The 
Center "Leo Apostel" in collaboration
with the Doctoral Programme of the VUB, invites everybody to the 25th of
its interdisciplinary seminars in the series "Foundations". In
this series CLEA invites scholars that are actively engaged in the research
on the foundations of a particular discipline. Their lectures will always
be directed to an interdisciplinary audience, and the discussions aim at
confronting the foundations of the different disciplines.
(Department of Social Sciences, Erasmus University of Rotterdam and University of Utrecht, The Netherlands)
17 October 1997 at 5 p.m. in room 5B407, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Campus Oefenplein .
One of the aims of social policy is to create greater happiness for a greater number of people. Realization of that ambition requires an understanding of happiness. The following questions must be answered: 1) What is happiness? 2) Can happiness be measured?, 3) How happy are we?, 4) What causes differences in happiness? 5) Can happiness be raised lastingly? Through the ages social philosophers have speculated about these issues. During the last decades the questions have been subject of much empirical research, as catalogued in the "World Database of Happiness". This lecture takes stock of the answers.
It turns out that happiness can be measured quite reliably through questionnaires which ask people how satisfied they are with their life, and that the results are relatively independent of cultural or linguistic biases. People, at least in the more developed nations, are generally quite satisfied. Happiness depends on socio-economic factors, such as wealth, political freedom, social equality and access to knowledge, and on personal factors, such as education level, intimate ties, physical and mental health, assertiveness, empathy and openness to experience. Since many of these factors can be changed for the better, it seems that happiness can effectively be increased.
Ruut Veenhoven (1942) studied sociology. He was much involved in social psychology and social sexology. Currently he is associate professor of sociology at Erasmus University of Rotterdam and professor of Humanism at the University of Utrecht. His current research is on quality-of-life, in particular comparative research on satisfaction with life.
One of his projects is the 'World Database of Happiness', a register
of scientific research on life-satisfaction. The database involves four
components: 1. Bibliography of Happiness: contemporary studies on subjective
appreciation of life; 2. Catalogue of happiness in Nations: results of
representative surveys on subjective appreciation of life in nations since
1946; 3. Catalogue of Happiness Correlates; 4. Directory of Happiness Investigators.
It is available in books and as computer files (see http://www.eur.nl/fsw/soc/happiness.html).
The presentations with questions will last about an hour. Afterwards, an hour or more is reserved for an in-depth, group discussion of the topic.