Abstract
In a recent article in this journal, Tobias Fuchs has offered a 'working test' for well-being. According to this test, if it is fitting to feel compassion for a subject because they have some property, then the subject is badly off because they have that property. Since subjects of deception seem a fitting target for compassion, this test is said to imply that a number of important views, including hedonism, are false. I argue that this line of reasoning is mistaken: seems fitting does not imply is badly off. I suggest that Fuchs's test can tell us little about well-being that we do not already know; and ultimately, tests of the sort he proposes can yield little insight into the nature of well-being.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 118-125 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Utilitas |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 21 Oct 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Cambridge University Press 2019.