Aaron Abma

One fundamental question in value theory concerns the nature of final value: is having final value a matter of being good for someone¸ in the sense of benefiting them (also called prudential value), or is it a matter of being good-simpliciter (also called impersonal or Moorean value)? Or do both kinds of value exist—are some things good-for and others good-simpliciter? In this article, I present the terms of this debate and clarify its stakes and ambiguities before examining two families of arguments which attempt to settle it. Much of the debate consists of conceptual arguments, which take issue with either good-for or good-simpliciter as concepts and which typically try to show that one or the other is either incoherent or superfluous. These conceptual arguments are illuminating, but they have not yet proven decisive. I therefore suggest that we might progress by further developing substantive arguments, which appeal to our actual considered judgments about the value things have and which then examine what properties are required to account for this value, and I discuss three strategies for pursuing such substantive arguments.

Good-for theorists claim that to be valuable is to be good for someone, in the sense of being beneficial for them. Their opponents deny this, arguing that some things are good-simpliciter: good independently of being good for anyone. In this article I argue in favor of good-simpliciter. I appeal to the category of symbolically valuable acts, acts which seem valuable even when they do not benefit anyone and even when they are costly to the agent. I explore various strategies a good-for theorist might pursue to address these apparently valuable acts, for example by appealing to the acts’ connection to beneficial character traits or practices, and I argue that none of these strategies succeed. Instead, I propose that the best way to understand the value of these acts involves seeing them as appropriate responses to what is good-simpliciter, and more specifically, as ways of loving what is worthy of love.