Eudaimonia

Research on well-being can be thought of as falling into two traditions. In one-the hedonistic tradition-the focus is on happiness, generally defined as the presence of positive affect and the absence of negative affect. In the other-the eudaimonic tradition-the focus is on living life in a full and deeply satisfying way. Recognizing that much recent research on wellbeing has been more closely aligned with the hedonistic tradition, this special issue presents discussions and research reviews from the eudaimonic tradition, making clear how the concept of eudaimonia adds an important perspective to our understanding of well-being.

The distinction between hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia was evaluated in three data sets involving use of the Personally Expressive Activities Questionnaire-Standard Form (PEAQ-S) with college student samples (n > 200 in each sample). Indices of these two conceptions of happiness were strongly and reliably related across the three samples. Differences between these two conceptions of happiness were evaluated in two ways. First, we examined and compared correlations of hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia with variables related to intrinsic motivation. Zero-order correlations involving hedonic enjoyment were significantly stronger with respect to measures of self-determination and interest than were the corresponding correlations involving feelings of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia). In contrast, correlations involving eudaimonia were significantly stronger with measures of the balance of challenges and skills, self-realization values, effort, and importance than were the corresponding correlations with hedonic enjoyment. Second, we empirically distinguished between activities for which both hedonic enjoyment and eudaimonia are present (intrinsically motivated activities) and activities for which hedonic enjoyment alone is present (hedonically enjoyed activities). Intrinsically motivated activities were judged to be significantly higher with respect to measures of the balance of challenges and skills, self-realization values, effort, importance, interest, and flow experiences. No differences between the two categories of activities were found for self-determination and the frequency with which activities were performed. Given these distinguishable patterns in the two conceptions of happiness, a reconceptualization for the understanding of intrinsic motivation is proposed.

Eudaimonic theories of well-being assert the importance of achieving one's full potential through engaging in inherently meaningful endeavors. In two daily diary studies, we assessed whether reports of engagement in behaviors representative of eudaimonic theories were associated with well-being. We also examined whether eudaimonic behaviors were more strongly related to well-being than behaviors directed toward obtaining pleasure or material goods. In both studies, eudaimonic behaviors had consistently stronger relations to well-being than hedonic behaviors. Data also provided support for a temporal sequence in which eudaimonic behaviors were related to greater well-being the next day. Overall, our results suggest that ''doing good'' may be an important avenue by which people create meaningful and satisfying lives.

The "Hedonistic Paradox" states that homo economicus, or someone who seeks happiness for him-or herself, will not find it, but the person who helps others will. This study examines two questions in connection with happiness and generosity. First, do more generous people, as identified in dictator experiments, report on average greater happiness, or subjective well-being (SWB), as measured by responses to various questionnaires? Second, if the answer is affirmative, what is the causal relationship between generosity and happiness? We find a favorable correlation between generosity and happiness (i.e., SWB is directly related to several measures of happiness and inversely related to unhappiness) and examine various possible explanations, including that material well-being causes both happiness and generosity. The evidence from this experiment, however, indicates that a tertiary personality variable, sometimes called psychological well-being, is the primary cause of both happiness and greater generosity. In contrast to field studies, the experimental method of this inquiry permits anonymity measures designed to minimize subject misrepresentation of intrinsic generosity (e.g., due to social approval motives) and of actual happiness (e.g., because of social desirability biases) and produces a rich data set with multiple measures of subjective, psychological and material well-being. The results of this and other studies raise the question of whether greater attention should be paid to the potential benefits (beyond solely the material ones) of policies that promote charitable donations, volunteerism, service education, and, more generally, community involvement, political action, and social institutions that foster psychological welleing. b JEL classification: C91; D64

We examine the notion of eudaimonic entertainment during exposure to a sad but meaningful movie, using a new measure consisting of 5 dimensions derived from research on positive psychology. We, thereby, transfer the conception of eudaimonic well-being to the conception of entertainment. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis show that the 5 dimensions can be further condensed into 2 second-order factors. We applied these new measures in a study in which the ending of a movie was manipulated (sad vs. happy). The results provide both discriminant and convergent validity and show that hedonic entertainment measures were affected by the manipulation, but that eudaimonic entertainment measures were unaffected. A second study provided further evidence for the validity of the construct.

