title: The nature, value and paradoxes of pleasure

authors: Buscicchi, Lorenzo

subjects: Pleasure

abstract: This thesis addresses some of the most important objections to Prudential Hedonism. Prudential Hedonism is a theory of wellbeing⎯the good life for the one living it. Substantively, Prudential Hedonism consists in the claim that pleasure is the only intrinsic prudential good for the subject’s life and pain the opposite. Formally, Prudential Hedonism claims that pleasantness and painfulness are respectively the only prudential value- and disvalue-makers. In Part 1, philosophy of mind, phenomenology and neuroscientific evidence are employed to investigate pleasure’s nature. Normative claims about pleasure have been rejected for lacking a convincing account of what unifies diverse pleasures while still making them good for the one experiencing them. In this Part, I criticise some recent attempts to define pleasure and argue that Non-separatist Phenomenalism––a new theory according to which pleasure is best described as a feeling that might contribute to an experience showing intentionality—is the most plausible theory of pleasure, and one that addresses the extant criticisms. In Part 2, the experimental philosophy on experience machine thought experiments is discussed. These thought experiments are addressed because for decades most philosophers have considered them a knock-down argument against Prudential Hedonism. However, in the last decade, the tides have turned and the strength of these thought-experiments in showing Prudential Hedonism’s falsity has been re-considered. This sea-change is thanks mainly to insights descending from an experimental method. The most recent attempt to revive the experience machine objection to Prudential Hedonism, the Experientially Identical Lifetime Comparison Argument, is considered and dismissed. It does avoid some of the issues raised by the experimental philosophy, but it suffers from a structural problem—the Freebie Problem. This problem is a structural issue that occurs when an argument effectively creates a false choice by unfairly making it irrational to choose one of the options. As such, Part 2 concludes that the experience machine thought experiments, including the more recent versions of them, do not prove the falsity of Prudential Hedonism. In Part 3, the literature on the paradoxical effects of pursuing happiness is critiqued. Philosophical reasoning and psychological evidence are employed to conceptualise the most plausible description and explanation of the Paradox of Hedonism and to identify strategies to avoid Prudential Hedonism’s potential self-defeatingness. A political version of the paradox is also considered, but the Political Paradox of Happiness is rejected as an objection to Hedonistic Utilitarianism and the politics of happiness. Part 3 concludes that the Paradox of Hedonism constitutes a contingent practical problem with no damaging implications for the theory of Prudential Hedonism on an individual or political level. Overall, this thesis concludes that pleasure and pain are still plausible candidates to be, respectively, the intrinsic prudential value and disvalue of a theory of wellbeing. This might have important implications, for example, for some of the latest developments in psychology and public policy that involve the promotion of people’s pleasure.

text: The nature, value and paradoxes of pleasure This thesis addresses some of the most important objections to Prudential Hedonism. Prudential Hedonism is a theory of wellbeing⎯the good life for the one living it. Substantively, Prudential Hedonism consists in the claim that pleasure is the only intrinsic prudential good for the subject’s life and pain the opposite. Formally, Prudential Hedonism claims that pleasantness and painfulness are respectively the only prudential value- and disvalue-makers. In Part 1, philosophy of mind, phenomenology and neuroscientific evidence are employed to investigate pleasure’s nature. Normative claims about pleasure have been rejected for lacking a convincing account of what unifies diverse pleasures while still making them good for the one experiencing them. In this Part, I criticise some recent attempts to define pleasure and argue that Non-separatist Phenomenalism––a new theory according to which pleasure is best described as a feeling that might contribute to an experience showing intentionality—is the most plausible theory of pleasure, and one that addresses the extant criticisms. In Part 2, the experimental philosophy on experience machine thought experiments is discussed. These thought experiments are addressed because for decades most philosophers have considered them a knock-down argument against Prudential Hedonism. However, in the last decade, the tides have turned and the strength of these thought-experiments in showing Prudential Hedonism’s falsity has been re-considered. This sea-change is thanks mainly to insights descending from an experimental method. The most recent attempt to revive the experience machine objection to Prudential Hedonism, the Experientially Identical Lifetime Comparison Argument, is considered and dismissed. It does avoid some of the issues raised by the experimental philosophy, but it suffers from a structural problem—the Freebie Problem. This problem is a structural issue that occurs when an argument effectively creates a false choice by unfairly making it irrational to choose one of the options. As such, Part 2 concludes that the experience machine thought experiments, including the more recent versions of them, do not prove the falsity of Prudential Hedonism. In Part 3, the literature on the paradoxical effects of pursuing happiness is critiqued. Philosophical reasoning and psychological evidence are employed to conceptualise the most plausible description and explanation of the Paradox of Hedonism and to identify strategies to avoid Prudential Hedonism’s potential self-defeatingness. A political version of the paradox is also considered, but the Political Paradox of Happiness is rejected as an objection to Hedonistic Utilitarianism and the politics of happiness. Part 3 concludes that the Paradox of Hedonism constitutes a contingent practical problem with no damaging implications for the theory of Prudential Hedonism on an individual or political level. Overall, this thesis concludes that pleasure and pain are still plausible candidates to be, respectively, the intrinsic prudential value and disvalue of a theory of wellbeing. This might have important implications, for example, for some of the latest developments in psychology and public policy that involve the promotion of people’s pleasure.

