Quality of Life

Introduction

In this brief essay an attempt will be made to define what is meant by the term ‘quality of life´. Additionally, this paper will also briefly examine the approaches to well-being, and also look into the most popular methods used to measure the quality of life. In studying the measurability of quality of life, the Swedish model for assessment of quality of life will also be briefly explored.

Defining quality of life

It is not easy to define the term quality-of-life. The term can be defined in the terms of financial or economic well-being , or it can be defined as citizenship rights and freedoms. It can also be defined as political empowerment, or in terms of human relations. Distributive justice in a society can also be used to define the concept. It can also be a measure of the health indicators and social capital in a society. It could be concerned with everything and anything under the sun that is determinant of the quality of lives people live. In order to determine the type of lives people live one has to understand the multitude of activities they are involved in. The problem of defining quality of life is aggravated by the complexities of life itself and it becomes very difficult to determine reliable indicators of quality of life (Nussbaum & Sen 1993).

Quality of life is an all inclusive notion of life and living (Szalai 1980). In the literature one finds that the quality of life may also mean to include the ‘style of living´ . Style of living means the broad notion of the culture of living. In the words of Taylor it includes, ‘the complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society´ (Taylor 1898, Vol. I. p.1). In short, quality of life can be defined ‘as the individual´s state of life as reflected in his levels of needs and satisfactions vis-à-vis his environment´ (Onyemelukwe 1981, p. 75).

APPROACHES TO THE MEASUREMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE

This section briefly examines the philosophical foundation of the concept of quality of life.

Utilitarianism

‘Tracing the stream of Utilitarian thought from its sources, we may start with Hobbes (Leviathan 1651), whose fundamental ethical axiom is that right conduct is that which promotes our own welfare; and the social code of morals depends for its justification on whether or not it serves the wellbeing of those who observe it´. The basis of the philosophy of Utilitarianism is the principle of utility. Utility means the ability of an action to provide pleasure to individuals and its ability to please maximum number of people i.e. achieving the greatest good for the greatest number. The utility of any action, therefore, is determined on the criterion of the minimisation of pain and maximisation of pleasure resulting from it to the maximum number of people.

Most utilitarian theories try to blend the scientific and the moralistic aspects of the government policies. The efforts of the utilitarian philosophers are guided by empirical investigation, hedonism i.e. subjective pursuit of anything bringing any kind of pleasure, and liberal thought on political affairs. The evaluation is to be based on felicific calculus i.e. a way of measuring pleasure and pain to determine the overall pleasure-pain relationship of an action in its constituency as a whole. By this felicific calculus, it was argued, that legislators and government officials will be able to tell whether a particular action will or will not be beneficial to the general public in terms of end results.

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Therefore if the quality of life is measured in the utilitarian tradition then the basis of such measurement is utility. The policy that provides utility to maximum number of people will be deemed to improve the overall quality of all and vice versa. In the words of one of its most distinguished advocates, John Stuart Mill, ‘the creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, utility or the greatest happiness principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure and ...

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