News

• 25 January 2012: I was interviewed for an article on hedonism that will appear in WellBeing Magazine's special issue on happiness, scheduled for release in May 2012.
• 15 January 2012: I was interviewed for an article on how the weather affects our happiness that appeared in the Sunday Star Times today. Link
• 2 January 2012: I have been Invited to attend the April 2012 'High-Level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Happiness and Wellbeing: A New Economic Paradigm' by the Prime Minister of Bhutan.
• 14 December 2011: I will give a talk on the philosophical bases of concepts of wellbeing to the wellbeing group at Statistics New Zealand today. Link
• 12 December 2011: The Summer 2011 edition of Victorious, the magazine for friends and alumni of Victoria University of Wellington, includes an article about the International Journal of Wellbeing. Link
• 14 November 2011: I began lecturing PHIL105: The Big Questions at Victoria University today. I'll be lecturing for three weeks on personal identity, the good life, and the meaning of life.
• 9 November 2011: I have been invited to give a talk on subjective wellbeing to the wellbeing group at Statistics New Zealand on 14 December 2011.
• 20 October 2011: I delivered a guest lecture for the Masters of Public Policy class at Victoria University of Wellington today on Happiness and Public Policy. Link
• 5 October 2011: I was interviewed by award-winning writer Jacques Leslie today for his forthcoming Atavist article on Gross National Happiness in Bhutan. Link
• 3 October 2011: I'm taking part in a workshop on the ethics of climate change at Victoria University of Wellington and I'm commenting on Garrett Cullity's paper. Link
• 28 September 2011: I've been asked to act as an expert scientific adviser on assessing wellbeing by a team investigating the use of measures of wellbeing in healthcare from the Leiden University Medical Center and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. It was a great honour to be asked since they only approached the top 25 experts in the world (in their opinion!).
  
• 27 September 2011: My chapter on the experience machine objection to hedonism in the Wiley-Blackwell book Just the Arguments is now published. Link
• 15 September 2011: My critical notice of Basil Smith's 'Can we test the experience machine?', entitled 'We can test the experience machine' will be published in March 2012 in Ethical Perspectives. Link
• 6 September 2011: I begin two weeks of lectures on advance directives and voluntary euthanasia for PHIL361: Bioethics at Victoria University of Wellington today.
• 26 August 2011: I will deliver 2 short introductory philosophy lectures to prospective students at Victoria University of Wellington today.
• 8 August 2011: My encyclopedia entry on Hedonism for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy is now available. Link
• 20 July 2011: The International Journal of Wellbeing launched its second issue today - a special issue designed to appeal to a broad audience, including educated non-academics. Link
• 6 July 2011: I have been invited to give a guest lecture on wellbeing and public policy to the Victoria University of Wellington Masters of Public Policy class in October this year. Link
• 13 June 2011: My encyclopedia entry on Hedonism has been accepted by the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• 28 March 2011: I begin two weeks of teaching in two introductory courses at Victoria University of Wellington today. I'll be teaching on the morality of advertising and philosophy of religion.
• 21 March 2011: Philip McKibbon from Bluekeko has posted his interview with me. Blukeko is a blog aimed at promoting creative and critical thought. Link
• 11 March 2011: My chapter for the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell book Inception and Philosophy has been accepted. The chapter will be entitled 'Reality Doesn't Really Matter'. Click the link to see an early draft. Link
• 9 March 2011: My article entitled 'Intuitive Biases in Judgements about Thought Experiments: The Experience Machine Revisited' was accepted for publication in the blind-reviewed journal Philosophical Writings today. Link
• 15 February 2011: My article on how we should decide what subjective wellbeing questions to put in the census was published in the Social Europe Journal today. Link
• 31 January 2011: The International Journal of Wellbeing, which I co-edit, was launched today. See the first issue, learn about the journal, and how to submit your research to it here.
  
