Card 3.5 · Root III — Ethics and Axiology
Value Theory
What would make your life go well, apart from being moral?
Value theory asks what is worth having or pursuing — a wider question than morality, covering everything that makes a life go well.
Where it sits
Under III. Ethics. Borders 3.2 Normative ethics, 6.21 Meaning in life, 5.1 Theories of beauty.
The rival answers
| Position | What makes a life go well |
|---|---|
| Hedonism | Pleasure and the absence of pain |
| Desire satisfaction | Getting what you actually want |
| Objective list | Certain goods benefit you whether wanted or not |
| Perfectionism | Developing distinctively human excellences |
| Eudaimonism | Flourishing through virtuous activity |
| Asceticism | Restraint; freedom from the pull of appetite |
Key figures
| Figure | Dates | Tradition | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epicurus | 341–270 BCE | Greek | Pleasure as tranquillity, not indulgence |
| Aristotle | 384–322 BCE | Greek | Eudaimonia as activity in accordance with excellence |
| The Buddha | c. 480–400 BCE (disputed) | Indian | Craving as the source of dissatisfaction |
| Amartya Sen | b. 1933 | Analytic | Capabilities rather than resources or utility |
| Derek Parfit | 1942–2017 | Analytic | The three-way taxonomy of theories of wellbeing |
Connections
→ 3.2, 3.1 · ↔ 6.21, 6.20, 5.5, 3.2.1 · ◇ hedonism, desire satisfaction, objective list, perfectionism · ○ Axial Age; Classical; Modern; Tables 4 and 9
→ narrower questions · ↔ questions it borders · ◇ the positions, mapped in Part III of the book · ○ the eras and comparison tables (Parts IV and V)
The full card is in the book
In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 177.
On Coordinates of Thought
Conversations about this question in Happiness & well-being:
- If the Stoic technique works without the Stoic cosmos, the cosmos was never doing the work 7 replies
- The hedonic treadmill shows money can’t buy lasting happiness 5 replies
- What exactly is Aristotle’s “function argument” in Nicomachean Ethics I.7? 5 replies
- I would plug into the experience machine, and most refusals are just status quo bias 5 replies
- Epictetus says some things are up to us. What did that depend on for him? 5 replies
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