ABSTRACT

The desire-fulfillment theory of well-being-also known as desire satisfactionism, preferentism, or simply the desire theory-holds, in its simplest form, that what is good in itself for people and other subjects of welfare is their getting what they want, or the fulfillment of their desires, and what is bad in itself for them is their not getting what they want, or the frustration of their desires. Most or all desire theorists would agree that the stronger the desire, the more beneficial is its satisfaction and the worse its frustration. There is less consensus over whether how long the desire is held is directly relevant to the value of its fulfillment or frustration. On the question of how good an entire life would be for a person, there are two main ways a desire approach might go: it can sum the values of all the instances of desire satisfaction and frustration within that life; or it can look to the person’s desires about that whole life and hold that the best life is the one the person most wants to lead. These views yield different verdicts because a person may prefer to lead a life that contains less preference satisfaction. A desire is fulfilled, according to standard forms of the theory, just if the desired state of affairs occurs; the subject need not know about it or experience any feelings of fulfillment.