Demonic geography is an approach to practicing human geography that operates from the premise that there are no such immaterial entities as 'souls', 'spirits', 'minds', integrated, stable 'selves', or conscious 'free will'. This paper elaborates the theoretical framework of demonic geography by spelling out how it is different from non-representational theory and by articulating it with recent developments in experimental psychology, neuroscience, and the philosophy of mind. Counterintuitively, the paper shows that the deflationary, materialistic ontology of human nature espoused by demonic geography need not lead to meaninglessness, unhappiness, or the collapse of moral behaviour. Instead, subscribing to demonic geography opens up new ways to find meaning, to pursue happiness, and to live the good life.

Citation: Houge Mackenzie, S. & Hodge, K. (2019). Adventure recreation and subjective well-being: A conceptual framework. Leisure Studies. doi: 10.1080/02614367.2019.1577478.  Despite the documented positive outcomes of adventure experiences, subjective well-being (SWB) frameworks have been largely absent from discourse and analyses in adventure studies. This conceptual paper proposes a framework for understanding how adventure recreation experiences promote eudaimonic SWB. In our framework we propose that adventure recreation fosters eudaimonic aspects of SWB by supporting satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, relatedness and beneficence. The framework also integrates contact with nature as an important mechanism through which adventure recreation fosters eudaimonic SWB. Analysis of research and practice across diverse aspects of adventure recreation (leisure, tourism, and education contexts) is used to support the proposed framework and to critically evaluate howpsychological models, such as SDT and SWB, can advance theory and practice in adventure recreation. We conclude by offering a number of suggestions for future research directions and practical implications.

Asking how post-crisis countercultural formations compose new means of resisting an unjust economic order, this essay centers the tiny homes movement, which takes the financialization and commodification of housing as a warrant for radically downsized dwellings. As I argue, the campaign to displace (from) big homes and emplace tiny homes relies on coordinating rhetorical modalities: the parrhēsiastic case against dominant but flawed materializations of “good living” and the eudaimonic envisioning of an alternative “good living” less beholden to capital. I conclude by reviewing both problematics and possibilities that emerge from this inventive play for social and economic change.

Over the past 40 years, mindfulness‐based therapies (MBTs) have gained a reputation among the biomedical community for their ability to contribute to health, mental capital, and human flourishing. Recently, however, critical mindfulness scholars have questioned the moral import of MBTs, claiming that, in modernizing meditation, they strip Buddhist practices of their ethical and soteriological content. Inspired by Harrington and Dunne’s (2015, p. 630) recent call to historicize this present discontent, I offer an account for this perceived “de‐ethicization” of mindfulness, locating it in a long history of changes in the ontological infrastructures supporting moral reasoning from the eighteenth century onwards. Through the example of equanimity—a virtue that has been a part of Western and Eastern character ethics and theories of flourishing from the ancient period to the modern age—I show how, from the eighteenth century, research in the natural sciences on nervous diseases, stress, and relaxation, provided a frame for rethinking moral equanimity as a somatic experience of physiological calm. This transformation reaches its peak in the late twentieth century in research on mindfulness, which builds upon that tradition by folding into its ambit Eastern conceptions of equanimity as well. Insofar as modern MBTs continue to somatize moral virtues, I argue that they raise questions about the degree to which they are conducive to human flourishing and well‐being, as opposed to the related but narrower notions of health and mental capital.

Previous research has identified a link between experiencing life as meaningful and purposeful—what is referred to as “eudaimonia”—and reduced expression of a stress-induced gene profile known as the “conserved transcriptional response to adversity” (CTRA). In the current study, we examine whether similar links between eudaimonic well-being and CTRA reduction occur in a sample of 56 individuals with a particularly strong engagement with virtual worlds: avid online videogame players. Results consistently linked higher eudaimonic well-being, and more specifically the social well-being subdomain of eudaimonia, to lower levels of CTRA gene expression. That favorable psychobiological relationship between eudaimonia and CTRA appeared most strongly among individuals reporting high levels of positive psychosocial involvement with gaming. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that committed social/recreational activity may help damp CTRA expression especially among persons who are already experiencing some kind of threshold of positive eudaimonic experience.

