Reading - What Makes Someone’s Life Go Right?

Knowledge I gained from the reading:
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In his article “WHAT MAKES SOMEONE’S LIFE GO BEST” the author Derek Parfit describes his theories about self-interest. Parfit explains his theories by asking a very fundamental question, what is best for a person in his or her life which would make the person’s life go as well as possible. He categorizes people in three different types and put them in three different buckets of theories.

1. Hedonistic Theories: This theory says, what would be best for someone is what would make his life happiest. These kinds of individuals believe that, pleasure and pain are two distinctive kinds of experiences. To them pleasure is to satisfy an intense thirst or lust such as listening to music, solving an intellectual problem, knowing that someone special is happy, etc. Pleasures are wanted by people but on the other hand pain is considered unwanted. More the pain less it is wanted and likewise, pleasures are more desirable or wanted when it is better or greater. Their relations to our desire are what pain and pleasure have in common. Preference – Hedonism claims that, between two experiences, the one that is preferred is more pleasant. When comparing between two experiences, a pain does not always literally mean pain, rather it means less desirable. For example, if I have a choice to go to a movie or listen to music and I prefer to go to movie, then it means that going to movie is more desirable to me and gives me more pleasure. In no way it means that listening to music would give me pain rather it means that at that moment it is less desirable to me. It is not only pleasure that we consider when deciding which is more desirable but also two states of pains can be compared to figure out what is more desirable than the other. For example, if a patient is in pain but the medication would also have a painful side affect then the patient would more often than not choose a pain that would do the most good. In this case both experiences would be considered pain but one would be less desirable than the other.

Author also describes another theory which he calls the Success theory that is much similar to Preference – Hedonism theory and appeals only to someone's desires about his own life. According to Parfit, this theory differs from Preference-Hedonism in only one way, The Success Theory appeals to all of our preferences about our own lives. The following example illustrates the differences between these two theories. Suppose that I strongly want not to be deceived by other people, On Preference - Hedonism it would be better for me if I believe that I am not being deceived. It would be irrelevant if my belief is false, since this makes no difference to my state of mind. On the Success theory, it would be worse for me if my belief is false. In general, in Success theory, it is bad for one if one’s desire is not fulfilled.

2. Desire – Fulfillment Theories: This theory says, what would be best for someone is what, throughout his life, would best fulfill his desires. Desire-Fulfillment Theories is also considered as the unrestricted theory. In this theory it is said that, what is best for someone is what would best fulfill all of his desires, throughout his life. To describe this theory, the author gives an example of two strangers meeting where one person has a fatal disease. The other person’s sympathy is aroused and he strongly wants this stranger to be cured. Later on, when they have forgotten each other, the stranger is cured. According to Unrestricted Desire – Fulfillment theory, this event is good for the person who was wishing the other person to be cured, and makes that person’s life goes better. According to Parfit, this is an unrealistic theory and we should reject this theory.


3. Objective List Theories: This theory says that, certain things are good or bad for us, whether or not we want to have the good things, or to avoid the bad things. The good things in this case might include moral goodness, rational activity, having children and being a good parent, knowledge and the awareness of true beauty. The bad things might include being betrayed, manipulated, slandered, deceived, being deprived of liberty or dignity, and enjoying either sadistic pleasure or aesthetic pleasure in what is in fact ugly. According to this theory, what would make my life go best depends on what I would prefer now and in the various alternatives knowing all of the relevant facts about these alternatives. An Objective List Theorist says that the most relevant facts are what would in fact be good or bad for us and anyone who knew these facts would want what is truly good for him, and want to avoid what would be bad for him.

There is one fundamental difference between Preference-Hedonism and the Success theory with the Objective List theory. The first two kinds of theories give an account of self-interest and appeals to what a person does and would prefer. In contrast, the Objective List theory appeals directly to facts about value.


Personal insights I am able to make from the reading:
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After reading this article, we can come to conclusion that what is best for people is not just their being in the conscious states that they want to be in. Nor is it just their having knowledge, engaging in rational activity, being aware of true beauty. By choosing only one theory and living our lives by those principals is not good for us. What is good for someone is to take best from all Hedonists claim, Objective List theorists and all other theories. What also makes someone’s life go right or best is what is good for someone, to be engaged in good activities, and to strongly want to be so engaged.


Questions and challenges the reading has left me with:
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Most of the theories sounded good. However, Success theory sounded a bit unrealistic to me because it said that if someone’s belief turns out to be false whether he knows about it or not is going to be bad for him. I could not relate to this concept and found it to be challenging to understand.


Practical and personal applications I am able to make for the knowledge gained:
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In my personal and practical life, I will choose right from wrong more carefully and find pleasure in doing small but valuable things that will put positive impact in society. In turn I will get pleasure and this will be better for my own life.


Reference:
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Derek Parfit. (1984). From Parfit, Reasons and Persons.