Dworkin’s "Living Well" and the Well-Being Revolution

Philosophers from Aristotle to Mill to Dworkin have considered the relationship between what it means to "live well" in our own lives ("ethics" in Ronald Dworkin' s Justice for Hedgehogs) and how we ought to treat others ("morality"). Far from any notion that morality operates as a dispiriting constraint on "living well," Dworkin - like Aristotle - views ethics and morality as deeply complementary. For Aristotle, the state of eudaimonia, or happiness, is "the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world, and these attributes are not severed as in the inscription at Delos - 'Most noble is that which is justest, and best is health; But most pleasant it is to win what we love.' Dworkin likewise rejects the inscription at Delos, urging instead that the "truth about living well and being good . . .is not only coherent but mutually supporting." Justice for Hedgehogs seeks "to illustrate as well as defend the unity of at least ethical and moral values."