Recently, tourism scholars have recognized that travel can create transformation, including (1) personal benefits such as improved wellbeing and personal growth and (2) societal benefits such as increased open-mindedness and more positive pro-environmental attitudes, motivations, and behaviors. Expanding and integrating this research, this experimental study tests whether travel experiences, with eudaimonic elements of self-discovery and a sense of meaning, lead to these benefits and tests a proposed process where these experiences influence personal changes that subsequently create societal benefits. Specifically, using an online MTurk sample (n = 481) with a broad range of recent vacation experiences, we test whether (1) post-trip self-reflection on eudaimonic travel experiences (2) creates affective responses (3) that lead to self-transcendent changes and (4) subsequent post-trip philanthropy among recent travelers. Results of structural equation modeling indicate that philanthropic effects of travel were initiated by the eudaimonic self-reflections via eudaimonic affect and self-transcendent outcomes. This study contributes to the research linking eudaimonia and travel and provides insights into the ways that the travel industry can be harnessed as a potent tool for promoting personal meaning, self-transcendence, and prosocial outcomes. ARTICLE HISTORY

Perhaps the most familiar understanding of “naturalism” derives from Quine, understand- ing it as a continuity of empirical theories of the world as described through the scientific method. So, it might be surprising that one of the most important naturalistic moral realists, Philippa Foot, rejects standard evolutionary biology in her justly lauded Natural Goodness. One of her main reasons for this is the true claim that humans can flourish (eudaimonia) without reproducing, which she claims cannot be squared with evolutionary theory and biology more generally. The present argument concludes that Foot was wrong to reject evolutionary theory as the empirical foundation of natural- ized eudaimonist moral realism. This is based on contemporary discussion of biological function and evolutionary fitness, from which a definition of “eudaimonia” is constructed. This gives eudaimonist moral realism an empirically respectable foundation.

An extended design and evaluation framework of eudaimonia (personal growth, expressiveness) and hedonia (pleasure, comfort) was applied to a cooperative game for older adults who rely on power mobility. The purpose was to address two psychosocial well-being needs (perceptions of performance mastery and empathy enhancement) through a game with an interaction format that augments the experience of powered chair use: mixed reality with power mobility-based interaction and movement. Two versions of the game—one in a mixed reality format and one without—were created to evaluate the efficacy of using this framework and explore relevant user experience factors. Qualitative findings suggest that the mixed reality version of the game elicited eudaimonic experiences, where the older adult participants who were typically reliant on power mobility perceived a positive change in performance mastery while their partners, who were not reliant on power mobility developed a greater appreciation for everyday powered chair use. Further, a role reversal, where the elders took on a ‘caregiving’ role in the context of powered chair expertise, was observed. Moreover, inferential findings showed evidence of a predictive relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic orientations, psychological well-being, and game engagement, regardless of age, disability status, and game version.

Resiliency is the ability to survive, or even thrive, during adversity.  It is a key construct within both humanistic and positive psychology, but each sees it from a contrasting vantage.  Positive psychology decontextualizes resilience by judging it as a virtue regardless of circumstance, while humanistic psychology tends to view it in a more holistic way in relationship to other virtues and environmental affordances, clarifying how resiliency can actually be either a virtue or a vice depending upon circumstances.  Adolf Hitler is presented as an example of a resilient person who would not be seen as virtuous, while the U.S. Army Comprehensive Soldier Fitness study training warfighters in resiliency illustrates possible ethical problems with a decontextualized view of resiliency.

Positive psychology has significantly influenced studies in the fields of moral philosophy, psychology and education, and scholars in those fields have attempted to apply its ideas and methods to moral education. Among various theoretical frameworks, virtue ethics is most likely to connect positive psychology to moral educational studies because it pursues eudaimonia (flourishing). However, some virtue ethicists have been concerned about whether the current mainstream concept of positive psychology can apply directly to moral education because it focuses on subjective aspects of happiness, but not its objective and moral aspects. Thus, I will consider whether the concept of purpose, which was investigated recently by a group of psychologists and emphasizes both subjective and objective aspects of happiness, can address this issue. I will examine whether purpose is a moral virtue contributing to flourishing, consider if its nature is possibly a second-order virtue and whether it is distinguishable from other second-order virtues.

