The Shape of a Life and Desire Satisfaction

It is widely accepted by philosophers of well-being that the shape or narrative structure of a life is a significant determinant of its overall welfare value. Most arguments for this thesis posit agent-independent value in certain life shapes. The desire theory of well-being, I argue, has all of the resources needed to account for the value that many philosophers have identified in lives with certain shapes. The theory denies that there is any agent-independent value in shapes and, indeed, allows that there can be both agent-dependent value and agent-dependent disvalue in the shapes commonly claimed to hold agent-independent value.