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Calling happiness subjective feels weird to me. It's not like "How would you rate The Avengers?", I think asking "How would you rate how you feel at this moment
by snet0 5y ago
Calling happiness subjective feels weird to me. It's not like "How would you rate The Avengers?", I think asking "How would you rate how you feel at this moment?" is asking the subject to measure something objective about their well-being, no? Maybe I'm oversimplifying it.
- ewestern 5y agoI mean, all observations involve a subject. The question is whether there are other subjects that can observe an object and reach consensus about the object. If yes, then, in my view, it's objective. If not, then it's purely subjective. I go for a run most days and my watch asks me how I feel afterward. I don't answer, because I really have no idea whether my "Good" answer one day corresponds to a "Good" answer on another day. Often, it probably doesn't. In my view, talking about subjective well-being is anything but simple.
- cbmuser 5y ago> Calling happiness subjective feels weird to me. It’s subjective because it cannot be universally and independently measured. It’s not possible to measure the happiness of two individuals such that I can compare them against each other quantitatively and define who of the two is happier. I can do that, however, with basically every physical measurement.