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(2017) Handbook of the philosophy of medicine, Dordrecht, Springer.
The chapter aims to provide a classification of different philosophical theories of well-being. A very common issue of contestation is whether well-being is subjective or objective. However, ontological and evaluative perspectives in this regard need to be disentangled. The ontological perspective is concerned with the problem whether well-being is a mode of consciousness or of existence. The evaluative perspective focuses on the criteria of well-being. There are then altogether four different accounts: (i) experience theories (ontological subjectivism), (ii) state-of-being theories (ontological objectivism), (iii) desire-fulfillment theories (evaluative subjectivism), and (iv) essence theories (evaluative objectivism). This classification is applied to a particular philosophical and social dispute, namely, whether and, if so, in what way disability undermines the quality of life of persons with disability.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-8688-1_7
Full citation:
Schramme, T. (2017)., Subjective and objective accounts of well-being and quality of life, in T. Schramme & S. D. Edwards (eds.), Handbook of the philosophy of medicine, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 159-168.
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