Living well and Having a Good Life: Interpreting the Distinction

Stelios Virvidakis (University of Athens)

Abstract:         

In Justice for Hedgehogs, Ronald Dworkin  introduces a distinction between the notion of “living well” and that of “having a good life”. Both  are interpreted from an objectivist point of view, but the former is supposed to entail serious “constraints essential to human dignity” and to require conformity to ethical, as well as to moral norms, insofar as these are interconnected.  In this paper,I focusonthe proposed distinction, with a view to casting light on its content and on its implications and to assessing its significance for contemporary debates in moral philosophy.  I point to some tensions in Dworkin’s arguments arising from the attempt at a synthesis of  Kantian and Aristotelian elements.