year: 2021

title: Smallholder sugarcane growers, indigenous technical knowledge, and the sugar industry crisis in Fiji

authors: Dean, Mohseen Riaz Ud

subjects: Smallholder

abstract: This is a cross-disciplinary study that draws upon the agronomic, ecological, and social sciences to analyse the current crisis facing the sugar industry in Fiji. Its particular focus is the livelihood crisis facing the smallholder sugarcane growers, and it explores the potential of their local and traditional farming knowledge as a source of solutions for both crises. It argues, however, that present proposals for reforming the sugar industry in Fiji are wedded to the industrial agricultural paradigm and a globalized corporate food regime that is the source of the problems it currently faces and which threatens the future of the smallholder sugarcane farming system along with its local traditional knowledge. The thesis draws inspiration from Agroecology as an agricultural paradigm alternative to the conventional industrial paradigm to advocate for greater attention to be given to smallholder sugarcane growers and their local and traditional farming knowledge in seeking solutions to the crisis of the sugar industry in Fiji.

To explore these complex issues, the thesis adopts a cross-disciplinary, mixed-method approach. Participant observation, focus group discussions, and informal interviews with smallholder sugarcane farmers were used to elicit their views, feeling, thoughts and opinions on the Fiji sugar industry, their relationships with other sugar industry actors, and their own indigenous technical knowledge. Livelihood survey methods and agroecosystem analysis were used to gather quantitative data on household and farm status. This information was analysed using IBM® Social Science software: Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft® Office Excel Spreadsheet, to provide an up-to-date profile of livelihood and farming situation of smallholder sugarcane growers. Semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders were used to identify the agricultural problems and socio-economic issues facing the industry and their differing views on the solutions proposed to solve them. Archival material was used to obtain information on past efforts of the sugar industry to develop solutions to problems at the local, national and international levels, and existing academic literature was reviewed for additional information on the contemporary situation of the smallholder sugarcane growers and the Fiji sugar industry as a whole.

text: Smallholder sugarcane growers, indigenous technical knowledge, and the sugar industry crisis in Fiji This is a cross-disciplinary study that draws upon the agronomic, ecological, and social sciences to analyse the current crisis facing the sugar industry in Fiji. Its particular focus is the livelihood crisis facing the smallholder sugarcane growers, and it explores the potential of their local and traditional farming knowledge as a source of solutions for both crises. It argues, however, that present proposals for reforming the sugar industry in Fiji are wedded to the industrial agricultural paradigm and a globalized corporate food regime that is the source of the problems it currently faces and which threatens the future of the smallholder sugarcane farming system along with its local traditional knowledge. The thesis draws inspiration from Agroecology as an agricultural paradigm alternative to the conventional industrial paradigm to advocate for greater attention to be given to smallholder sugarcane growers and their local and traditional farming knowledge in seeking solutions to the crisis of the sugar industry in Fiji.

