Title: When Machines Make Your Mind Up: Well-Being and Authenticity
By Frederick Choo (Rutgers, Philosophy)
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026
Time: 1530-1700
Room: Humanities Seminar Room (H232)
Abstract: According to desire-satisfactionism, welfare consists in the satisfaction of one’s desires. However, this view faces the problem of desire-inducing mechanisms. Often, it seems problematic to hold that we should create new desires (or alter existing desires) in order to have more satisfied desires. Desire-satisfactionism struggles to account for this.This talk has two goals. First, I argue that the problem of desire-inducing mechanisms is just an instance of a more general problem that all theories of well-being face. Second, to address the problem, I propose that theories of well-being should factor in the authenticity of a subject’s psychology. I develop this view by advancing a new account of what it is to have an authentic psychology.
About the speaker: Frederick Choo is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Rutgers University. His main research project focuses on well-being. In particular, he works on (a) defending and developing subjectivist theories of well-being, (b) developing an account of authenticity and incorporating it into welfare theories, and (c) examining the relationship between momentary well-being and lifetime well-being. His work has appeared in journals such as Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Erkenntnis, American Philosophical Quarterly, and Synthese.
Organized by the Department of Philosophy