The Worthwhileness Theory of the Prudentially Rational Life
Journal of Philosophical Research 27:619-639 (2002)
| Abstract | Two main questions are addressed: (1) What standard defines the nonmoral good for humans, the prudentially rational life? (2) How is this standard applied in guiding and in assessing lives? The standard presented is “The Worthwhileness Principle,” which asserts that if one’s life situation is sufficiently fortunate, the aim is to maximize worthwhileness, the net balance of benefits over costs; but if one’s life situation is chronically, and substantially unfortunate, the aim is to minimize nonworthwhileness, the net balance of costs over benefits. The principle is based on a two-sided, positivity and negativity, or cost-and-benefit-centered viewpoint, rather than a one-sided, good-centered viewpoint. Specifically, it includes negative ends, harms to be avoided, negative means, resource costs to be minimized, and negative luck, misfortune, unfortunate lives.Regarding the second question, the standard is applied prospectively in guiding lives and activities by means of prudential deliberation, prudential habits, and prudential spontaneity. It is applied retrospectively in assessing whole or partial lives using the Worthwhileness Scale | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesThaddeus Metz (forthcoming). Life Worth Living. In Alex Michalos (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-being Research. Springer.
Richard Arneson (2009). Human Flourishing Versus Desire Satisfaction. Social Philosophy and Policy 16 (01):113-.
Stanley Martens & Kevin Stevens (1994). The Fasb's Cost/Benefit Constraint in Theory and Practice. Journal of Business Ethics 13 (3):171 - 179.
Caspar Hare (2009). The Ethics of Morphing. Philosophical Studies 145 (1):111 - 130.
Mark Piper (2011). The Prudential Value of Education for Autonomy. Journal of Philosophy of Education 45 (1):19-35.
Michael Hand (2009). On the Worthwhileness of Theoretical Activities. Journal of Philosophy of Education 43 (1):109-121.
Mark Schroeder (forthcoming). What Matters About Metaethics? In Peter Singer (ed.), Does Anything Really Matter? Responses to Parfit.
Stuart Rachels (2009). On Three Alleged Theories of Rational Behavior. Utilitas 21 (4):506-520.
Valerie Tiberius (2005). Value Commitments and the Balanced Life. Utilitas 17 (1):24-45.
Krister Bykvist (2006). Prudence for Changing Selves. Utilitas 18 (3):264-283.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2011-12-02Total downloads4 ( #178,844 of 549,700 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 549,700 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
