![]() I begin by acknowledging the central point of the "hedonic trade-offs" argument, and then proceed, via reductio, by pointing out the various absurd or unpalatable consequences of the denial of the thesis that pleasure and pain are quantitative. Finally, I present an argument in favor of the hedonic calculus that I endorse, along with possible objections and my replies. Several of these arguments are unsound or question-begging. This suggests that since duration is clearly quantitative, intensity must be, too, because if it were not, there could be no equivalence between the brief but intense and the lengthy but mellow episodes. A third type of argument rests on the claim that it is sometimes rational to be indifferent between a longer lasting, less intense episode of pleasure and a more intense but shorter episode. Others attempt to argue that, for example, two people enjoying something must involve more pleasure than if just one person were enjoying it. Many philosophers, such as Bentham, Mill, Ross, and Plato, seem to assume, without any serious argument, that pleasure and pain are quantitative. The seventh chapter addresses arguments in favor of the legitimacy of the calculus. Others involve false analogies between hedonic and other sorts of phenomena. Some arguments crucially involve a failure to distinguish between the existence of a quantity and our ability to perform reliable measurements of it. I argue that each argument suffers from at least one fatal flaw. A final argument holds that, for a variety of reasons, the various mathematical operations constitutive of quantitativeness are not applicable to pleasure or pain. A third, closely related to the first two, argues that pleasure and pain are too heterogeneous to be quantitative. Another argument proceeds from the observation that interpersonal comparisons of pleasure and pain appear to be impossible. One argument stems from the observation that pleasures and pains are essentially transient and ephemeral. The sixth chapter addresses arguments that pleasure and pain fail to meet these formal conditions. I argue that apparent instances of being on a par are in fact instances of vagueness or complexity and do not threaten the truth of the trichotomy thesis. The fifth chapter is a defense of the thesis that there are exactly three relations of quantitative comparison from a recent attack. These structures include the presence of a unique order the possibility of equal intervals and a natural, non-arbitrary zero point. I argue that quantities are determinate properties whose determinables enter into greater-than, less-than, or equal-to relationships that are homomorphic with the structure of the real number line. The third and fourth chapters concern the nature of quantitative phenomena. The second chapter explores the nature of hedonic phenomena, arguing that pleasure and pain are propositional attitudes they are not feelings or feeling-tones, nor are they fundamentally a matter of desire or motivation. The first chapter is an introduction to the problem-in it, I explain what the hedonic calculus is, why it is important, and why it has recently come under disfavor. A Basquiat painting soared 2,209,900 when it was bought for 5,000 and sold for 110,500,000. These operations are ones that utilitarianism and related normative ethical theories treat as central to moral phenomena. What are some examples of hedonistic calculus Ad by Masterworks What’s a good investment for 2022 This might sound unconventional, but hands down I’d go with blue-chip art. The hedonic calculus presupposes that pleasure and pain come in amounts amenable to addition, subtraction, and aggregation operations. Purity: The probability that it will not be followed by sensations of the opposite kind.The topic of my dissertation is the hedonic calculus.Fecundity: The probability that the action will be followed by sensations of the same kind.Propinquity or remoteness: How soon will the pleasure occur?.Certainty or uncertainty: How likely or unlikely is it that the pleasure will occur?.Duration: How long will the pleasure last?.The criteria for measuring whether actions are moral are as follows: learning the violin was superior to having an orgy). However, unlike John Stuart Mill, