ABSTRACT
I There are many problems to do with self-interest, but the one I have in mind here is whether what is good or bad for people depends on what they want. Some writers hold a version of what Derek Parfit (1984: 499) calls the ‘objective list’ theory. In this view,
certain things are good or bad for people, whether or not these people would want to have the good things, or to avoid the bad things. The good things might include moral goodness, rational activity, the development of one’s abilities, 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.
