Does Quality of Life Have to be Quantified?

Abstract

It is argued that quality of life is primarily a matter of aesthetics and that aesthetics has been ignored in the process we call "development". It is further argued that the aesthetic function has two complementary aspects: the creative and the recreative. The creative subfunction is to provide inspiration, the desire for and commitment to pursuit of ideals; the recreative subfunction is to provide satisfaction during this pursuit. The latter is based on stylistic (non-efficiency related) preferences among ways of doing things. Measurement of progress towards ideals and of stylistic satisfaction, though helpful, is not essential to development planning. It is argued that participative planning that begins with design of an ideal-state can provide those involved with an opportunity to incorporate both their ideals and their stylistic preferences into designs of the future and development of ways of bringing it about.