To explore these complex issues, the thesis adopts a cross-disciplinary, mixed-method approach. Participant observation, focus group discussions, and informal interviews with smallholder sugarcane farmers were used to elicit their views, feeling, thoughts and opinions on the Fiji sugar industry, their relationships with other sugar industry actors, and their own indigenous technical knowledge. Livelihood survey methods and agroecosystem analysis were used to gather quantitative data on household and farm status. This information was analysed using IBM® Social Science software: Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft® Office Excel Spreadsheet, to provide an up-to-date profile of livelihood and farming situation of smallholder sugarcane growers. Semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders were used to identify the agricultural problems and socio-economic issues facing the industry and their differing views on the solutions proposed to solve them. Archival material was used to obtain information on past efforts of the sugar industry to develop solutions to problems at the local, national and international levels, and existing academic literature was reviewed for additional information on the contemporary situation of the smallholder sugarcane growers and the Fiji sugar industry as a whole.

year: 2019

title: Pākehā counsellors consider their positioning: Towards postcolonial praxis

authors: Crocket, Alastair Robert

subjects: Counselling

abstract: The challenges of achieving the potential, which the Treaty of Waitangi offers for a postcolonial present and future, have shaped life in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last four decades. This thesis draws on this history and challenge to consider the practice possibilities for Pākehā counsellors when they work with clients and colleagues of other cultures. It is strongly influenced by the Treaty of Waitangi but seeks not to be limited to a Māori/Pākehā binary. It has been undertaken in the hopes of informing developments in the practice of students seeking to qualify to work as counsellors and more experienced practitioners. The first theoretical foundation for this study is poststructuralism which is considered as a braided stream of theorizing where braids divide and unite. A Foucauldian social constructionism underlies this project, which extends to a consideration of subjectification, agency and positioning theory. This study is also intentionally postcolonial drawing on Said’s seminal works, Orientalism (1979) and Culture and Imperialism (1993) and North American and European writing about identity politics and intersectionality. It views the centring of the Treaty of Waitangi in this land as postcolonial work. These two emphases, poststructuralism and postcolonialism, provide the theoretical base for an exploration of the context of professional counselling practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Five experienced counsellors constituted a research group who firstly discussed practising as a Pākehā counsellor and then acknowledged their hopes and fears for their practice with clients of other cultures. In later stages of the data generation the participants were invited to join in processes of discourse analysis and deconstruction which produced shifts in practice and practice identity. This study identifies two forms of praxis that might inform a counselling practice which seeks to achieve a postcolonial purpose: these are named as critical discursive praxis and critical Pākehā praxis.

text: Pākehā counsellors consider their positioning: Towards postcolonial praxis The challenges of achieving the potential, which the Treaty of Waitangi offers for a postcolonial present and future, have shaped life in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last four decades. This thesis draws on this history and challenge to consider the practice possibilities for Pākehā counsellors when they work with clients and colleagues of other cultures. It is strongly influenced by the Treaty of Waitangi but seeks not to be limited to a Māori/Pākehā binary. It has been undertaken in the hopes of informing developments in the practice of students seeking to qualify to work as counsellors and more experienced practitioners. The first theoretical foundation for this study is poststructuralism which is considered as a braided stream of theorizing where braids divide and unite. A Foucauldian social constructionism underlies this project, which extends to a consideration of subjectification, agency and positioning theory. This study is also intentionally postcolonial drawing on Said’s seminal works, Orientalism (1979) and Culture and Imperialism (1993) and North American and European writing about identity politics and intersectionality. It views the centring of the Treaty of Waitangi in this land as postcolonial work. These two emphases, poststructuralism and postcolonialism, provide the theoretical base for an exploration of the context of professional counselling practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. Five experienced counsellors constituted a research group who firstly discussed practising as a Pākehā counsellor and then acknowledged their hopes and fears for their practice with clients of other cultures. In later stages of the data generation the participants were invited to join in processes of discourse analysis and deconstruction which produced shifts in practice and practice identity. This study identifies two forms of praxis that might inform a counselling practice which seeks to achieve a postcolonial purpose: these are named as critical discursive praxis and critical Pākehā praxis.

year: 2010