On the Philosophical Implications of Empirical Research on Happiness

摘要

Other empirical researchers (not in psychology) have made similar claims. [...] the distinguished British economist Richard Layard has cited empirical research (by a psychologist at Wisconsin) that, according to Layard, shows not only that happiness is "real," but that it is an objective phenomenon open to legitimate measurement and interpersonal comparison.3 Since it would bear on a widely discussed objection to utilitarianism, that would be another case in which empirical research has philosophical implications.