• 25 December 2010: I was interviewed for and quoted in an article about happiness in this week's The Listener. Link
• 22 December 2010: My proposed paper on the movie Inception has been provisionally accepted for inclusion in the forthcoming Wiley-Blackwell book Philosophy and Inception.
• 19 December 2010: Linda Weijers and I enjoyed our wedding today!
• 20 November 2010: I was named on a successful grant application for the Vic Davis Memorial Trust. The Trust is funding the Launch and first year of the International Journal of Wellbeing.
  
• 15 November 2010: I presented on my Inception and Philosophy idea at the Victoria University of Wellington Post Graduate Student Conference today.
• 18 October 2010: My abstract on philosophical aspects of the movie Inception has been accepted for the forthcoming Open Court book Inception and Philosophy. Link
• 15 October 2010: My abstract on philosophical aspects of the movie Inception has been accepted for the competitive Victoria University of Wellington Post Graduate Student Conference to be held on Sunday 14 November. Link
• 15 October 2010: My article on distributing the responsibility of dealing with climate change (co-authored with David Eng and Ramon Das) is now published and available free online. Link
• 1 October 2010: I presented a seminar to other students at Victoria University of Wellington today. The seminar was entitled: Eliminating Bias from the Experience Machine Thought Experiment. Link
  
• 10 September 2010: My article about the importance of understanding the philosophical foundations of wellbeing has been published in the Social Europe Journal. Link
  
• 9 September 2010: My book note of Derek Bok's The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being has been published in New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology Newsletter today. Link
  
• 27 August 2010: I gave two introduction to philosophy lectures today at 'Study @ Vic Day' at Victoria University of Wellington.
  
• 26 August 2010: I have been invited to talk about 'The Problem with Happiness' to the Cafe Scientifique audience from 6:00-7:30pm at Wholly Bagels in Lower Hutt on the 30 September.
  
• 17 August 2010: My Book review of Derek Bok's The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being has been published in Metapsychology Online today. Link
  
