Well-being and the shape of a life

In the previous chapters we examined various theories of well-being, theories of which things have prudential value and why. We now turn to a different question: How is the well-being or prudential value of a whole life determined? One view is that the well-being of a whole life is nothing more than the aggregate or sum of how well it went at each moment. Call this atomism (explained in more detail shortly). This view has recently been challenged by views that propose that there is something holistic about lifetime well-being. The main candidate view of this sort is that the ‘shape of a life’, explained shortly, makes a difference to lifetime well-being. We will examine this view, and others, and the evidence for them.