Well-Being

Question 1

What is the question of Well Being?

Answer 1

What makes someone’s life go well or poorly?

Is it actions, desires, wants… etc…

The question is about what is intrinsically good or bad for a person, not instrumentally good or bad for a person.

Question 2

Intrinsic Value

Answer 2

Intrinsic value: good just for itself, and not in virtue of its ability to bring about some other
form of value.

Examples: avoiding suffering, comfort, learning, health, happiness, satisfaction, achievement… etc

Question 3

Instrumental Value

Answer 3

Good in virtue of its ability to bring about some other form of value.

Examples: money, water, food, education, having a good schedule etc…

Question 4

Two Distinctions

Answer 4

The question of well-being is about what’s good for a person, not what is good overall.
• Totally possible for something to be bad for a person but good for the world overall

The question of well-being is distinct from the question of what makes a person morally good.
• It’s possible for someone to be perfectly morally good but still have a bad life.

Question 5

Two Categories of Well Being Theories

Answer 5

Theories of well-being fall into two categories:
• Subjectivist/psychological: one’s well-being depends on one’s psychological states, like what
one desires, or one’s experience of pleasure or pain.
• Objectivist: one’s well-being does not depend on one’s psychological states.

Question 6

Hedonist Theories

Answer 6

Perhaps the most intuitive view of well-being is hedonism: one is well-off in virtue of the amount
of pleasure they experience, and poorly off in virtue of the amount of displeasure they experience.

More Pleasure and Avoiding Pain

On the simplest version of this view, one’s overall well-being is a function of the overall amount
and intensity of pleasure minus the overall amount and intensity of displeasure (pain, suffering,
etc.).
Advantages of hedonism:
• Intuitive
• Unified
• Makes sense of comparison between different kinds of goods
The most famous, and most vivid, objection to hedonism is Nozick’s experience machine.

Question 7

Preferentialist Theory/ Desire Satisfaction Theory

Answer 7

Preferentialism about well-being: one’s is well-off to the degree that one’s desires are satisfied, and poorly-off to the degree that one’s desires go unsatisfied.

Advantages:
• Also pretty intuitive
• Seems to capture at least some of the reasons we would not plug in to the experience machine.
In the experience machine, many of our desires would go unsatisfied.

Objections:
• Some of our desires involve remote events that seem to have little effect on our well-being.
– Example: I desire that Auburn thrives 1,000 years from now. Obviously, I’ll never find
out whether this desire is satisfied. It seems odd to think that the satisfaction (or lack
thereof) of that desire makes a difference to my well-being.

• Some of our desires are based on false beliefs or bad reasoning.
– Example: suppose I believe that Auburn is north of Atlanta. I want to go to Atlanta,
and therefore I want to go south. Suppose I do go south, so I satisfy my desire. But my
desire was based on a false belief. Presumably my welfare is not increased by satisfying this desire.

• Maybe some of our desires are not worth satisfying!
In sum: maybe it matters which desires are satisfied!