Background: There are hundreds of mindfulness-based interventions in the form of structured and unstructured therapies, trainings, and meditation programs, mostly utilized in a clinical rather than a well-being perspective. The number of empirical studies on positive potentials of mindfulness is comparatively less, and their known status in academia is ambiguous. Hence, the current paper aimed to review the studies where mindfulness-based interventions had integrated positive psychology variables, in order to produce positive functioning.

Methods: Data were obtained from the databases of PubMed, Scopus, and PsycNet and manual search in Google Scholar. From the 3831 articles, irrelevant or inaccessible studies were eliminated, reducing the number of final articles chosen for review to 21. Interventions that contribute to enhancement of eudaimonia, hedonia, and other positive variables are discussed.

Results: Findings include the potential positive qualities of MBIs in producing specific positive outcomes within limited circumstances, and ascendancy of hedonia and other positive variables over eudaimonic enhancement.

Conclusion: In conclusion, exigency of modifications in the existing MBIs to bring about exclusively positive outcomes was identified, and observed the necessity of novel interventions for eudaimonic enhancement and elevation of hedonia in a comprehensive manner.

The VIA Inventory of Strengths and the VIA model were originally developed to assess and study 24 character strengths. In this paper, I discuss how the VIA Inventory and its character strength model can be applied to the field of moral education with moral philosophical considerations. First, I review previous factor analysis studies that have consistently reported factors containing candidates for moral virtues, and discuss the systematic structure and organization of VIA character strengths. Second, I discuss several issues related to the VIA model, including a lack of previous studies that directly support the moral justifiability of the model and the presence of a fundamental virtue component required for optimal moral functioning in virtue ethics, phronesis, practical wisdom, in the model. Finally, I propose future directions for research on the VIA model in order to address the aforementioned issues and facilitate the application of the model in moral education.

Since ecotourism was popularized in the late 1980s, a focus in scholarly writings on the topic has been its dual in situ mandate of biodiversity conservation and community development. As visitor education gained attention, so too did research on how nature-based aspects of ecotourist experiences influence ex situ pro-environmental. Yet, researchers have largely neglected culture-based aspects of ecotourism experiences, overlooking the role that experience with communities, people, and local culture have on visitor outcomes, thus bypassing other important sustainability-related outcomes (e.g. systems thinking, humanitarianism). The purpose of this psychological assessment of recent traveler experiences is to explore the distinct influence of the natural and cultural aspects of travel on traveler's understanding of sustainability, and whether these influences are because of particular affective experiences during travel. This study supports the proposal that both nature and cultural-based experiences contribute to sustainability insights by fostering meaning and self-discovery (i.e. eudaimonia). Our findings suggest that the positive contribution that natural and cultural components of tourism makes toward sustainability insights may be enhanced when eudaimonic experiences are incorporated into tourism experiences. This work thus implies that more explicit incorporation of eudaimonic elements into the design of (eco-) tourism experiences will increase visitors' sustainability insights.

This paper crosses the borders of human geography to bring back two related bodies of work from experimental psychology that investigate, in an unusual and refreshingly precise way, long-standing human geographical concerns with tem-porality, place and subject formations, meaning-making and well-being. It is argued that the traffic of ideas and empirical findings between human geography and experimental psychology can be mutually profitable if, and only to the extent that, it encompasses a sustained epistemological, methodological and political critique of the disciplinary practices that have yielded those ideas and findings.

While it is commonsensical that we read stories to generate pleasant emotions (enjoyment), the fact that we also read stories which generate sadness had been deemed more puzzling. Recent studies have stressed the potential role of “eudaimonic” (meaning-making) motives in preferences for sad media, particularly sad films. The current survey study (N = 343) explored the role meaning-making motives (insight and personal growth) play in a preference for sad books relative to other motives, like catharsis beliefs and wanting to experience emotions (meta-emotions). The study also took into account gender and age. Results indicate that both meaning-making motives and meta-emotions predict a preference for sad books. This pattern was compared to preferences for specific book genres. A preference for thrillers was associated with meta-emotions, while a preference for poetry was associated with a need for insight. However, no specific genre was associated with both meta-emotions and insight. As sad books appear to address both needs for feeling and meaning-making, they serve a unique function for readers.

