Dan Weijers

News

26 November 2019: I presented on Significant Learning Experiences in Every Lecture at LearnFest19 in Hamilton. Video

25 September 2019: I gave a talk to University of Waikato Students for Mental Health Week: Quarterlife Crisis, Wellbeing, and the Meaning of Life.

23 September 2019: I gave a guest lecture at Rototuna High School about commonsense morality.

17 September 2019: My family welcomed a former refugee family from Afghanistan. We are sponsoring their settlement. They are wonderful and we are learning a lot!

15 September 2019: My chapter on how to teach wellbeing or quality of life from a philosophical perspective is now published in the Springer book: Teaching Quality of Life in Different Domains (edited by Graciela Tonon). See it here.

12 September 2019: I was invited to be a member of the International Editorial Board of Rowman & Littlefield's book series on Behavioural Applied Ethics by series editor, Malik Bozzo-Rey.

12 September 2019: I gave a guest lecture in Justin Sytsma's experimental philosophy course and a Staff Seminar on the Deceived Businessman thought experiment at Victoria University of Wellington.

10 September 2019: Reviewing a book proposal for Oxford University Press.

30 August 2019: My article on the paradox of happiness (with Lorenzo Buscicchi) has been selected to be published in a book featuring the top 50 (out of 3,960) articles from The Conversation this year. Original article here.

27 August 2019: Nick Munn and I argue why almond milk shouldn't have to be called almond juice at The Conversation. Read it here.

20 July 2019: Aaron Jarden presented our talk, "Wellbeing and public policy in New Zealand" in the Positive Systems and Positive Policy: Wellbeing Science and Positive Psychology at Scale at the 6th World Congress of Positive Psychology in Melbourne.

12 July 2019: I presented "There's no place like home: Is our preference for familiar surroundings a bias?" at the North American Society for Social Philosophy 36th International Social Philosophy Conference: Home: Sanctuary, shelter, and justice at the University of San Francisco.

12 June 2019: Russel DiSilvestro presented our talk on, "How AI might help us die with dignity and fairness?" at the 10th Workshop in Decisions, Games, and Logic: “Ethics, Statistics, and Fair AI” at Caltech.

27 May 2019: Lorenzo Buscicchi and I discuss the Political Paradox of Happiness in The Conversation. Read it here.

25 May 2019: My book chapter with Mohsen Joshanloo, "Islamic Perspectives on Wellbeing", in Louise Lambert & Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi (eds.), Positive Psychology in the GCC Nations (and beyond) is now published by Springer.

27 March 2019: My paper with Mohsen Joshanloo on a novel two-dimensional conceptual framework for understanding mental well-being was published in PLoS ONE today. See it here.

15 February 2019: I presented "Online Self-Promotion" to graduate students and staff at the University of Waikato today.

1 February 2019: I am now officially a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato.

20 December 2018: My sponsored op-ed was published in the NZ Herald, "How to Future Proof Your Career". LInk

24 November 2018: Presented "Is wellbeing and public policy on the same flight path as positive psychology?" at the 4th Biennial NZ Association of Positive Psychology Conference at the University of Waikato today. I also took part in a plenary panel, chaired a session, and introduced a keynote speaker - it was a busy day!

23 November 2018: I was recently interviewed for "A framework for wellbeing" by Carl Billington for Public Sector, Vol. 41, Iss. 4 (see page 9).

15 November 2018: Philip Morrison and I discuss the implications of the 3rd International Conference on Wellbeing and Public Policy in "Wellbeing and Public Policy: Can New Zealand be a Leading Light for the Wellbeing Approach?", Policy Quarterly, 14(4): 3-12. Link

14 November 2018: Presented on "Student disengagement: Why they say they don’t come" at LearnFest at the University of Waikato today.

14 November 2018: I have official confirmation that I will promoted to Senior Lecturer as of 1 February 2019!

13 November 2018: I was awarded the University of Waikato Early Career Academic Excellence award (thank you very much to my fantastic colleagues for nominating me!) and a University of Waikato Teaching Excellence award.

8 November 2018: I presented the keynote lecture at FASSGRAD at the University of Waikato today on "The experience machine and my postgraduate experience".

26 October 2018: I have accepted an invitation to take part in a panel on wellbeing and public policy at the 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology in Melbourne next year (18-21 July 2019).