• 1 AUG '10: The Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Handbook for 2011 can now be accessed on line. My featured staff profile can be seen on Page 1 (which is actually the 3rd page) here.
• 30 JUL '10: My proposal to write the Hedonism entry for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has been accepted.
• 26 JUL '10: I have accepted an invitation to serve as a member of the Editorial Review Board for the International Journal of Technoethics, a quarterly journal which began publication in 2010.
• 22 JUL '10: I gave a staff seminar today on the meaning of life. See the slides here.
• 21 JUL '10: My letter to the editor about the potential effects a proposed employment policy might have on wellbeing was published in the Dominion Post today. You can see my letter here.
• 16 JUL '10: My comments about a new tertiary education policy have featured in an article on the home page of www.stuff.co.nz. You can read the article here. Unfortunately, the article itself is misleading about my actual view. The quotes are accurate but the paraphrasing is not. My actual view: Any competent policy that links funding to success in getting students jobs should not have negative consequences for philosophy.
• 2 JUL '10: I was photographed today for the Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Handbook for 2011. I checked with the photographer and, fortunately, he is well versed in Photoshop! An un-altered version can be seen in the right-hand column below. I will also have a 'staff profile' inside the handbook. The slightly embarrassing writeup can be seen here.
• 8 JUN '10: I'm in the process of changing my name because I am getting married (civil unionised) to my long-term partner Linda Weijers later this year.
• 7 JUN '10: My proposed article on the Experience Machine has just been accepted for the forthcoming book Just the Arguments. Click here for the pre-copyedited version.
• 7 MAY '10: I have just attended the Happiness and its Causes conference in Sydney - the biggest happiness conference in the world.
• 27 APR '10: I have been asked to review The Politics of Happiness by Derek Bok for the New Zealand Positive Psychology Newsletter.
• 27 APR '10: I started teaching PHIL104: Argument and Analysis today. My topic is philosophy of religion.
• 19 APR '10: I have been asked to review The Politics of Happiness by Derek Bok for Metapsychology Online.
• 15 APR '10: The paper that I have been writing with Dr Ramon Das and Dr David Eng will appear in a book by the ANU E Press later this year. Click here for the pre-copyedit version.
• 7 APR '10: I have posted more very positive feedback on my teaching. Click here to see all my feedback on the teaching page.
• 3 APR '10: My letter to The Listener (see news item below) was quoted on Radio New Zealand this morning during Kim Hill's interview with Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich's response revealed that she had done very little research of her own on an important claim in her book (that no robust studies show that happiness causes better health) - a claim that is false. Listen to the interview here.
• 29 MAR '10: My letter pointing out factual errors in a story about happiness and positivity in the New Zealand magazine The Listener has been published in the April 3-9, Volume 223, No. 3647 issue . See it here.
• 26 MAR '10: I have been selected by the Australasian Association of Philosophy Chairperson to attend the Happiness and its Causes conference in Sydney  for free later this year.
• 16 MAR '10: My review of Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom (2009) by Rick Hanson is now published in Metapsychology Online. See it here.
• 1 MAR '10: My teaching of PHIL106: Contemporary Ethical Issues started today. Click here to see the slides.
• 16 FEB '10: I have been asked to review Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom for Metapsychology Online.
• 4 FEB '10: I have just posted more (very positive) student feedback on my teaching page. Click here to see what I've been teaching and what the responses have been.
• 16 JAN '10: I am now an official peer-reviewer for the journal Philosophical Frontiers on subjects of well-being, happiness and hedonism.
• 20 DEC '09: Julian Baggini has asked me and Aaron Jarden (president of the New Zealand Positive Psychology Association) to write an essay on what positive psychology can really tell us about happiness for The Philosophers' Magazine that should come out in September 2010.
• 16 DEC '09: Dr David Eng and I presented our paper (Dr Ramon Das is also a co-author) on the ethics of climate change at the Copenhagen 2009: issues, Options, Outlooks and Outcomes seminar series in Wellington today. Click here for the presentation. Note that the presentation is slightly different from the previous one, but he paper is the same. Click here for the draft paper (please do not quote without our consent).
• 10 DEC '09: Dr David Eng and I presented our paper (Dr Ramon Das is also a co-author) on the ethics of climate change at the Ethical Foundations of Public Policy Conference in Wellington today. Click here for the presentation. Click here for the draft paper (please do not quote without our consent).
• 3 NOV '09: I have updated my brief CV. See it here.
• 3 NOV '09: My review of What is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being (2007) by Richard Kraut is now published in Metapsychology Online. See it here.
• 23 OCT '09: My continuing education course, Happiness: Its Meaning, Measurement and Significance, started today.
• 5 OCT '09: My teaching of the media ethics section of PHIL107: Philosophy of Media and the Arts at Victoria University of Wellington started today.