We examined change over time in the relationship between moral identity and presence of meaning during emerging adulthood. Moral identity refers to a sense of morality and moral values that are central to one’s identity. Presence of meaning refers to the belief that one’s existence has meaning, purpose, and value. Participants responded to questions on moral identity and presence of meaning in their senior year of high school and two years after. Mixed effects model analyses were used to examine how moral identity and presence of meaning interacted during this two-year period. The findings demonstrated that moral identity positively predicted presence of meaning over time.

IMPORTANCE Higher purpose in life is hypothesized to reduce the likelihood of developing weak grip strength and slow walking speed because purpose has been linked with a range of positive health behaviors and biological processes that are potentially protective against declining physical function. However, the association between purpose in life and objective physical function has not been examined. OBJECTIVE To assess whether higher purpose in life among adequately functioning older adults is associated with lower risk of developing weak grip strength and slow walking speed over time. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Data for a longitudinal cohort study were collected in 2006 and again in 2010 from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative study of US adults older than 50 years. Data analysis was conducted from MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The risk of developing weak grip strength (assessed as a binary yes or no outcome) or slow walking speed (yes or no) during the 4-year follow-up period. Grip strength was assessed using Smedley spring-type hand dynamometers, and walking speed was assessed by asking respondents to walk 2.5 m at their normal walking pace. RESULTS In this study, 4486 adults had grip scores at baseline indicating adequate function (2665 women and 1821 men; mean [SD] age, 63.0 [8.2] years) and 1461 adults had walking scores at baseline indicating adequate function (801 women and 660 men; mean [SD] age, 70.8 [6.5] years). After controlling for sociodemographic factors, each 1-SD increase in purpose was associated with a 13% decreased risk (95% CI, 1%-23%) of developing weak grip strength and a 14% decreased risk (95% CI, 8%-20%) of developing slow walking speed. Associations with walking speed were maintained in all covariate models (fully adjusted model: risk ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.83-0.95), but associations with grip strength did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance after additionally adjusting for relevant baseline health factors, depressive symptoms, and health behaviors (fully adjusted model: risk ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.80-1.04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Purpose in life was prospectively associated with a decreased risk of developing weak grip strength and slow walking speed, although the findings were more robust for walking speed than for grip strength. These findings suggest that a sense of purpose in life, a modifiable factor, may play an important role in maintaining physical function among older adults.

Wisdom is at once one of the most elusive and most valued kinds of knowledge. Empirical research shows that, indeed, across cultures, people hope that life experience will eventually make them wiser. The problem is that, to date, the academic study of wisdom and of the processes by which it can be learned has been dominated by psychologists. The first part of the article reviews the state-of-the-art psychological scholarship on wisdom to show how that conceptualization lacks geographical sensitivity and therefore misses some of the crucial geographical mechanisms by which people become wiser. The second part of the article singles out and focuses on one such mechanism, namely, the learning of wisdom through geographical dislocations. By drawing on insights from the study of international migration, exile, and transculturation in postcolonial contexts, the final part of the article suggests specific learning processes that might strengthen the hypothesis that geographical dislocations and the attendant cross-cultural experiences they generate are often conducive to wisdom. La sabiduría es a la vez uno de los tipos de conocimiento más esquivos y más valorados. La investigací on empírica en verdad muestra que en todas las culturas la gente espera que la experiencia de la vida eventualmente los haga más sabios. El problema es que hasta ahora el estudio académico sobre la sabiduría y sobre los procesos por medio de los cualesésta puede alcanzarse ha estado dominado por los psicólogos. La primera parte del artículo revisa el estado del arte de la erudicí on psicoí ogica sobre este particular, para mostrar c ´ omo esa conceptualizací on carece de sensibilidad geográfica y en consecuencia deja de considerar algunos de los mecanismos geográficos cruciales mediante los cuales la gente se hace más sabia. La segunda parte del artículo escoge y se concentra en uno de tales mecanismos, o sea, el aprendizaje de la sabiduría por medio de las dislocaciones geográficas. A partir de la perspicacia del estudio de la migrací on internacional, el exilio y la transculturací on en contextos poscoloniales, la parte final del artículo sugiere procesos de aprendizaje específicos, que podrían fortalecer la hipótesis de que las dislocaciones geográficas y las experiencias culturales de vasto espectro generadas por aquellas a menudo llevan a la sabiduría. Palabras clave: distancia, dislocaciones geográficas, migrací on internacional, aprendizaje visceral, sabiduría.

