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Three Kinds of Goodness for a Person

King, Owen Christopher

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2016, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Philosophy.
I argue that three types of goods for a person—the goodness of her life, her well-being at a time, and the objects that are desirable for her—do not stand in the straightforward, intuitive relations philosophers have commonly assumed. I begin by developing an account of what I call value contribution principles. A value contribution principle says roughly that an increase in some property, all else equal, implies an increase in some value. Value contribution principles express relatively weak but nonetheless important evaluative claims. With near unanimity, philosophers have assumed, in essence, that a value contribution principle holds between a person’s well-being at a time and the goodness of her life, i.e., that an increase in her well-being during some period, all else equal, yields a better life for her on the whole. I argue that this is incorrect. Similarly, I argue that it is not the case that greater realization of what is desirable for a person, all else equal, increases her well-being. The result is that our notion of what is good for a person is less united and more equivocal than commonly recognized.
Justin D'Arms (Advisor)
Donald Hubin (Committee Member)
Robert Kraut (Committee Member)
Sigrún Svavarsdóttir (Committee Member)
144 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • King, O. C. (2016). Three Kinds of Goodness for a Person [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461257876

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • King, Owen. Three Kinds of Goodness for a Person. 2016. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461257876.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • King, Owen. "Three Kinds of Goodness for a Person." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461257876

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)