Ill-Being as Dissonance

This chapter lays the groundwork for a novel objectivist theory of ill-being, by exploring what harmonism, a theory of well-being, can and should say about ill-being. As the constituent principles of harmonism bear resemblance to (aspects of) other theories of well-being, these discussions should be of broad interest to well-being theorists. According to harmonism, human well-being is constituted by harmony between mind and world. Harmonism is a pluralist objectivist theory of well-being and it recognizes three aspects of harmony: non-accidental correspondence, positive orientation, and appropriate response. The theory posits three independent axiological principles each capturing one of these aspects. The primary goal of this chapter is to develop a menu of options for extending each of these axiological principles to cover ill-being. Even without making definitive recommendations about which of these options harmonism should incorporate, we are able to show that the view is better positioned to be extended from well-being to ill-being than some prominent rival theories.