Most of us, at some time, ask ourselves whether our lives are going well; or whether some key decision or pivotal event, was in the end good or bad for us, all things considered. At the heart of such questions are the notions of well-being and prudential value, whose importance is increasingly recognised by governments and individuals. Tim Taylor takes the reader step by step through the philosophical issues surrounding these notions and critically analyses the strengths and weaknesses of competing approaches. He proposes a new subjective account of prudential value, under which both mental states and states of the world may have value: value is conferred upon states of the world not by desires, but by valuings, which react to the world as it is rather than how it might come to be. He develops from this an account of well-being, concluding with proposals about how this might be measured.
- ISBN10 0230359795
- ISBN13 9780230359796
- Publish Date 25 November 2011
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format eBook
- Pages 216
- Language English