18 October 2018: I was awarded a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence award for the second year in a row. Many thanks to my wonderful students for nominating me!

17 October 2018: Presented on "The freebie problem: A pervasive flaw in how we work out what has value" for the Philosophy Seminar Series at the University of Auckland today.

13 October 2018: Presented on "Experience machine experiments: Testing the importance of relationships and individual differences" at the 3rd Australasian Experimental Philosophy Conference at Victoria University of Wellington today.

9 October 2018: I was recently interviewed for "Happiness is breaking out" by Eileen Cameron for the University of Waikato News. Link

20 September 2018: Presented on “Just wrong,” “disgusting,” “grotesque,” “offensive”: How to deal with public rejection of new potentially life-saving technologies at The Waikato Dialogue: The Implications of Emerging Disruptive Technologies for International Security at the University of Waikato today.

11 September 2018: I was recently interviewed for "Disgusting, grotesque and offensive" by Eileen Cameron for the University of Waikato News. Link

5-7 September 2018: The 3rd International Conference on Wellbeing and Public Policy (which I helped organise) was a huge success! Over 300 delegates each day!

5 September 2018: I was recently interviewed for "A philosopher in the economist’s den" by Eileen Cameron for the University of Waikato News. Link

5 September 2018: presented "The Politics and Public Policies I Hope for" at the 3rd International conference on Wellbeing and Public Policy in Wellington today.

21 August 2018: Presented "Nozick's experience machine thought experiment has many problems, but the freebie problem ain't one of ‘em" for the Staff Seminar Series at the University of Canterbury today

22-24 May 2018: I was delighted to be invited to be a discussant at the Happiness and Well-Being: Integrating Research Across the Disciplines: Capstone Conference in St. Louis.

22 May 2018: My encyclopedia entry on prediction markets in The SAGE Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society: 2nd edition, Sage, was finally published. Link

20 February 2018: Presented "A puzzle about privileging our future hedonic states" at the Whole Lives, Time, and Selfhood conference held at Deakin University in Melbourne today.

1 February 2018: The 3rd International Conference on Wellbeing and Public policy (which I am a co-organsier of) was announced in the New Zealand parliament today. See the announcement here. It will be held on 5-7 September 2018 in Wellington, New Zealand. See more information here.

5 December 2017: I presented "Has the deceived businessman been deceiving philosophers?" at the New Zealand Association of Philosophers 2017 conference, University of Otago. See the slides here.

1 December 2017: Lorenzo Buscicchi is starting a PhD under my supervision today on Happiness and the State.

17 November 2017: I presented "Getting students to engage with readings" at Learnfest 2017, University of Waikato. See the slides here.

16 November 2017: I was delighted to hear that I won a University Teaching Excellence Award. See my portfolio here.

16 November 2017: I presented "Student engagement: Potential causes and solutions" in "Connecting students to learning - A student engagement panel" at Learnfest 2017, University of Waikato. See the slides here.

13 November 2017: I created a website and blog for the New Zealand Association of Philosophers. You can see it here.

30 October 2017: I begin supervising Georgia Nicholls as part of my Summer Scholar project, "Happiness and the good life: Testing a new mixed method approach".

13 October 2017: I was honoured to receive a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award.

18-19 August 2017: I attended the Diversity in Philosophy conference in Massey Albany.

29 July 2017: I presented "Deconstructive Replication: How to Tell If a Thought Experiment-Population Pairing Is Fit For Purpose" at AXΦII: The 2ND Annual Australasian Experimental Philosophy Conference in Hamilton, NZ.

30 June 2017: My proposal for a Summer Scholar project, "Happiness and the good life: Testing a new mixed method approach", has been accepted and fully funded ($5,000).

26 May 2017: I presented "Does increasing national happiness require decreasing freedom or determining social values?" at the symposium "Quality of life research: An interdisciplinary discussion" held at Auckland University of Technology. See the slides here.

16 May 2017: I was awarded a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (UoW) Contestable Academic Research Visitor Grant for NZ$2,940 to bring Jennifer Nado to AXΦII: 2nd Annual Australasian Experimental Philosophy Conference.

12 May 2017: I presented "Watch the James Dean and Duration Neglect hypotheses crash and burn: Lessons for experimenters" at the Empirical Philosophy Workshop at Victoria University of Wellington. See the slides here.

