***CALL FOR PAPERS*** Subjective Measures of Well-Being and the Science of Happiness: Historical origins and philosophical foundations Date: February 2-3, 2008 Website: <http://www.dpo.uab.edu/~angner/swb.html> Workshop organized by the Department of Philosophy and the Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham INTRODUCTION Subjective measures of well-being ? that is, measures based on answers to questions like: "Taking things all together, how would you say things are these days?" ? emerged in the study of marital happiness and educational psychology shortly after WWI, and have since been used for a variety of purposes by psychologists, psychiatrists, gerontologists, economists, and other social and behavioral scientists. By now, these measures have inspired a sizeable body of work ? sometimes referred to as "eupathics," "the science of happiness," or "positive psychology" ? that aspires to shed light on the determinants and distribution of happiness, satisfaction, and other "positive" mental states. As of late, proponents of subjective measures have argued that subjective measures of well-being should be used as a guide for public policy and that governments, to this end, should establish so-called National Well-Being Accounts, designed to track the dynamics of well-being in the population. CALL FOR PAPERS In spite of psychologists' inroads into what has traditionally been regarded as philosophical territory, this body of work has only recently attracted the attention of historians and philosophers of science. Given that the empirical literature raises a host of interesting issues, this is fertile territory for further work. The aim of this workshop is to shed light on the historical origins and philosophical foundations of subjective measures of well-being in particular and the science of happiness / positive psychology in general. Goals include to trace the historical roots of the psychologists' efforts; to explore various foundational assumptions that go into the enterprise and to assess their relative plausibility; to examine the manner in which philosophical analysis (whether inspired by ethics, political philosophy, the philosophy of science, or other branches of philosophy) can inform empirical work; and to investigate how empirical results might feed into philosophical argument. Philosophers, historians, psychologists, economists, and others who might be interested in participating are invited to submit complete papers electronically or in hard copy to the organizer (see contact information below) before December 1, 2007. The number of slots is very limited. Papers that are firmly grounded in the empirical literature are strongly preferred. In order to maximize the amount of discussion, presentations will be relatively short. Instead, accepted papers will be circulated ahead of time. Presenters will be offered a limited amount of funding to help offset the costs of their participation in the workshop. Deadline for submission: December 1, 2007 Notification of accepted papers: December 15, 2007 Workshop: February 2-3, 2008 CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS Anna Alexandrova, University of Missouri?St Louis Erik Angner, University of Alabama at Birmingham Dan Haybron, Saint Louis University Don Ross, University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Cape Town Valerie Tiberius, University of Minnesota CONTACT INFORMATION Erik Angner Dept. of Philosophy and Dept. of Finance, Economics and Quantitative Methods University of Alabama at Birmingham 1530 3rd Avenue South, HB414A Birmingham, AL 35294-1260, USA Phone: +1 205 934 4805 Fax: +1 205 975 6610 E-mail: <[log in to unmask]> Erik Angner