An adequate theory about the nature of welfare must account for the subject-relativity of prudential value: the fact that this particular mode of value for a life (as opposed to others it might exemplify) is its value “for the individual whose life it is”. Subjective theories explain subject-relativity by rooting it in the interests or attitudes or concerns of the welfare subject. Objective theories, by definition, cannot appeal to this resource, and the best attempts (by Aristotle and Moore) to find some alternative are unsuccessful. No objective theory of welfare, therefore, can be correct.
