Part of the CRASSH Fellows Work in Progress seminar series. All welcome, but please email Michelle Maciejewska if you wish to attend and to request readings. A sandwich lunch and refreshments provided. 

Dr Anna Alexandrova 

Abstract 

While at CRASSH I will be studying what makes a measure of well-being valid and accurate for a given purpose. Well-being is now a firmly established topic of scientific research and a widely used category for outcome evaluation in social policy and medicine. For the past two millennia and, especially now, well-being is also a central topic in philosophy.  What is the connection between these projects?  Ultimately, philosophy will be judged, at least in part, on whether it produces relevant and usable theories of wellbeing; science on whether it discovers empirical truths about things that matter; and policy on whether it correctly applies philosophical and scientific knowledge for the betterment of the human lot. My project is about how to practice these three projects in a joined-up manner, so that each responds to the others. As part of this project I will study how philosophical and psychometric considerations should bear on our choice of measures of well-being, how the context in which a measure is used must determine the key features of this measure and how we can develop better measures of well-being for children, disabled and chronically ill. This research is part of her forthcoming book Contexts of Life: How to Reason About Well-Being in Science and Policy (OUP). 

For administrative enquiries, please contact Michelle Maciejewska.