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This first volume has as its main focus the philosophical foundations of Michalos’ work and describes it in the broad context of the study of logic, the philosophy of social sciences, and a general theory of value. After distinguishing things that have value from the value that things might have, it describes the foundations of a pragmatic theory of value. This theory plays a key role in the author’s research on the quality of life and connects his empirical research to the philosophical tradition of the American pragmatists William James, Ralph Barton Perry, John Dewey and Clarence Irving Lewis. The volume addresses various aspects and issues concerning decision making, including decision procedures used in committees, used for assessing the acceptability of scientific theories and new technologies, procedures for a science court, ethical issues involved in the formation of beliefs, some limitations of classical economists’ alleged postulates of rational preference, and the importance of analytic guides to decision making. Finally, it describes the organization of the Social Sciences Federation of Canada and a formal accounting system for scientific research.
This volume connects aspects of personal health, overall well-being, and education to quality of life. It includes discussions of Galen’s and Harvey’s views of the movement of blood in human bodies, and differences in the research traditions of social indicators research and health-related quality of life research. It examines determinants of health and quality of life in a variety of populations, including the residents of the Bella Coola Valley of British Columbia, aboriginal residential school survivors in Canada, and diabetics versus non-diabetics. It describes relations between health survey and patients’ medical chart reviews, the health and quality of life of older people, and the difference between good health and a good life. Other topics explored are student quality of life, comparisons of the quality of life of students, aboriginal and unemployed people, the impact of education on happiness and well-being, and liberal education. In addition, the volume presents Einstein’s views of ethics and science, and unacknowledged authorship in scholarly publications. The final chapter gives a historical review of quality of life research in Canada over the past fifty years.
This set of four volumes represents 50 years of research on the quality of life conducted by Alex C. Michalos. It brings together and puts into a historical context the selected works that reflect the author’s main goal of improving the quality of life for the planet’s current and future inhabitants by means of sound scientific and philosophic research, and public policy making. The set describes his journey through the disciplines of Philosophy, Business Ethics, and Public Policy, to the field of Quality of Life, Life Satisfaction and Happiness. It shows how, from the late 1960s to today, scholars around the world picked up the ancient Greeks’ question of the nature of a good life or life of a good quality, and created an extensive research network exploring new answers, new methods of asking the question, and new ways of analysing answers. Finally, it makes clear that one of the most important and most frequently neglected features of this research field is the simple fact that while the phrase ‘quality of life’ has become researchers’ focus of attention, our lives have as many qualities as there are perspectives from which they are viewed.
The focus of this volume is on the further development of the Quality of Life Theory and the means to measure the concept. The volume summarizes Michalos’ fundamental assumptions about the nature of quality of life or human well-being and explains in detail the two variable theory of the quality of life. It gives an update of the journal Social Indicators Research after forty years, an explanation of the role of community indicators in connecting communities, and a critical review of the much publicized Stiglitz, Sen and Fitoussi report. It deals with the multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), the empirical theory designed to provide the foundation of the pragmatic theory of value. Other con...
Since initiating the journal Social Indicators Research in 1974, Alex C. Michalos has been a pioneer in social indicators and quality-of-life research. This collection of nineteen articles provides an overview of nearly 30 years of work, including papers drawn from diverse sources and papers never published before. The final paper, on multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), is the author's unique contribution to an empirically testable new foundation for theories of utility, satisfaction and happiness.
The aim of the Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research is to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century that can be updated and improved upon as the field evolves and the century unfolds. Social indicators are statistical time series “...used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change”. Examples include unemployment rates, crime rates, estimates of life expectancy, health status indices, school enrollment rates, average achievement scores, election voting rates, and measures of subjective well-being such as satisfaction with life-as...
For readers who intend to read this volume without reading the ftrst, some introductory remarks are in order about the scope of the work and the strategy used in all ftve volumes to measure the quality of life. In the ftrst chapter of Volume I, I reviewed the relevant recent literature on social indicators and social reporting, and explained all the general difficulties involved in such work. It would be redundant to repeat that discussion here, but there are some fundamental points that are worth mentioning. Readers who fmd this account too brief should consult the longer discussion. The basic question that will be answered in this work in this: Is there a difference in the quality of life in Canada and the United States of America, and if so, in which country is it better? Alternatively, one could put the question thus: If one individual were randomly selected out of Canada and another out of the United States, would there be important qualitative differences, and if so, which one would probably be better off? To simplify matters, I often use the terms 'Canadian' and 'American' as abbreviations for 'a randomly selected resident' of Canada or the United States, respectively.
This book honors the work of Ruut Veenhoven, who has been a pioneer and leader in the field of happiness studies for the past 50 years. It brings together experts in the field discussing Veenhoven’s work as well as taking up themes from his workshops over the years to analyze how and where the field has expanded following his research. Veenhoven’s contributions include developing theories and measuring instruments, creating the world’s first and largest database of happiness research, founding the world’s first and most frequently cited Journal of Happiness Studies, and student development in and popularization of the field of happiness studies. He has extensive publications through the International Sociological Association and the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, and the research field of happiness studies would not have become as broad today without his enormous contributions. Friends and former students of Veenhoven provide both academic and anecdotal discussions in this festschrift, which is important for anyone interested in the development of happiness research.