Psychological well-being, or eudaimonia, features strongly in theories of human development and thriving. However, the factors of eudaimonia are debated, and their genetic architecture has not been studied in detail. Method: A classical twin design was used to decompose behavioral variance into genetic and environmental components implemented in a multigroup, multivariate structural equation modeling framework. Subjects were 837 pairs of adult U.S. twins from the nationally representative MIDUS II sample. Psychological well-being was measured using the 42-item Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, which assesses autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. Results: Substantial genetic influences were observed on all components of well-being. Attempts to model these six factors as reflecting a single common psychological mechanism gave a poor fit to the data. The best-fitting model supported the existence of five distinct genetic effects. Effects of shared environment were weak and nonsignificant. Unique environmental effects for all measures were mostly trait specific. Conclusions: These results indicate that psychological well-being is underpinned by a general genetic factor influencing self-control, and four underlying biological mechanisms enabling the psychological capabilities of purpose, agency, growth, and positive social relations.

There have been roughly two general stages in the theorization of eudaimonia. The first is found in the long history of virtue ethics in Western philosophy, the second in recent research in economics and cognitive science on the topic of subjective well-being. In the transition from philosophical virtue ethics to the quantitative study of subjective well-being, however, an important idea has been overlooked, namely, the role of culture as an essential foundation for the realization of eudaimonia. In this paper, I therefore argue for a third phase in eudaimonic well-being research, what I call a “critical eudaimonics.” This approach reintroduces culturally situated understandings of eudaimonia through thick historical and ethnographic descriptions of virtue, wisdom, and flourishing well-being to highlight the conditions in which people actually cultivate eudaimonia in everyday life. In order to argue this, I begin with a comparison of Aristotle and Alasdair MacIntyre’s theories of virtue to provide a brief intellectual history for how modern moral philosophers came to see eudaimonia as necessarily possessing a cultural history. I then turn to recent understandings of virtue in anthropology—and my own ethnographic research on compassion—to offer a definition of eudaimonia fit for the qualitative social sciences.

Mckay, Francis. “Eudaimonia and Culture: The Anthropology of Virtue.” In Handbook of Eudaimonic Well-Being, edited by Joar Vittersø, 409–25. Tromso, Norway: Springer International Publishing, 2016.

Søren Kierkegaard is well-known as an original philosophical thinker, but less known is his reliance upon and development of the Christian tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins, in particular the vice of acedia, or sloth. As acedia has enjoyed renewed interest in the past century or so, commentators have attempted to pin down one or another Kierkegaardian concept (e.g., despair, heavy-mindedness, boredom, etc.) as the embodiment of the vice, but these attempts have yet to achieve any consensus. In our estimation, the complicated reality is that, in using slightly different but related concepts, Kierkegaard is providing a unique look at acedia as it manifests differently at different stages on life's way. Thus, on this "perspectival account", acedia will manifest differently according to whether an individual inhabits the aesthetic, ethical, or religious sphere. We propose two axes for this perspectival account. Such descriptions of how acedia manifests make up the first, phenomenal axis, while the second, evaluative axis, accounts for the various bits of advice and wisdom we read in the diagnoses of acedia from one Kierkegaardian pseudonym to another. Our aim is to show that Kierkegaard was not only familiar with the concept of acedia, but his contributions helped to develop and extend the tradition.

An argument for the eponymous conclusion is given through a series of hypothetical syllogisms, the most basic of which is as follows: morality is necessary for self-respect; self-respect is necessary for happiness; therefore, morality is necessary for happiness. Some of the most obvious objections are entertained and rejected.