30 April 2017: The book Wellbeing, Recovery and Mental Health is now available. I have a chapter on Wellbeing Policy with Aaron Jarden in the edited volume. See it here.

12 April 2017: I presented my keynote address, "What is good for you? The philosophy of well-being", at the "Faculty panel event with guest Dan Weijers", at California State University Sacramento.

11 April 2017: I presented "Does the future matter more for wellbeing than the past? Experimental evidence and the importance of perspective" to the CSUS Philosophy Club at California State University Sacramento. See the slides here.

27 March 2017: The open access book "Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science" has been been published. I have a chapter in it, co-authored with Aaron Jarden, about the International Journal of Wellbeing and issues in open access scientific publishing practices. Read the book here.

26 March 2017: I reached 200 citations on Google Scholar! See my profile here.

2 March 2017: I became the University of Waikato representative in the New Zealand Association of Philosophers.

31 January 2017: The Pursuit of Human Well-Being has finally come out! A lot of work by a lot of well-being experts has gone into this huge book. You can see an early version of my chapter (with Alex Michalos) on Western Historical Traditions of Well-Being here and the publisher's site here.

26 January 2017: I was awarded a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (UoW) Contestable Research Grant for NZ$7,670 to fund "What Really Matters".

8 December 2016: I was very pleased to host students from Rangiuru School today. We toured the university, and they participated in a lecture about studying at university and one about moral dilemmas. Thanks to Mr. Gullick for suggesting it.

2 December 2016: I presented a talk at the New Zealand Association of Philosophers annual conference today. The talk was going to be called: "I'm glad it's over, but should I be? A puzzle about privileging future hedonic states", but then I changed it to "A better life or a better future? Calling out our bias against the past". Slides.

22 November 2016: My paper Living Standards, Wellbeing, and Public Policy, co-authored with Udayan Mukherjee, has been published on the New Zealand Treasury website as a background paper to the release of He Tirohanga Mokopuna, the Treasury's 2016 Statement on New Zealand's Long-Term Fiscal Position. You can read the paper here.

7 November 2016: I was awarded a University of Waikato Research trust Contestable Fund Grant of NZ$2,000 for "Securing the last NROs for 2018 PBRF".

14 October 2016: I presented a paper on the Living Standards Framework, "Living standards, well-being, and public policy", at the Treasury today. I wrote the paper with Udayan Mukherjee as a background paper to Treasury's forthcoming statement on New Zealand's long-term position. See my slides here.

10 October 2016: My paper (with Udayan Mukherjee) has been accepted for publication as a background paper to Treasury's forthcoming statement on NZ's long-term position (free official version available soon).

5 October 2016: I began facilitating a wonderful amateur philosophy group in Hamilton today.

26 September 2016: A 1,000 word version of my "Privileging our future hedonic states" paper has just been published on The Dance of Reason - see it here.

9 September 2016: I will present "Privileging our future hedonic states" at the 1st annual Australasian Experimental Philosophy workshop (AXΦI) at Victoria University of Wellington on this day. More info here.

5 September 2016: I have just finished giving the second of two lectures for a psychological methods course at University of Waikato. The lectures were on research ethics and philosophy of science (respectively).

1 September 2016: I presented "A solution to a puzzle about the badness of death: Satisfying the strict existence requirement" at the University of Waikato Philosophy Seminar Series today. Link

21 July 2016: My paper, "The science of happiness for policymakers: An overview", has been republished in the book: "Policies and Subjective Wellbeing: Happiness in the Public Agenda". You can read the introduction here (in Spanish).

13 June 2016: Today is my first day at the University of Waikato.

25 May 2016: Today is my last day at Sac State.

24 May 2016: I accepted an invitation to join the expert group at the not-for-profit Global Happiness Organization. The other experts currently on the panel are Peter Singer, Ruut Veenhoven, and Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek.

23 April 2016: Delivered the keynote lecture at the University of California, Davis Undergraduate Philosophy Conference on 'What we value: An experimental investigation of the good life'.

12 April 2016: The Nammour Symposium starts today and runs on the 13th and 15th of April too. The theme is power. I co-organized the symposium with Kyle Swan and Vadim Keyser.

11 April 2016: I am now an Editorial Advisory Board Member for the new Journal of Philosophy of Emotion.

23 March 2016: My chapter (with Aaron Jarden) on how open access was the key to the International Journal of Wellbeing's success has now been fully accepted by the editors (Jhangiani & Biswas-Diener) of Open: The philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing psychological science and education. Ubiquity Press.

