The Good Life and Wellbeing - TCE Philosophy (Tasmania)
“Theories of wellbeing: hedonism, desire-satisfaction and objective list accounts”
Theories of wellbeing try to say what makes a life go well for the person living it. Hedonism says it is pleasure and the absence of pain. Desire-satisfaction theory says it is getting what you want. Objective list theories say certain goods, such as knowledge, friendship and achievement, benefit you whether or not you desire them. Aristotle's eudaimonia frames the good life as flourishing through virtuous activity over a complete life.
What this dot point is asking
This dot point belongs to the strand of the TASC Philosophy course concerned with how to live the good life. You are asked to lay out the main theories of wellbeing, test them against intuitive cases, and assess which best captures what makes a life good.
What the question is
Notice that this is not the same as asking what is morally right. A person could live a good life, full of wellbeing, without being especially moral, and a saint might suffer greatly. The good life here means a life that goes well for the one living it, what philosophers call prudential value or welfare. The leading theories disagree about where that value lies.
What is ultimately good for a person, considered from the point of view of their own interests. A theory of wellbeing tells us what makes someone's life go better or worse for them, as distinct from what makes them morally good.
Hedonism
Hedonism holds that wellbeing consists in pleasure and the absence of pain. It is simple, fits the obvious appeal of enjoyment, and traces back to Epicurus, who argued that a tranquil life free from disturbance is the height of pleasure. Bentham and Mill built utilitarianism on a hedonist account of the good. The classic objection comes from Robert Nozick's experience machine: imagine a machine that could give you any pleasurable experiences you wanted, indistinguishable from reality, while you float in a tank. Most people would refuse to plug in, suggesting we value actually doing things and contacting reality, not just the feeling of doing them. If so, pleasure is not all that matters.
The thought experiment works by holding pleasure constant while removing real achievement and connection. Our reluctance to plug in suggests we care about more than how our lives feel from the inside.
Desire-satisfaction theory
This theory says your life goes well to the extent that your desires are satisfied, whatever they are for. It respects individual differences, since it lets each person's own preferences set the standard of their good. But it faces the problem of defective desires. You might desire something based on false beliefs, or desire something whose fulfilment you never experience, such as a stranger's recovery you never hear about. To handle these, philosophers often refine the view to informed desires, the desires you would have if fully informed and rational, a move associated with Richard Brandt and Peter Railton.
Objective list theories
Objective list theorists hold that certain things are good for you whether or not you desire them or take pleasure in them: knowledge, deep friendship, achievement, autonomy and aesthetic experience often appear on such lists. The strength is that it explains why a contented person whose life is built on illusions seems to be missing something, and why we want our children to have friendship and accomplishment, not just pleasant feelings. The weakness is justifying the list: critics ask what makes these items good if not pleasure or desire, and worry the theory imposes one ideal of life on everyone.
Case: a man devotes his life to a cause built on a lie he never discovers, dying content. Hedonism: his life went well, since it felt good. Desire-satisfaction: mixed, since his core desire was never really fulfilled. Objective list: his life went badly in important respects, lacking truth and genuine achievement despite his contentment.
Aristotelian eudaimonia
Aristotle offers an influential objective view: the good life is eudaimonia, flourishing, achieved through activity of the soul in accordance with virtue over a complete life. It is not a feeling but a way of living well, requiring the exercise of our distinctively human capacity for reason. External goods like health and friends matter too, but the core is virtuous activity. This account ties the good life to character and explains why merely passive pleasure seems an impoverished ideal.
Evaluating the theories
A strong answer weighs how each handles the experience machine and the contented but deceived life. Hedonism is intuitive but seems to leave out reality. Desire-satisfaction respects autonomy but needs refining to exclude foolish desires. Objective list and eudaimonist views capture our sense that some lives go better than others regardless of feelings, but owe an account of why their chosen goods are authoritative. For the exam, defend a theory and show it survives the standard counterexamples.
The good life concerns what benefits the person living it, not what is ethically right. A theory of wellbeing can be correct even if it sometimes diverges from morality. Keep prudential value and moral value distinct, or you will misread the question.
Exam-style questions
Questions in the style of TASC exam questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer. They are written by ExamExplained unless tagged "Past paper"; the year shows the paper a question is modelled on.
Practice6 marksExplain hedonism as a theory of wellbeing and the objection from Nozick's experience machine.Show worked answer →
A 6 mark response needs the theory and the thought experiment as an objection.
Hedonism. Wellbeing consists in pleasure and the absence of pain; a life goes well for the person to the extent it contains more pleasure than pain. It is simple, fits the appeal of enjoyment, and underlies the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill.
The experience machine. Nozick imagines a machine giving you any pleasurable experiences you want, indistinguishable from reality, while you float in a tank. Most people would refuse to plug in, suggesting we value actually doing things and contacting reality, not just the feeling of doing them. If so, pleasure is not all that matters, and hedonism is incomplete.
Markers reward an accurate statement of hedonism and a clear explanation of how the machine, by holding pleasure constant while removing real achievement, targets the theory.
Practice16 marks"An objective list theory best explains what makes a life go well." Critically evaluate this claim, comparing it with hedonism and desire-satisfaction theory.Show worked answer →
A 16 mark extended argument essay should compare the theories and defend a verdict.
Exposition. Hedonism: wellbeing is pleasure. Desire-satisfaction: wellbeing is getting what you want (refined to informed desires to exclude foolish ones). Objective list: certain goods (knowledge, friendship, achievement, autonomy) benefit you whether or not you desire or enjoy them.
Case for the objective list. It explains why a contented person whose life rests on illusions seems to be missing something (the experience machine and the deceived-but-content life), and why we want our children to have friendship and accomplishment, not just pleasant feelings.
Objections. Justifying the list is hard: what makes these items good if not pleasure or desire, and does the theory impose one ideal of life on everyone, threatening autonomy? Desire-satisfaction respects individual differences better; hedonism is simpler.
Judgement. Conclude with a defended position, for example that objective list (or Aristotle's eudaimonia, an objective view centred on virtuous activity) best handles the hard cases but owes an account of why its goods are authoritative, so its superiority is qualified. Markers reward accurate theories, use of the experience machine and deceived-life cases, and a reasoned conclusion.