Hedonism: according to hedonists (e.g., the view expressed
by Socrates and Protagoras in the Platonic dialogue
‘‘Protagoras’’), human beings always act in pursuit
of what they think will give them the greatest balance of
pleasure over pain. In other words, hedonists identify
well-being roughly with experiences of pleasure;11
Desire theories: according to this view, the person’s wellbeing
is the overall level of desire-satisfaction in their
life as a whole. In other words, desire theorists equate
well-being with the satisfaction of one’s desires;9,11
Objective list theories: according to this approach, there
are items, such as knowledge or friendship, constituting
well-being that consist neither merely in pleasurable
experience nor in desire-satisfaction