7 March 2016: I took part in the faculty focus group for the Hornet Honor Code Task Force to help develop an honor code at Sac State.

3 February 2016: I was excited and honoured to accept a permanent job offer from the University of Waikato today. I will start work on 13 June 2016 as a lecturer (US equivalent = assistant professor) in the philosophy department.

26 January 2016: The book Ethics and the Future of Spying, containing my chapter on Prediction Markets as an Alternative to One More Spy, is now available. You can order it here.

23 December 2015: I have been invited to write a white paper on Living Standards, Wellbeing, and Public Policy for the New Zealand Treasury.

15 December 2015: My paper on The Varieties and Dynamics of Moral Repugnance (with Vadim Keyser) has just been accepted for publication in The Humanities and Technology Review. See the last author version here.

14 December 2015: I have been awarded a 2016 College of Arts and Letters Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity Award at Sacramento State for Experimental Philosophy on What Really Matters.

4 December 2015: I gave a lecture on Moral Common Sense to Rio Americano High School students today. As per usual, the students loved it! Is it time for more philosophy in schools yet?

20 November 2015: My abstract for Mark Silcox's (ed.), Experience Machines: The Philosophy of Virtual Worlds (Rowman & Littlefield) has been accepted. I will write a chapter on The Morality of Experience Machines for End of Life Care with Russell DiSilvestro.

16-17 November 2015: The Fall Ethics Symposium on The Ethics of Nudges was a huge success. I co-organized the event with Russell DiSilvestro and Kyle Swan. The program and links to videos are here.

10 November 2015: Today, I gave a talk to the Sacramento State Philosophy Club on the Experience Machine and End of Life Care.

13 August 2015: I attended a 1-hour Introduction to Camtasia workshop at Sacramento State today.

23 July 2015: My article with Mohsen Joshanloo on income inequality, religiosity, and subjective well-being has been accepted for publication in Social Indicators Research. See the last author version here.

3 July 2015: Invited to co-author a chapter (with Aaron Jarden) for a forthcoming book on open access education in psychology: Rajiv Jhangiani & Robert Biswas-Diener (eds.), Open: The philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing psychological science and education. Ubiquity Press. Our chapter will explain the history of the International Journal of Wellbeing, including how being open access was a key to our success.

18 June 2015: Awarded a share of $5,000 (split with Russell DiSilvestro, Kyle Swan, and Christina Bellon) from the Provost's Research Incentive Fund at Sacramento State for developing a large grant proposal on student wellbeing and success.

8 June 2015: Awarded a fee waiver for an intensive 3-day research writing workshop at California State University, Sacramento in preparation for developing a large grant proposal on student wellbeing and success.

1 June 2015: My chapter with Aaron Jarden on wellbeing policy has been accepted for the Cambridge University Press book Wellbeing, Recovery and Mental Health edited by Mike Slade, Lindsay Oades, and Aaron Jarden. See the last author version here.

28 May 2015: Invited to write a chapter for Experience Machines: The Philosophy of Virtual Worlds, edited by Mark Silcox and published by Rowman and Littlefield.

27 May 2015: I have been invited to write a dust jacket comment (i.e. a blurb) for two (excellent) forthcoming books on happiness. You can see the books here.

18 May 2015: My chapter on why prediction markets on terrorism are a better option than funding one more spy has been accepted for publication in the forthcoming Routledge book Ethics and the Future of Spying. Last author version here.

9 April 2015: I was the official commentator on Ryan Howell's: Happiness for sale: How money buys happiness (and why people don't buy it), California State University, Sacramento, Nammour Symposium. Video.

8-9 April 2015: The Nammour Symposium on Happiness was a huge success. Many thanks to my co-organizers: Kyle Swan and Vadim Keyser. All the details and videos here.

9 March 2015: I gave a talk to the interdisciplinary Cognitive Science group at the University of California, Merced, today. The talk addressed the question of whether philosophy makes people happier. Video here. Abstract here.

7 March 2015: I attended an excellent American Association of Philosophy Teachers workshop on student-centered course design today. Further information here.

15 February 2015: I posted a first look at some interesting experimental results on trolley problems on the Dance of Reason. See it here.

