The Role of Well-Being

Abstract

‘Well-being’ signifies the good life, the life which is good for the person whose life it is. I defend and slightly modify my view of well-being, as a wholehearted and successful pursuit of valuable relationships and goals, The chapter considers the role of well-being in practical thought: in particular, a suggestion that when we care about people, and when we ought to care about people, what we do, or ought to, care about is their well-being, regardless of who cares and who is cared for. People may care, perhaps ought to care, about themselves, and about people with whom they have, or ought to have special bonds, and about other people generally. The chapter argues that the suggestion is misleading: the role of well-being in both personal and ethical life is much more nuanced and more modest.