The arts and entertainment sectors remain fragile because of the global pandemic. Unemployment, physical and emotional stress, social isolation, a loss of purpose, and a problematic future are just a sample of the ongoing traumas that music educators and practitioners experience under duress. As an inherently social activity, music-making becomes
especially difficult when the threat of infection persists, further exacerbating somatic trauma and decreased health and wellness. The sudden loss of daily contact with others, coupled with multiple kinds of crises, complicates matters for educators. How does one flourish when their livelihood, personal connections, and sense of meaning-making disappear? Likewise, how ought the music educator navigate such uncertainty when teaching others? To address these issues,
psychologists have often turned to Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), a collaborative model between the practitioner and client that recognizes and validates the impact of painful memories and experiences. This article advocates for a compassionate eudaimonic pedagogy model that prioritizes healing and self-care for teachers and students and cultivating an ethos of critical digital pedagogy—itself a form of eudaimonia. Drawing on Noddings’ (1992, 1995, 2002) Philosophy of Care, the article concludes with suggestions on future connections between eudaimonia and music education.

The most long-standing criticism of virtue ethics in its traditional, eudaimonistic variety centers on its apparently foundational appeal to nature in order to provide a source of normativity. This paper argues that a failure to appreciate both the giving and taking of reasons in sustaining an ethical outlook can distort a proper understanding of the available options for this traditional version of virtue ethics. To insist only on giving reasons, without also taking (maybe even considering) the reasons provided by others, displays a sadly illiberal form of prejudice. The paper finds and criticizes such a distortion in Jesse Prinz's recent discussion of the "Normativity Challenge" to Aristotelian virtue ethics, thus highlighting a common tendency that we can helpfully move beyond.

Sovereign assets receive restrictive sovereign immunity based on their purpose and/or use for execution of States’ commercial liabilities. The forum States’ courts decide the question of immunity of these assets. Due to lack of effective international conventions, these judgements result at inconsistent outcomes. Rule of law can be applied to mitigate this inconsistency. However, the objectives of rule of law vary for the national and the international legal order. Moreover, the divergence in group-interests of States and mandate of international organizations have failed to agree on a uniform definition of international rule of law. Thereby, this paper suggests international law-based rule of law as an alternative approach. International law-based rule of law aims at achieving the same objectives as domestic legal order, but, by the tools of international laws. Finally, it proposes to develop an inter-States consensus-based model law to have uniform principles of sovereign assets’ ...

The following article is a contribution to the rich debate concerning happiness or fulfilment (eudaimonia) in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. It argues that eudaimonia is theōria in accordance with what Aristotle repeatedly says in Book X of the Nicomachean Ethics. However, happy life (eudaimōn bios) is a complex way of life which includes not only theoretical activity but also the exercising of other virtues including the so-called moral or social ones. The article shows that Aristotle differentiates between eudaimonia on the one hand and the happy or fulfilled life (eudaimōn bios) on the other, and shows how this distinction clarifies Aristotle's account of eudaimonia.

Owen Flanagan has advocated for an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural inquiry into the nature and optimal conditions of human flourishing which he aptly terms eudaimonics. For Flanagan flourishing is multi-faceted, involving biological, psychological, and social dimensions. In this paper I will explore the spiritual dimension of human flourishing from a liberal naturalist perspective. My first core claim is that, at the root of human experience, there are capacities for sense-making and self-transcendence. These capacities allow us, indeed drive us to create, maintain, and transform spiritual ecologies. These ecologies allow us to find meaning, value, and purpose in our individual and shared worlds—that is, to be spiritually at home. My second core claim is that this spiritual dimension is a distinct and irreducible dimension of our flourishing. The spiritual dimension centrally involves the depth and integration of our human orientation to life. In my view, we are inescapably spiritual animals and any adequate eudaimonics must take this into account. has advocated for an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural inquiry into the nature and optimal conditions of human flourishing which he aptly terms eudaimonics. For Flanagan flourishing is multi-faceted, involving biological, psychological, and social dimensions. In this paper I will explore the spiritual dimension of human flourishing from a liberal naturalist perspective. My first core claim is that, at the root of human experience, there are capacities for sense-making and self-transcendence. These capacities allow us, indeed drive us to create, maintain, and transform spiritual ecologies. These ecologies allow us to find meaning, value, and purpose in our individual and shared worlds-that is, to be spiritually at home. My second core claim is that this spiritual dimension is a distinct and irreducible dimension of our flourishing. The spiritual dimension centrally involves the depth and integration of our human orientation to life. In my view, we are inescapably spiritual animals and any adequate eudaimonics must take this into account.

