What Is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being

Until the last few decades, moral discourse has been dominated by consequentialism and Kantianism. Philosophers,for a while, seemed to have forgotten that there was a third option, virtue ethics, that also deserves exploration. Kraut's book doesn't deal a lot with virtues directly, but it does lay the groundwork for an Aristotlean approach to goodness. The book does an excellent job of arguing that we should dispense with the intransitive use of the word "good" and instead recognise that statements like "X is good" are short for "X is good for P." The arguments for this position make the book worth reading. Kraut argues that what is good for humans is not merely pleasure, as a utilitarian would hold, but flourishing, fulfilling our life potential as human beings. Unfortunately, Kraut can't seem to pin it down any more than that. He defines flourishing in several different ways including "a maturation of powers as a living thing of a certain type." Kraut recognises that there is a problem here--certain human capacities seem to be evil to fulfill--but he never can give a satisfactory answer for it and instead tries to brush it under the rug. This book is very thought provoking but it also leaves some key points up in the air.