Well-Being

Canonical definition

Well-Being is the condition of a life in which Freedom holds across contexts and over time: Appetites are securely regulated, Intrinsic Motivation can reliably lead, and Mimetic pressures are present but bounded, so that what the Individual does is dictated neither by deprivation nor by status panic. Because the three sources terminate differently, holding the condition over time asks for continuing provision for A, whose deficits recur; continuing restraint of M, whose channel has no self-regulating feedback; and protection of its domains, and supply of I-enabling Objects to functional adequacy, for I, whose engagement sustains itself once its domains are protected and its enabling Objects are adequate. The test is the counterfactual that tests Coercion, applied across time: an Individual's condition is one of Well-Being where securing the A-Floor, protecting the I-domains and bounding Mimetic pressure would not change what that Individual's choices tend toward. Self-report cannot certify Well-Being, so Well-Being is inferred from Behavioural Signatures.