News
- 9 April 2021:
I accepted an invitation from the National
Science Center of Poland to review a major grant
application on relationships.
- 8 April
2021: My paper with Nick Munn,
"Technology as cause of and solution to the
empathy problem", was accepted for a workshop on
The Oeuvre of Sherry Turkle, organised by the
Committee for Communication and Media Theory of
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The workshop
is on May 27, 2021. The paper will be published
shortly after the workshop.
- 31 March 2021: I
presented Philosophy of wellbeing (and how it
applies to student life) today. It was part of
Wellbeing Week at Waikato University.
- 31 March 2021: My
paper with Mohsen Joshanloo and Michael Bond was
accepted by Personality and Individual
Differences. It's titled: Cultural
Religiosity Moderates the Relationship Between
Perceived Societal Injustice and Satisfaction
with One’s Life.
- 25 March 2021: I was invited
to review a book proposal for Palgrave
Macmillan on wellbeing.
- 25 March 2021:
My paper with Nick Munn was accepted for the
ICT, society, and human beings 2021 conference,
which is part of the Multi conference on
computer science and information systems 2021.
It will appear in the published proceedings.
It's titled: Good friendships improve our lives.
But can virtual friendships be good?
- 31 January 2021:
I wrote an editorial with Aaron Jarden
celebrating the first ten years of the
International Journal of Wellbeing. See it here.
- 15 December 2020:
My Academic blog post (with Justin Sytsma
and Joe Ulatowski) on Corpus Methods in
Philosophy was published today. See it here.
- 8 December 2020:
Presented Philosophy as a Vehicle for
Delivering Significant Learning Experiences
(with Nick Munn) at the New Zealand Association
of Philosophers' annual conference in
Christchurch. Details here.
- 11 November
2020: Today I presented "Tales (or
Confessions) of FutureLearn providers 101"
with Clive Pope and Nicola Daly at
LearnFest20: Te Puna Aurei. Details here.
- 21 September
2020: My paper on How to Deal with Public
Rejection of New Potentially Life-saving
Technologies will be published in the
Routledge book
Emerging Technologies and
International Security: Machines, the
State and War. Thanks very much to the
editors, especially Reuben Steff. The book
will be available from 13 December 2020 here.
- 7 July
2020: I was interviewed by Sarah Dunning for
her series on what wellbeing researchers do on
their Sundays. You can read it here.
- 1 July 2020: I have picked up
the role of Deputy Convener of the Academic Planning
Committee for the Division of Arts, Law, Psychology,
& Social Sciences at the University of Waikato.
- 15 June 2020: I have picked
up the role of Teaching Excellence Awards
Coordinator for the Division of Arts, Law,
Psychology, & Social Sciences at the University
of Waikato.
- 4 June
2020: I reviewed a book proposal for
Cambridge University Press today.
- 27 May
2020: I signed the publisher's agreement for
my invited chapter in Springer's forthcoming
Festschrift for Ruut Veenhoven. The chapter
analyses his famous "four qualities of life" from
a modern philosophical perspective.
- 18 May
2020: Today was the start of Corpus Fortnight, a
14-day online conference with one presentation
per day on experimental corpus analysis. I co-organised this
event with Joe Ulatowski and Justin Sytsma (under
the banner of the Australasian
Experimental Philosophy Group). Details here.
- 3 April
2020: Under the banner of the Australasian
Experimental Philosophy Group, Justin Sytsma, Joe
Ulatowski and I are organising a fortnightly
online seminar series, named X-PHI Under
Quarantine. Details here.
- 1
January 2020: For the next two years I will
be the Convener of the Philosophy Programme at the
University of Waikato.
- 10
December 2019: I presented "Are
philosophers happy?" at the New Zealand
Association of Philosophers annual conference at
the University of Auckland.
- 7
December 2019: I presented "What's driving
Parfit's surgery cases?" at the 4th Annual
Australasian Experimental Philosophy Conference at the
University of Waikato in Hamilton.
- 6-7
December 2019: I organised and chaired the 4th Annual
Australasian Experimental Philosophy Conference at the
University of Waikato in Hamilton. Programme.
- 29
November 2019: I presented on "The Future of
Wellbeing at Tertiary Institutions" at the New
Zealand Tertiary Recreation Conference in Hamilton
today.
- 25 November 2019:
I was
awarded a University of Waikato Strategic Investment
Fund grant for creating a MOOC on happiness
and wellbeing for the FutureLearn platform
(NZ$28,000).
- 19
November 2019: My article on the political
paradox of hedonism (with Lorenzo Buscicchi) was
republished today in the John Watson edited
University of Melbourne Press book, "The
Conversation Yearbook 2019: 50 standout articles
from Australia’s top thinkers". Link to the book. Link to the article.
- 6 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.
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