Goodness requires misfortune or malfunction to have meaning Maximizing well-being, being defined as anything that could possibly matter to everyone, is the goal. — PeterPants
I think you are effectively saying freedom of choice trumps everything .. in which case I agree (with all the typical caveats).
Freedom trumps happiness trumps goodness.
Well-being and hedonism are not the same thing. So, Jake, are you saying that well-being trumps goodness, or that sensual pleasures trump goodness, or something else? — Noble Dust
Hmmm ... "well being" is a slippery customer if you ask me. A bit of a weasel word(s) . Conscientious farmers and paternalistic institutions profess to have the "well being" of their charges at heart and look what happens to lambs... I guess it's a phrase that has considerable leeway - the paternalist will use it to seem magnanimous and caring, and his target will envisage an optimistic interpretation... "hey he's concerned about my well being ,,, great he wants me to enjoy myself!". I myself tend to be deceitful when I use the phrase .. but in the opposite direction to the paternalist. I really mean well being to mean happiness. But in any case, it's freedom of choice that must trump all in any utopianish scheme of things.
Is religion not a "context of well-being"? If it's not, then how so? — Noble Dust
It might contribute to an
individual believer's well being. But it might not. And it could just as easily damage many citizens in general. {late edit to add:} The main reason for discounting religious
ideas is because the ideas are at least partly arbitrary - but believing in a religion can promote well being, of course. So freedom to be religious is important to well being. Incorporating a specific religious idea of "goodness" is unlikely to be (except those general ideas such as kindness that happen to be part of a religion).