Weijers, D. M. (2020). Teaching well-being/quality of life from a philosophical perspective. In G. H. Tonon (Ed.), Teaching Quality of Life in Different Domains (Vol. 79, pp. 15–42). Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21551-4_2
Abstract
Before academic disciplines were invented, philosophers were teaching their students about the good life. These days, academics from a broad range of disciplines, including philosophy, teach their students about various aspects of well-being or quality of life. This chapter discusses the methods, topics, and perspectives that characterise a philosophical approach to teaching well-being or quality of life, focussing especially on how to create and critique a theory of well-being. While discussing these features of the philosophical approach, key differences with other mainly social scientific approaches to teaching well-being and quality of life will be highlighted. Then the chapter discusses some ideas about how to teach well-being and quality of life in a methodologically informed way, one that enables students to critique the methods used by a range of well-being and quality of life researchers, especially those used by philosophers. The chapter concludes with some suggestions on how to harness the subject matter in a way that creates an engaging undergraduate-level course on well-being and quality of life.
Rights
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.This is the author's accepted version. The final publication is available at Springer via dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21551-4_2
