Choice Group Seminar by Brad Hooker (University of Reading): ‘Fittingness and Well-Being’

Abstract: This paper focuses on non-instrumental values that constitute positive contributions to well-being. The paper asks whether the things that constitute contributions to a person’s well-being involve relations of fittingness. Section 1 of the paper briefly considers the desire-fulfilment theory of well-being and its implications for whether the fittingness of attitudes (including emotions, desires, and beliefs) is a prudential good. Section 2 considers whether hedonistic theories of well-being can take the fittingness of attitudes to be a constituent of well-being. In section 3 of the paper, I explore what status the objective list theory of well-being accords to fitting attitudes. In section 4, shifting the focus from attitudes to actions, I address the question of whether fitting actions are part of well-being.

Brad Hooker is Professor Emeritus at the University of Reading.

This event will take place in person on LSE’s campus. However, those unable to attend in person will have the option of taking part online.

To join online just follow these instructions:

• Download Zoom
• Zoom link for this for this meeting: https://lse.zoom.us/j/6613924533 

Please note that these events are routinely recorded, with the edited footage being made publicly available on our website and YouTube channel. We will only record the audio, the slides and the speaker and will not include the Q&A section. However, any question asked during the talk itself will feature in the final edit.