The Significance of Ill-Being

Abstract Many philosophers consider it a platitude that levels of well-being and ill-being are determined by aggregating prudential goods and ills, even though in our everyday lives, we do not seem to adopt this kind of aggregative thinking. Normally, we can tell when someone is doing badly without engaging in any prudential arithmetic. Having shed some doubt on this view, in this chapter I present an alternative picture according to which well-being and ill-being are determined prior to prudential goods and ills. On this alternative view, ill-being is characterized as involving a loss of capacity and/or a loss of opportunity to realize one’s attachments and enjoys practical priority over well-being.