Mass Effect as a case study to understand the influence of players' moral intuitions on adherence to hero or antihero play styles ABstrAct This research examines relationships regarding moral foundations and moral decisions in the Mass Effect video game series. The findings suggest that moral foundation predicts what type of moral decisions a player will make during play. This research reports an online survey (N=138) that asked participants the salience of their moral foundations, along with the moral path, either traditionally heroic (paragon) or traditionally antiheroic (renegade), they chose in their first time playing through the Mass Effect series. The results indicate that moral foundations predict the extent to which game path players choose, but only with regard to the harm/ care moral foundation. These findings are discussed in light of game design and the potential for game designers to use morality as a game mechanic beyond the harm foundation and into realms of more nuanced moral situations in game narratives.

For older adults, adopting a powered mobility aid signals a life transition that affects several well-being factors: their self-image, motivation, and self-perception of ability, but also how other people - friends, family, coworkers, strangers - relate to and perceive these individuals. We present initial findings from a user study in which we (a) recorded a baseline of well-being using established psychological instruments, and (b) evaluated a web-based prototype of a cooperative mixed reality game for improving the well-being of older powered chair users and their friends and family. Our results show that most participants considered themselves to be happy and were driven by hedonic and eudaimonic motives during gameplay, but were mixed with respect to their attitudes towards disability.

For over a decade, the discipline of positive psychology has been interested in concepts associated with positive human functioning. In this article we focus on eudaimonic well· being (EWB), which Waterman and colleagues (2010) de· fine as the "quality of life derived from the development of a person's best potentials and their application in the ful· fillment of personally expressive, self·concordant goals" (p. 41). Stemming from Aristotelian philosophy, EWB has re cently been recognized as a viable topic for scientific in· quiry. Eudaimonic conceptions of happiness are associated with notions of the true self, personal expressiveness, and meaningful goal pursuits . This idea is often held in sharp contrast with hedonic conceptions of happiness which reflect a life characterized by the maxi· mum attainment of pleasure. In this article, we highlight the philosophical and historical roots of EWB as well as cur rent conceptual and measurement issues related. to its em· pirical study.

Some theories of well-being in philosophy and in psychology define people’s well-being in psychological terms.  According to these theories, living well is getting what you want, feeling satisfied, experiencing pleasure, or the like.  Other theories take well-being to be something that is not defined by our psychology:  for example, they define well-being in terms of objective values or the perfection of our human nature.  These two approaches present us with a trade-off:  The more we define well-being in terms of people’s psychology, the less ideal it seems and the less it looks like something of real value that could be an important aim of human life.  On the other hand, the more we define well-being in terms of objective features of the world that do not have to do with people’s psychological states, the less it looks like something that each of us has a reason to promote.  In this paper I argue that we can take a middle path between these two approaches if we hold that well-being is an ideal but an ideal that is rooted in our psychology. The middle path that I propose is one that puts what people value at the center of the theory of well-being. In the second half of the paper I consider how the value-based theory I describe should be applied to real life situations.

In light of literature documenting differences in viewers’ film preferences, this study (N = 168) examined how motivations for film consumption based on pleasure (hedonism) and meaning (eudaimonia) are associated with moral disengagement and enjoyment of content featuring a morally ambiguous character. Findings indicate that whereas hedonic motivation positively influenced moral disengagement, eudaimonic motivation had the reverse effect. Furthermore, eudaimonic motivation had a direct positive influence on enjoyment and the relationship between hedonic motivation and enjoyment was mediated by moral disengagement. Implications for the role of morality as it relates to individual preferences for media consumption and enjoyment are discussed.