ABSTRACT

Hedonic adaptation has come to play a large role in wellbeing studies and in practical philosophy more generally. We argue that hedonic adaptation has been too closely assimilated to sensory adaptation. Sensation and selective attention do indeed play a role in adaptation; but so do judgment, articulation, contextualization and background assumptions, as well as coping strategies and features of one’s social and physical environment. Hence the notion of hedonic adaptation covers not a single uniform phenomenon, but a whole range of different processes and mechanisms. We present a taxonomy of different forms of hedonic adaptation, pointing especially to the importance of coping strategies and socially supported adaptation, which have been overlooked or misdescribed by adaptation theory, but implicitly recognized by empirical research. We further argue that the differences between types adaptive processes have ramifications for normative theories. Adaptation can work both for good and for bad, depending on the psychological and contextual details. Acknowledging the many forms of hedonic adaptation, and the ubiquitous role of mutual adjustments of values, standards of judgment, emotional tendencies, behavior and environmental factors in achieving wellbeing also gives support to a more complex and dynamic view of wellbeing as such.

摘要

享乐适应在福祉研究和更普遍的实践哲学中发挥了重要作用。我们认为，享乐适应与感觉适应过于接近。感觉和选择性注意确实在适应中起作用。但判断、表达、情境化和背景假设，以及应对策略和社会和物理环境的特征也是如此。因此，享乐适应的概念涵盖的不是单一的统一现象，而是一系列不同的过程和机制。我们对不同形式的享乐适应进行了分类，特别指出了应对策略和社会支持适应的重要性，这些适应理论已被忽视或错误描述，但经验研究却隐含地承认了这些。我们进一步认为，适应过程类型之间的差异对规范理论有影响。适应可能有好有坏，这取决于心理和背景细节。承认多种形式的享乐适应，以及相互调整价值观、判断标准、情绪倾向、行为和环境因素在实现幸福方面的普遍作用，也支持了对幸福本身更复杂和动态的看法。