What are the main theories of well-being?

The three standard families, following Parfit, are hedonism (well-being is pleasant experience), desire-satisfaction theories (well-being is getting what one wants), and objective-list theories (well-being consists in possessing certain goods such as knowledge, friendship, and achievement).

What does the experience machine show?

Nozick's experience machine is meant to show that most people would decline a life of guaranteed pleasant experiences detached from reality, suggesting that well-being involves more than pleasure, contrary to hedonism.

Theories of Wellbeing

Theories of well-being give competing accounts of what makes a person's life go well for that person, the central category of prudential value in ethics.

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Definition

A theory of well-being specifies what is non-instrumentally good or bad for a person, that is, what makes that person's life go well or badly for them, as distinct from what is morally good or aesthetically valuable.

Scope

This topic covers the principal theories of prudential value or well-being: hedonism, desire-satisfaction theories, and objective-list theories, together with Parfit's influential taxonomy and the test cases used to adjudicate among them. Well-being is the good-for-a-person that consequentialism aims to promote and that grounds eudaimonist accounts of flourishing.

Core questions

What makes a person's life go well for that person?
Is well-being constituted by pleasant experience, satisfied desire, or the possession of objective goods?
Can a person be mistaken about what is good for them?
How are competing theories of well-being to be tested against intuitive cases?

Key theories

Parfit's threefold taxonomy: Parfit's influential division of theories of well-being into hedonistic theories, desire-fulfilment theories, and objective-list theories, which has organized subsequent debate.
Informed-desire and objective theories: Griffin's informed-desire account, on which well-being consists in the satisfaction of desires one would have when fully informed, alongside objective-list views identifying a plurality of prudential goods.

History

Classical hedonism treated well-being as pleasure, a view inherited by utilitarianism. Parfit (1984) reframed the field with his threefold taxonomy, and the late twentieth century saw sophisticated defences of desire-based views by Griffin (1986) and of authentic-happiness theories by Sumner (1996), alongside renewed interest in objective-list accounts.

Debates

The experience-machine objection: Nozick's thought experiment, in which one could plug into a machine giving any desired experiences, is widely taken to refute hedonism by showing that we value more than pleasant experience.
Subjectivism vs. objectivism about welfare: Whether well-being depends constitutively on a person's own attitudes or includes goods that benefit a person regardless of their attitudes divides desire-based and objective-list theorists.

Key figures

Derek Parfit
James Griffin
L. W. Sumner
Richard Kraut

Seminal works

parfit1984
griffin1986
sumner1996

Frequently asked questions

What are the main theories of well-being?: The three standard families, following Parfit, are hedonism (well-being is pleasant experience), desire-satisfaction theories (well-being is getting what one wants), and objective-list theories (well-being consists in possessing certain goods such as knowledge, friendship, and achievement).
What does the experience machine show?: Nozick's experience machine is meant to show that most people would decline a life of guaranteed pleasant experiences detached from reality, suggesting that well-being involves more than pleasure, contrary to hedonism.