ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses an objective list theory of the worth of a life. It provides a preliminary defense of a list of five objective goods and six bads. It defends a theory of the second item on the short list of general goods, meaning. The good cause account is an objectivist theory of the meaning of life. It identifies the meaningfulness of one's life in the objective good that one causes. The chapter draws a distinction between welfare and meaning. It develops a defense of the good cause account of the meaning of life in response to the problems facing a few other theories. The chapter argues against both subjectivist theories and hybrid theories, those that include both objective and subjective conditions. It shows the relative virtues of the good cause account over two of the most compelling theories in the current literature, those offered by Erik Wielenberg and Susan Wolf.
