Different thinkers have opted in the main for one of three major kinds of theories for good. First are accounts of good in terms of satisfaction of desires. Other accounts identify the good with happiness rather than with desire satisfaction. Finally, there is the view advanced by utilitarians like G. E. Moore, according to which goodness is an indefinable quality that many attach to a variety of things. Brandt confines his attention to desire and happiness accounts of welfare or utility. He opts for the happiness theory of welfare because it allows for a coherent account of how one should go about promoting or maximizing the well-being of another and the general good.