14 February 2015: I posted a tongue-in-cheek entry on the Dance of Reason in honor of Valentine's Day. See it here.

3 February 2015: My application to take part in the American Association of Philosophy Teachers Workshop at San Fransisco State University has been accepted. Details here.

3 February 2015: My article (with Mohsen Joshanloo), Does Thinking about the Meaning of Life Make you Happy in a Religious and Globalised World? A 75-Nation Study, has been included in an online article collection featuring the most downloaded articles published in Routledge Behavioral Sciences journals in 2014. The collection features the top three most downloaded articles that were published and downloaded in 2014 in each Routledge Behavioral Sciences journal.

8 January 2015: My article with Mohsen Joshanloo about injustice religiosity and happiness has been accepted for publication in Applied Research in Quality of Life. Free online first version

25 December 2014: My article with Mohsen Joshanloo about injustice religiosity and happiness has been accepted for publication in Applied Research in Quality of Life. Last author version

21 December 2014: My chapter on the history of well-being in the West (with Alex Michalos) has now been accepted for the volume: The History of Well-Being: A Global Perspective.

23 November 2014: I attended the Virtue in Politics Symposium at Sac State. Details.

28 October 2014: My article with Mohsen Joshanloo on Aversion to Happiness was discussed in an article in Scientific American today. Read it here.

21 Ocotober 2014: I gave a talk to the Sac State Philosophy Club today on experimental philosophy. Learn more about the club here.

19 October 2014: I wrote a 2-part entry for the excellent blog, The Dance of Reason. You can see Part 1: Does Philosophy Make Us Happy? here and Part 2: The Happiness of Philosophers here.

3 October 2014: Today, I gave a talk at Rio Americano High School entitled, Can We Trust Our Moral Common Sense?

24 September 2014: I was interviewed for and quoted in an article published today in The American Scholar. Read it here.

September 2014: One of my articles has been republished in a collected volume: Weijers, Dan & Richardson, Jennifer (2014). A Moral Analysis of Effective Prediction Markets on Terrorism. In Human Rights and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (4 volumes). Editor-in-Chief: Mehdi Khosrow-Pour. Information Resources Management Association (USA), Vol. 4, pp. 1720-1736. Official version.

September 2014: My article with Jennifer Richardson, Is the repugnance about betting on terrorist attacks misguided?, now appears in a published issue of Ethics and Information Technology. See the official version here.

13 August: I have begun advising the XPRIZE foundation on a possible prize related to happiness and wellbeing.

7 August 2014: My article (with Mohsen Joshanloo) on thinking about the meaning and purpose of life is now available in the Journal of Psychology in Africa. Official link

6 August 2014: My article (with Jennifer Richardson) on misguided repugnance at betting on terrorist attacks is now online first at Ethics and Information Technology. Online first link

29 July 2014: My article (with Jennifer Richardson) on misguided repugnance at betting on terrorist attacks has been accepted by Ethics and Information Technology. Last author version

23 July 2014: My article (with Mohsen Joshanloo and many others!) on the fragility of happiness is now available online first in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Online first link

6 July 2014: My article (with Mohsen Joshanloo and 21 others!) on the fragility of happiness has been accepted by the Journal of Happiness Studies. Online first version

1 July 2014: I was awarded a Provost's Research Incentive Fund Award for summer 2014. The $5,000 prize is for my research proposal on experimental ethics using the several options method (on trolley problems).

29 May 2014: I took part in an Infinite Game workshop run by Nikki Harre today. Nikki and I are planning on researching issues to do values that arise from playing the game.

6 May 2014: My abstract for a chapter on Predictive Markets and Terrorism was accepted for inclusion in Jai Galliot (ed.) Ethics and the Future Spying: Technology, Intelligence Collection and National Security, to be published by Routledge in late 2015.

5 April 2014: I have been invited to be an Article Editor for SAGE Open.

5 April 2014: My article (with Mohsen Joshanloo) on on gender inequality, religiosity, and happiness has been accepted (pending minor revisions) by Social Indicators Research.

3 April 2014: My article (with Jennifer Richardson) on misguided repugnance at betting on terrorist attacks has been accepted (pending minor revisions) by Ethics and Information Technology.

25 March 2014: I have been invited to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming book on Wellbeing, Recovery and Mental Health by the editors Mike Slade, Lindsay Oades and Aaron Jarden. My chapter will be on International Policy on Wellbeing.

