Abstract: Scanlon questions the adequacy of desire as a measure of quality of life, arguing instead, for exploring an approach based on a critical scrutiny of a substantive list of elements that make human life valuable. The aim, according to Scanlon, is to develop a set of goods and bads which all human beings, insofar as there is an attempt to find a common vocabulary of justification, have reason to accept as covering the most important ways in which life can be made better or worse.

Keywords: desire theory, objectivity, Derek Parfit, preferences, reasonable agreement, universality, utilitarianism,