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Value, Well-Being, and the Meaning of Life

Wells, Mark
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1407960520

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Philosophy, Applied.
We talk of lives and activities as being `meaningful’ in the sense that such lives or activities are worth living or doing without obligation. My dissertation explores what it means for an activity to be meaningful in such a sense. In doing so, I answer two questions about meaningfulness: “What makes an activity meaningful?” and “What is the relationship between meaningfulness and well-being?” My answer to the first question has two parts, one critical and the other constructive. I begin by criticizing the dominant account of meaningful activity in the literature, on which activity is meaningful if, and only if, and because, it gives the acting agent some relevant qualitatively positive experience (e.g. fulfillment) befitting the activity. I deny that meaningful activity requires the acting agent to actually have the relevant attitude. Rather, meaningful activity just is activity valuable in such a way that positive attitudes befit. I then develop this notion of `valuable activity’ in my own account of meaningful activity, on which meaningful activity is that which makes a positive difference. My answer to the second question is straightforward. Meaningfulness is not a constituent of well-being. Even if meaningful lives are better for those who live them, meaningfulness does not explain why such lives go better.
Michael Weber, Ph.D (Committee Chair)
John Basl, Ph.D (Committee Member)
Michael Bradie, Ph.D (Committee Member)
Christian Coons, Ph.D (Committee Member)
Valeria Grinberg Pla, Ph.D (Committee Member)
Ethics; Philosophy
the meaning of life; meaningfulness; value; well-being; meaningful; meaning; positive difference; ethics

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wells, M. (2014). Value, Well-Being, and the Meaning of Life [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1407960520

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wells, Mark. Value, Well-Being, and the Meaning of Life. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1407960520.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wells, Mark. "Value, Well-Being, and the Meaning of Life." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1407960520

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.