20 March 2014: Today is the United Nations International Day of Happiness. To mark this event, Springer ran a press release on some of my research with Mohsen Joshanloo (17 March; see it here). Several other outlets wrote about the article, including: The New York Daily News (18 March; see it here), e! Science News (18 March; see it here), The Daily Telegraph (19 March), Jagran Post (20 March; see it here), UPI.com (21 March; see it here), 610KVNU (25 March; link now broken), The Brock Press (25 March; see it here), and the New Zealand Herald (26 March; see it here). I was also interviewed for an article in the Sunday Star Times (16 March; see it here) and finally, the pick of the bunch, I was interviewed for a nice little piece on LiveScience.com (20 March; see it here)

20 March 2014: Today, I participated in a roundtable discussion of Mood Bank, a "pop-up bank where you can visualize, deposit and exchange feelings". It is an interactive art experiment designed to get depositors to reflect on the relationship between their moods and corporate objectives. Link

7 March 2014: I am very pleased to announce that today I accepted an assistant professor (tenure track) position at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS)! I start on August 27, 2014, so my family and I will be leaving New Zealand in late July/early August. CSUS has a very forward-thinking philosophy department full of great teachers, and I am honoured that they have invited me to join them!

28 February 2014: Today, I presented on 'What is good for us and how can we know?' at a California State University, Sacramento, Philosophy Department Public Seminar. Link

24 February 2014: Today, I presented on 'What is good for us and how can we know?' at the Victoria University of Wellington Staff Seminar Series. Link

7 February 2014: Today, I was interviewed on The Panel with Jim Mora on Radio NZ about my fear of happiness research with Mohsen Joshanloo. My bit is toward the start of this audio recording. Link

14 January 2014: My article with Jennifer Richardson, A Moral Analysis of Effective Prediction Markets on Terrorism, has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Technoethics, and will be published early this year. Link

16 December 2013: My article with Mohsen Joshanloo on aversion to happiness is now online first in the Journal of Happiness Studies. Link

25 November 2013: My article with Mohsen Joshanloo, Aversion to happiness across cultures: A review of where and why people are averse to happiness, was fully accepted for publication in the Journal of Happiness Studies today. Link

25 November 2013: My article with Vanessa Schouten, An assessment of recent responses to the experience machine objection to hedonism, is now fully published in the Journal of Value Inquiry. Link

24 October 2013: My article (co-authored with Mohsen Joshanloo), 'Does Thinking about the Meaning of Life Make you Satisfied with Life in a Religious and Globalised World? A 75-Nation Study', has been accepted for publication in a special section of the Journal of Psychology in Africa on 'Meaning and Relational Well-being'. The special section includes articles from some of the very best scholars of meaning in life in the world and is sure to garner much attention. Link

8 October 2013: My article (co-authored with Aaron Jarden) entitled, The science of happiness for Policymakers: An overview, was accepted for publication today in the Journal of Social Research and Policy. Link

8 October 2013: Today I attended a workshop hosted by the New Zealand Treasury and Statistics New Zealand on the Living Standards Framework: From Measurement to Policy.

7 October 2013: My book review (with many co-authors) of The Oxford Handbook of Happiness was published today in the International Journal of Wellbeing. Link

2 October 2013: My article, Optimistic Naturalism: Scientific Advancement and the Meaning of Life, is now online first at Sophia. Link

25 September 2013: My article (with Vanessa Schouten) entitled 'An assessment of recent responses to the experience machine objection to hedonism' is now online first at the Journal of Value Inquiry. Link

17 September 2013: I was awarded US$750 from the Halloran History of Well-Being Project's contestable research grant pool to hire a research assistant to help with my research on 'Western Historical Traditions of Well-Being'.

3 September 2013: My review paper on the experience machine objection to hedonism (co-authored with Vanessa Schouten) is now fully accepted and 'in-press' at the Journal of Value Inquiry. Link

29 August 2013: I attended a 3-hour workshop on factor analysis, regression and ANOVA with SPSS. The workshop was run by Mohsen Joshanloo at Victoria University of Wellington.

28 August 2013: I am now the deputy fire warden for my floor in the Murphy Building at Victoria University of Wellington.

28 August 2013: My review paper on the experience machine objection to hedonism (now co-authored with Vanessa Schouten) has been accepted pending minor revisions by the Journal of Value Inquiry.

