Psychological Richness and the Good Life

What makes for a good life? When we think of a good life, most of us tend to think about feelings of happiness, or maybe about living a life with meaning and purpose. We don’t often think about interesting experiences as contributing to the good life, but perhaps we should. Interesting experiences contribute to what we can describe as a “psychologically rich life”. In this presentation, philosopher Lorraine Besser will explore the concept of psychological richness and discuss recent empirical research affirming it as a dimension of the good life.

GUEST SPEAKER:
Lorraine Besser is a professor of philosophy at Middlebury College. Before joining the Philosophy Department at Middlebury College, she held positions at the University of Waterloo and Stanford University. Professor Besser’s primary area of research is moral psychology. She is particularly interested in the topics of happiness and well-being and her work frequently draws on psychological and neuroscientific research on these themes. Her most recent book is The Philosophy of Happiness: An Interdisciplinary Introduction published in 2021.