Quality of Life

The question of the good life (well-being, or quality of life) is one of the classical questions in philosophy. This question has been formulated in somewhat different ways, for example, What makes a life good for the person who lives it? or What ultimately makes a life worth living?

To clarify this question, philosophers have formally defined the notion of well-being (quality of life) in terms of what has final value for a person. There are three important aspects of this formal definition. First, to claim that a certain life is good, or of high quality, is to evaluate it in a positive way. The question of the good life is an evaluative question, not an empirical question that can be answered by empirical methods. Second, ...