14 August 2013: I have been awarded two prizes (one shared with my co-author Larah van der Meer) of £500 each from the Observatory on Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT for articles I submitted earlier this year.

14 August 2013: I have been invited to comment on Statistics New Zealand's sustainable development index and reports.

5 August 2013: My paper on the fear of happiness (co-authored with Mohsen Joshanloo) has been accepted pending major revisions by the Journal of Happiness Studies. One of the changes is a downgrading of 'fear' to something weaker, so the title of the paper will change.

19 July 2013: I gave a guest lecture on 'Happiness: Causes and Actions' to the experimental design class at Victoria University of Wellington today.

18 July 2013: I presented 'Prediction Markets and Betting on Matters of Life and Death: When Repugnance is Misguided' at the Victoria University of Wellington Philosophy Programme Seminar Series today.

17 July 2013: I was very honoured today to be invited to contribute to the project "The History of Well-Being: A Global Perspective" (Richard J. Estes and M. Joseph Sirgy). I have been commissioned to co-author a chapter for a book (the main output of the project) with Alex Michalos, entitled 'Western Historical Traditions of Well-Being'. The invitation includes payment for the work, a stipend, and a fully funded trip to join the other members of the project for a symposium in Philadelphia in October this year. This is such a great honour because the other contributors to the project are an all-star cast of leading wellbeing researchers from around the world!

11 July 2013: My two articles on the ethics of ICT were published today in the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT. The articles are freely available to all. You can access 'Prediction Markets' here and 'Educational psychology research on children with developmental disabilities using expensive ICT devices' here (I was the second author on this paper, Larah van der Meer was the lead author).

10 July 2013: I attended a media training session for humanities and social sciences academics today put on by the Victoria University of Wellington Marketing and Communications team.

19 June 2013: The International Journal of Wellbeing will host its second major conference on Public Policy and Wellbeing in mid June 2014 (in New York). Details will be available soon from here.

13 June 2013: My article 'Intuitive Biases in Judgments about Thought Experiments: The Experience Machine Revisited' is now published and available to all in the open access journal Philosophical Writings. Link

5 June 2013: I attended a workshop on communicating academic research today at Victoria University of Wellington.

4 June 2013: Ollie Neas from Salient interviewed me about happiness recently. You can see the published interview here.

31 May 2013: I received word that Philosophical Writings will relaunch in the second week of June with two issues, including my article on my 'Intuitive Biases in Judgments about Thought Experiments: The Experience Machine Revisited'.

22 May 2013: I attended an early career funding workshop today at Victoria University of Wellington.

15 May 2013: I graduate my PhD in Philosophy from Victoria University of Wellington today. Thanks to all of my colleagues, my supervisors and my family for their support!

13 May 2013: I have had two articles accepted for publication in the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT. The first article discusses ethical issues with prediction markets and the second article (co-authored with Larah van der Meer) discusses the ethical issue of withdrawing beneficial educational technologies from study participants.

10 May 2013: I will be lead author on a book review of The Oxford Handbook of Happiness forthcoming in the International Journal of Wellbeing.

9 May 2013: The article from the VUW website was picked up by Ed Blog, a New Zealand blog about tertiary education. You can see it here.

8 May 2013: My research was featured on the VUW website (latest news section). You can see the article here. The article was picked up by Scoop.co.nz, VicNews, and MedicalXpress.com.

8 May 2013: I attended the first day of a two day course on Maori language (Te Reo) and culture (Tikanga) today. The course was run through VUW's professional development centre.

24 April 2013: I attended a conference on teaching diversity run by Ako Victoria today.

23 March 2013: My paper, Optimistic Naturalism: Scientific Advancement and the Meaning of Life, is now fully accepted at Sophia. You can see the now-shortened version here: Link

11 March 2013: My paper about the meaning of life (Optimistic Naturalism: Scientific Advancement and the Meaning of Life) was accepted by Sophia today (pending making it a bit shorter). The paper has proven to be controversial with the many reviewers who have passed their eyes over it (about half liking it and about half arguing that it's terrible!). You can decide for yourself by reading the yet-to-be-shortened draft here: Link

11 March 2013: I have been invited to participate as an expert in the Child Maltreatment Predictive Risk Modelling Ethics Review Workshop in Wellington on 5 April 2013.

11 March 2013: I became the Disability Liason Officer for the Philosophy Programme at Victoria University of Wellington today.