• 2 SEP '09: My son, Eli Luke Weijers, was born at 11am!
• 31 AUG '09: The first results of the International Wellbeing Study are now in and it looks like philosophers might not be as happy as non-philosophers! Still there is a long time to go in the study and we won't jump to any hasty conclusions. It's also not too late to join the study. Philosophers click here for more info and non-philosophers click here.
• 27 JUL '09: My teaching of the personal identity and the meaning of life sections of PHIL105: The Big Questions starts today at Victoria University of Wellington started today.
• 8 JUL '09: I presented my paper, Defining Pleasure for Hedonism: Lessons from Science, at the Australasian Association of Philosophy annual conference at the University of Melbourne today. See it here.
• 4 JUN '09: My review of The Pleasure Center: Trust Your Animal Instincts (2009) by Morten Kringelbach is now published in Metapsychology Online. See it here.
• 25 MAY '09: The last show of 'The Meaning of Life' radio show aired today. Thanks very much to Geoff for all the fun we had doing it.
• 22 MAY '09: I debated Adrian Currie today at the VUW Philosophy Student Seminar Series. The debate was imaginatively titled 'Hedonism: The Debate'. The debate was about the plausibility of Hedonism as a theory of well-being. The result was at least mildly in favour of Hedonism being plausible!
• 18 MAY '09: I am now officially a collaborator in an exciting international well-being study. My role is to try and encourage enough philosophers to join the study for there to be a statistically significant cohort of philosophers in the study. This might give some insight into differences between philosophers and non-philosophers, particularly regarding their well-being. Philosophers click here for more info and non-philosophers click here.
• 8 APR '09: My undergraduate teaching (for three different undergraduate courses) is finished for the trimester and I can get back to research projects! The PowerPoint slides are available on the Teaching page.
• 21 MAR '09: I have received very positive feedback from my teaching again, which has prompted me to include links to my evaluations on the Teaching page.
• 12 MAR '09: My article: The Real Dirt on Happiness Studies: A Reply to 'The Unhappy thing about Happiness Economics' (which you can see here) is now published! Check out issue 49 (pp83-89) at Real-world Economics Review.
• 14 FEB '09: I was interviewed by Helen Harvey, reporter for The Daily News, earlier this week as part of her research for an article on the recession's likely effects on happiness. The article came out today. Click here to view the website version. Or here to see a PDF.
• 13 FEB '09: I've just updated this website by adding a 'Wellbeing' page. If you have an academic interested in happiness, then you'll find lots of useful links and resources here. Be sure to check back from time to time as I'll keep this page updated.
• 12 FEB '09: I've been asked to write a review of The Pleasure Center: Trust Your Animal Instincts (2009) by Morten Kringelbach. The review will appear in Metapsychology Online.
• 10 FEB '09: Work has begun on a series of short, philosophy related videos that I'm making with my happy-go-lucky buddy Richard Allardice. The videos are intended to make thought experiments more memorable and be used as lecture aids. You'll be able to access them through this website as and when they are finished.
• 9 FEB '09: I'm going to be co-hosting a radio show with a good friend of mine - Geoff Roberts. The show, called The Meaning of Life, will include philosophical discussions of contemporary and timeless issues, interviews with interesting people of all sorts, and some great local music (when we can't think of what to say). Please tune in and even call up and get involved. The show airs on Mondays 7:00-8:30pm (starting 16th Feb) on Human FM. You can hear the show on 88.1FM in Wellington Click here for more details on the station (including how to contact).
• JAN '09: I'm officially a PhD student now at Victoria University of Wellington. In my thesis, I will attempt to revive hedonism as a plausible theory of well-being.
• 17 DEC '08: I heard today that I have been awarded a Doctoral Scholarship/Assistantship from Victoria University of Wellington (I start my PhD next year).
• 16 DEC '08: Locals can now check out a hard copy of my thesis (entitled Reviving Hedonism about Well-Being: Refuting the Argument from False Pleasures and Restricting the Relevance of Intuitive ‘Evidence’) in the philosophy department cabinet or the library. Or see the PDF here.
• 14 DEC '08: I was very happy to hear that my paper on happiness studies and public policy will be published at the start of 2009 in Real-world Economics Review. The journal is run by the Post-Autistic Economics Network who are valiantly doing all they can to try and keep economics as relevant as possible to real life. My paper is actually a direct reply to an earlier paper from the journal (which you can see here). My paper is entitled The Real Dirt on Happiness Studies: A Reply to 'The Unhappy thing about Happiness Economics' (which you can see here).
• 12 NOV '08: My book review of Happiness: A Revolution in Economics by Bruno Frey has been published in Metapsychology Online. Click here to view
• 25 OCT '08: I have been awarded a distinction for my MA thesis.
• 16 OCT '08: I was interviewed on Human FM today (on the programme Vivat Academia) about philosophy in general, my interests and how I got involved.

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