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The concept of well-being plays a central role in moral and political theory. Policies and actions are justified or criticized on the grounds that they make people better or worse off. But is there really such a thing as well-being, and if so, what is it? Is it pleasure, desire-satisfaction, knowledge, virtue, achievement, some combination of these, or something else entirely? How can we measure well-being, amongst individuals and society? And how can we use it to make moral judgements about people, policies and institutions?In this entertaining and accessible new book, Ben Bradley guides readers through the various philosophical theories of well-being, such as hedonism, perfectionism and pluralism, showing the benefits and drawbacks of each theory. He explores the role of well-being in moral and political theory, and the limitations of welfare-based approaches to ethics such as utilitarianism and welfare egalitarianism. Finally, he introduces puzzles about well-being that arise in moral and prudential deliberations about procreation and death.Well-Being is an ideal introduction to these topics for those with no philosophical background, or for philosophers looking for an overview of current thinking about the subject. Ben Bradleyis Allan and Anita Sutton Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Syracuse University. He is the author of Well-Being and Death(Oxford 2009) and many articles on a variety of topics in moral philosophy.

My aim in this paper is to give an account of such a polysemic term as well-being by hand of three broad and different approaches, which will highlight the scope that the conceptual frame has to define this concept. On the one hand, I will provide a general map of some ethical approaches stemming from the philosophy of mind and the analytical address of emotions, which emphasize the subjective features of well-being, insofar as they shed light over the ties of well-being with the historicity of desire. This fact allows to affirm that the term well-being did not become an issue of social and political interest in all epochs, as it depends on an epochal configuration of subjectivity, which from the XXth century onwards claims that public institutions meet the demands aiming at achieving material satisfaction and at removing every form of exploitation and oppression. On the other hand, I will focus on the standpoint adopted by Martha C. Nussbaum, who urges that democratic societies with a liberal bottom ought to adopt emotions easing to tighten up the civil body. Thus, she argues for making of general well-being a substantive demand of practical rationality. Finally, I will focus on an overlapping approach to the analysis of Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser, who despite their discrepancies about the predominance of recognition or redistribution share the belief that, even if well-being holds strong bounds with subjectivity, to materialize well-being requires that states avow in their policy-making a decided will to remove hunger, poverty, precarity, contempt and the different features of social oppression. Without combining all these dimensions, it will be very difficult to outline a sustainable theory about well-being, conscious of the formal and material dimensions intertwined in the tasks furthering to spread well-being in different societies, all of them framed within a neoliberal culture. ; La valoración de un término intrínsecamente polisémico como es el de bienestar que aquí se propone pretende evidenciar de la mano de tres enfoques suficientemente amplios y dispares la importancia que los presupuestos conceptuales adoptados poseen para la definición del término analizado. Por un lado, presentaré un mapa de los abordajes éticos y cercanos a la filosofía de la mente y a desarrollos analíticos de las emociones que dan cuenta de la dimensión subjetiva imprescindible del bienestar, al visibilizar su conexión con la historicidad del deseo. Esto mismo permite afirmar asimismo que el término bienestar no se vuelve cuestión de interés social y político en cualesquiera épocas, sino que acompaña a una configuración epocal de la subjetividad, que a partir del siglo XX exige la satisfacción con medios públicos de demandas que giran en torno a la consecución universal de una tranquilidad material que facilite la emancipación con respecto a toda forma de explotación y opresión. Por otro lado, me ocuparé de presentar la perspectiva de Martha C. Nussbaum, que aconseja que las sociedades democráticas de fondo liberal adopten ciertas emociones para mejorar la cohesión del cuerpo civil y hacer de la reivindicación de bienestar general una exigencia sustantiva de la racionalidad práctica. Finalmente, me desplazaré a la mirada cruzada de Axel Honneth y Nancy Fraser, pues pone de manifiesto –a pesar de sus discrepancias internas acerca de la prioridad del eje del reconocimiento o de la redistribución– que, a pesar de la intensa vinculación que el bienestar mantiene con la subjetividad de los individuos, su materialización depende palmariamente de la incorporación por parte de los Estados de agendas públicas conscientes de la necesidad de combatir el hambre, la pobreza, la precariedad, el desprecio y las diferentes dimensiones de la opresión social. Sin un enfoque combinado de todas estas dimensiones difícilmente podría configurarse una teoría sostenible acerca del bienestar, consciente de la bipolaridad formal y material de las tareas a las que debe hacer frente con vistas a su materialización social progresiva y efectiva en sociedades diversas, pero igualmente enmarcadas en un marco cultural neoliberal.

Happiness research has dealt with a great number of determinants of well-being but has neglected the effect of war. Wars drastically reduce people's happiness. The large psychic costs of soldiers, the suffering of civilians, and the material destruction are well documented. An important issue for happiness research is how to calculate the forgone well-being of the people killed in war. Wars may also increase happiness by providing shared experiences, raising national pride, and "ennobling" people. "Combat flow" increases an individual soldier's subjective happiness. Deep issues are elicited regarding what type of happiness is legitimate.

Taking into account the relevance subjective well-being has acquired in international research and political agendas in the last decade, this dissertation explores people's judgements and feelings as an essential part of our understanding of well-being in Chile. Subjective well-being is understood as the perception that people have of their own lives and the context in which they are living. That perception includes life satisfaction evaluations, positive and negative feelings and assessments about their social environment. This thesis argues that a broader assessment of well-being in Chile should include subjective well-being analyses, examining people's living conditions beyond the classical macroeconomic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and National Household Incomes. Several studies covering subjective well-being in Chile have demonstrated that Chilean people experience higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness, but they have neglected to explore a wider notion of subjective well-being. In contrast with international evidence focused on psychological subjective well-being and the interactions between people's perceptions and views on their societies, national research still understands subjective well-being as a sum of pleasurable emotions and feelings taking place at an individual level exclusively. Tackling those limitations, this dissertation contributes with a multidimensional subjective well-being analysis underpinned by the Positive Psychology and the Capability Approach and supported by three empirical studies. The first study examines subjective well-being in Chile accounting for the classical hedonic aspect including life satisfaction and happiness, but also involving a eudaimonic component measured by people's freedom of choice and having meaningful lives and purposes. The second study explores how Chileans' subjective well-being might be affected by their perceptions towards their society, accounting for their level of confidence in national political institutions and generalised trust. Finally, the third empirical chapter examines how well-being is impacted by three sets of capabilities related to material living conditions and promoted by Chilean social policy as key aspects for achieving Chileans' well-being. In turn, the results supported that subjective well-being is well reflected by the hedonic dimension, but also by a wider psychological well-being close to human flourishing. People's perceptions towards their social environment showed a higher effect on subjective well-being. Societal matters and social policies might positively or negatively influence people's evaluations and feelings; therefore, the notion of subjective well-being as an individual state should be reviewed, recognising that contextual aspects make a difference. Finally, some core aspects of social policy in Chile such as having access to healthcare, shelter, income and work were revealed to be crucial to achieving well-being, but are not enough for meaningful lives. Moreover, the findings also suggest that those aspects do not have the same relevance for all Chileans, indeed, according to specific demographic and socioeconomic attributes; there are some more relevant than others, supporting evidence for a more focalised national social policy in the future.