27 February 2013: I applied for a Marsden Fast Start Grant today for a project entitled 'Philosophical theories of wellbeing for public policy'. I am delighted that several of the world's best philosophers on this topic are associate investigators on the project: Roger Crisp (Oxford), Garrett Cullity (Adelaide), Dan Haybron (St. Louis), Simon Keller (VUW), Andrew Moore (Otago), Justin Sytsma (East Tennessee State).

13 February 2013: I have uploaded a summary of my teaching evaluations, including a comparison of my averages with the average from my school, to the 'Teaching' page. Link

4 February 2013: My article, Nozick's Experience Machine is Dead, Long Live the Experience Machine is now published online at Philosophical Psychology. Link

3 December 2012: I presented a talk entitled "Making a Killing: The Ethics of Predicting Terrorism with Markets" to the Australian Association of Philosophy conference (New Zealand Division) in Wellington today. Link

29 November 2012: My report (co-written with Philip S. Morrison) on the June 2012 Wellbeing and Public Policy Conference held in Wellington was published in Policy Quarterly today. Link

14 November 2012: The full conference report from the Wellbeing and Public Policy Conference is now available from the conference website. Link

9 November 2012: My empirical and experimental paper on judgments about experience machine cases was accepted for publication by Philosophical Psychology today. The paper is titled: Nozick's Experience Machine is Dead, Long Live the Experience Machine! Link

1 November 2012: I attended a training session for supervisors titled 'Orientation to Postgraduate Supervision' at VUW today.

23 October 2012: My wife and I are happy to announce the birth of our second child, Asher Jay Weijers!

16 October 2012: I attended a training session for supervisors, today titled 'Insights into Successful Supervisory Practice' run by Margaret Kiley, at Victoria University of Wellington.

11 October 2012: My report (co-written with Philip S. Morrison) on the June 2012 Wellbeing and Public Policy Conference held in Wellington was accepted for publication by Policy Quarterly today.

27 September 2012: I gave a talk to a senior human geography class at Victoria University of Wellington today. The talk was titled: Happiness and Wellbeing from a Philosophical Perspective. Link

25 September 2012: I gave a talk to the senior experimental design class at Victoria University of Wellington today. The talk was titled: Happiness: Causes and Actions. Link

4 September 2012: I attended a workshop for supervisors on writing theses today. It was run by Sue Starfield.

30 August 2012: My grant application for a VUW Summer Research Scholarship project was accepted today. The project is on the ethical implications of prediction markets and Nick Agar is also named on the project.

23 July 2012: I started my new job today. For the next two years, I will be a Postdoctoral Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington. I'm researching prediction markets from a philosophical perspective: Link

19 July 2012: I passed my PhD oral exam today with the best possible result (no changes required). See the final version of my PhD thesis here: Link

12-26 July 2012: I am teaching a Continuing Education Course through Victoria University entitled 'Happiness: Its Meaning Measurement and Importance'. Slides are here: Link

13-15 June 2012: The International Journal of Wellbeing sponsored a conference on wellbeing and public policy that I co-organised. Some videos and slides should be available here soon: Link

6 June 2012: I'm presenting at Massey Albany about my research on happiness and wellbeing (generally) and the experience machine (specifically) today. You can see the handout here: Link

24 May 2012: I presented 'Would You Plug into the Experience Machine?' at the staff seminar series at Victoria University of Wellington

16 March 2012: I received a Victoria Doctoral Completion Award for finishing my PhD on time.

12 March 2012: I submitted my PhD today. You can see the version that was sent to examiners here: Link

7 March 2012: My 2-page solution statement for the 2 April high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on 'Happiness and Wellbeing: Defining a New Economic Paradigm' is now available from the official website for the event. Other contributors include Martin Seligman, Felicia Huppert, and Carol Graham. Link

16 February 2012: I have recently enjoyed the honour of commenting on, and being mentioned in, a chapter of the World Happiness Report for the UN meeting on Happiness and Wellbeing. The chapter is entitled The State of World Happiness and is authored by John F. Helliwell and Shun Wang.

10 February 2012: Simon Keller, Nick Agar, Isobel Cairns, and I have just finished a report for the Ministry of Social Development on the ethics of data mining.

8 February 2012: I have put my PhD thesis together and am now only a few weeks from submitting it for examination.

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 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.

Are there any problems with this page? Please let me know if there are!
email: danweijers[at]gmail[dot]com