in a complex manner. The most prevalent reasons they give for happiness are the religious freedom and security found in Britain. But these are described by comparing Britain with their home countries, where such freedoms and security are often said to be lacking. In a sense, this allows participants to legitimize their status as immigrants into Britain. Unhappiness is also associated with life in Britain, with references made to moral decline and to discrimination and racism. Participants also construct a sense of their wellbeing, or lack of it, in relation to other problems. They present Muslims’ selfs-egregation, and a lack of proper leadership among Muslims in Britain, as further major problems associated with living in Britain. However, while talking about these problems, participants seek to distance themselves from them by making vague attributions of agency and by indicating that such problems were faced by others rather than by themselves. When participants talk of ways in which Muslims’ wellbeing could be enhanced, they focus on Muslims’ own need for personal improvement but also on the need for responsible media coverage of Muslims and Islam. The thesis concludes by discussing these findings in relation to previous literature and by reviewing their implications for future policy, practice and research.

While previous research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be as important for their well-being as how much they earn. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on others may have a more positive impact on well-being than spending money on oneself. We found converging evidence for this hypothesis in a nationally representative survey (Study 1), a longitudinal study of windfall spending (Study 2), and an experimental study in which participants were randomly assigned to spend money on themselves or others (Study 3). We also found that people believe that spending on themselves, as opposed to others, will make them happier (Study 4) and that happier people were more likely to spend on others and experience higher happiness as result (Study 5). These results demonstrate that spending money on others may facilitate the translation of wealth into well-being. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

abstract: According to hedonism about happiness, all and only enjoyable experiences are the basic constituents of one’s happiness, and these experiences contribute to one’s happiness just to the extent that they have a greater intensity or duration. After defending this view, I show that it must be amended to count as an equally plausible theory of what constitutes one’s well-being. I then present two such amended versions of hedonism about well-being. The first, which I call objective hedonism, adds the claim that the objective worth of the things one enjoys also makes a difference to the extent to which an enjoyable experience contributes to one’s well-being. The second, which I call reliabilist hedonism, adds the claim that one’s evaluative intuitions about which things are good for one track which things have proven themselves to one to reliably lead to enjoyable experience. I conclude that reliabilist hedonism constitutes a revival of hedonism about well-being. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Philosophy 2020