ABSTRACT
What is well-being without values? Several chapters in this book attest to the role of values in well-being in areas ranging from health (see for example Burwood, Chapter 13; illness, for example Eatough, Chapter 17; in psychosomatic conditions, Bullington, Chapter 5 and in a maternal context, Jomeen and Martin, Chapter 21), through work modern and professional life (Prendergast and Leggo, Chapter 27), caring practices (Dahlberg and Ranheim, Chapter 14) to relationships (for example, Knowles, Chapter 6; Hemingway, Chapter 20; Calder, Chapter 9). The very word well-being is explicitly value-laden. Small wonder then that well-being is challenging. For values themselves are challenging. They are challenging theoretically: values have been a focus of philosophical enquiry for over two millennia. They are also in various respects challenging practically.
