WellBeing Flashcards
What is moral responsibility?
Accountability for one’s actions and their moral implications
Moral responsibility involves the ethical obligation to act correctly and the consequences of failing to do so.
What is causal responsibility?
The relationship between an action and its consequences
Causal responsibility refers to the direct link between an individual’s actions and the outcomes that result from those actions.
What is intrinsic value?
Good just for itself, not for its ability to bring about other value
Examples include happiness, love, or fulfillment that are valued without regard to external benefits.
What is instrumental value?
Good in virtue of its ability to bring about some other form of value
An example could be money, which is valued for what it can provide rather than for its own sake.
What does the question of well-being focus on?
What is intrinsically good or bad for a person
This question does not concern what is good overall, but rather what contributes to an individual’s personal welfare.
True or False: Something can be bad for a person but good for the world overall.
True
This indicates that personal well-being can differ from general societal benefits.
How is the question of well-being distinct from moral goodness?
A person can be morally good but still have a bad life
This distinction emphasizes that moral virtue does not guarantee personal happiness or well-being.
What are the two categories of theories of well-being?
- Subjectivist/psychological
- Objectivist
These categories differentiate between theories based on psychological states and those that do not rely on them.
What is hedonism in the context of well-being?
One is well-off based on the amount of pleasure experienced and poorly off based on the amount of displeasure experienced
Hedonism posits that pleasure is the highest good and the primary measure of well-being.
What is the basic view of well-being in hedonism?
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).
What are the advantages of hedonism?
Hedonism is intuitive, unified, and makes sense of comparison between different kinds of goods.
What is Nozick’s experience machine?
It is a thought experiment that serves as a famous objection to hedonism.
What does Nozick’s experience machine aim to show?
It questions whether hedonism adequately accounts for well-being.
What are preferentialist theories?
Also called desire-satisfaction theories, they posit that one’s well-being is determined by the satisfaction of one’s desires.
What is the principle of preferentialism about well-being?
One is well-off to the degree that one’s desires are satisfied and poorly-off to the degree that one’s desires go unsatisfied.
What are the advantages of preferentialist theories?
They are intuitive and capture reasons for not plugging into the experience machine.
What is a key objection to preferentialist theories?
Some desires involve remote events that have little effect on well-being.
Provide an example of a remote desire.
Desiring that Auburn thrives 1,000 years from now, which one will never find out if satisfied.
What is another objection to preferentialist theories?
Some desires are based on false beliefs or bad reasoning.
Give an example of a desire based on a false belief.
Wanting to go south to reach Atlanta because of the false belief that Auburn is north of Atlanta.
What is a potential issue with satisfying certain desires?
Some desires may not be worth satisfying.
What is liberalism in the context of desire satisfaction?
The view that the state shouldn’t take a stance on the good and should allow citizens to pursue the satisfaction of their desires.
What implication does the worth of desires have?
It raises questions about whether the state should facilitate the satisfaction of any desire a citizen might have.
