Alumni

My research looks at how money, wealth and material goods affect our happiness, well-being and our ability to lead The Good Life. We can start unpacking these concepts with a ‘Eulogy Test’. So imagine you are attending your own wake and people are discussing how you led your life and are trying to describe and characterise it in some measure.

What would they be discussing? Perhaps someone attending describes you as a person with a sunny temperament. This reflection on your cheery disposition might ascribe you happiness. Another person states that you enjoyed playing rugby all of your life. Describing your deep and abiding lifelong enjoyment and engagement in rugby might ascribe to you a high degree of well-being; because you lead a life that was good for you personally. Yet another person might mention that you volunteered coaching juniors at the rugby club. This ongoing benevolence and the satisfaction you derived from it might ascribe you The Good Life (an objectively choice-worthy life that is both morally good and involves well-being). 

Now consider the case of someone you know as an Economic Materialist – the type of person that considers acquiring and owning possessions is a core life goal, fundamental to their happiness and who judges success by the money, wealth and material goods they and others own.

The central question I ask in my research is can materialists have all, none or some combination of happiness, well-being and The Good Life?

We all have to negotiate the place of money, wealth and material goods in our lives. It is absolutely vital to know if these things may preclude, diminish or even augment our personal psychological happiness, well-being and/or the ability to lead The Good Life. If focusing on money, wealth and material goods did not make us happy in the psychological sense in any enduring way (because adaption rapidly reduces happiness from material purchases), but could provide us well-being (by facilitating projects and interests that authentically resonated), then economic materialism could add to your well-being. You should not, however, expect lasting happiness from materialistic pursuits.

Contrary to popular opinion, happiness may actually be overrated. Think about a person who derives enormous pleasure from hurting others. They might be happy but are they well? More conventionally, most of us know someone who does not seem happy, but otherwise enjoys satisfying life pursuits like poetry or art. While not swinging around a lamppost like Gene Kelly, they nevertheless have meaningful lives.

People often argue for and against a concept like happiness and really mean another. Interestingly, even self-reports of happiness may be radically arbitrary and unreliable. Consider one experiment where people are asked to rate their happiness on a scale of 10. Subjects primed by researchers to find a small amount of money before giving their self-report scored themselves 2 points higher than the average. Is happiness then enduring or radically malleable?

Privilege, money, wealth and material goods could make you very happy in the psychological sense but ultimately undermine The Good Life. Economic materialism could undermine virtue by encouraging unscrupulous behaviour or leading you into mistaking a means (money, wealth and material goods as instrumental goods) for the ends in life (intrinsic goods).

Being able to distinguish between happiness, well-being and The Good Life seems integral to being able to make choices leading to better lives and flourishing. People often either see money, wealth and material goods as pretty bad or pretty good. What is emerging so far in my research is a nuanced picture that suggests that there are intelligent and wise ways to use money, say by only drinking your favourite beer once a week rather than every night, and ways likely to lead to dissatisfaction.

I came to UWA later in life having left school early to do an apprenticeship in the building industry, followed by working and travelling for twenty years. Growing up, UWA always seemed almost a mythological place. The people I met from UWA typically had a quiet and unstated confidence which was very appealing.

My personal connection with UWA started in 2004 when I started a Bachelor of Arts degree fulltime as a mature aged student. Like most mature aged students, I definitely enjoyed being grossly over-prepared for my lectures and tutes, and generally overfamiliar with my lecturers. My undergraduate majors were Philosophy and Ancient History, and I’ve enjoyed a deep and abiding passion for philosophy since arriving at UWA. This, I attribute to the amazing lecturers and courses available. I think the Humanities are becoming increasingly important and complimentary to the ever more specialised nature of tertiary study; as a way of learning critical thinking and intelligently pursuing wisdom.

UWA, to me, is a place where you can definitely have an intellectual awakening. It is an amazing environment, a place of intellectual challenge and ferment where ideas flourish and views are mostly questioned with robust civility. A place, unlike many modern workplaces or politics where people can disagree without being disagreeable, look for light and not heat, and weigh arguments in the purpose of truth, rather than winning.

I’m definitely grateful to UWA, and my supervisor Professor Michael Levine, for the chance to pursue such an interesting topic and the flexibility to study part-time and stay engaged.