ABSTRACT
The simplest theory of well-being is hedonism. This is the view that pleasure is the only thing with prudential value and pains the only thing with prudential disvalue. The hedonist allows that things other than pleasure can be good for people instrumentally, things such as money, friendship, a nice house, and painkillers. The balance of the pleasure and pain that people experience is their hedonic level at that time. One kind of evidence that a hedonist can appeal to in support of the view is the correlation between a person's well-being and their hedonic level. It is also prima facie implausible that agents are motivated only by the prospect of their own pleasure or avoidance of pain. The idea of a form of hedonism which rejects is famously associated with John Stuart Mill. Mill's qualitative hedonism received a barrage of criticism.
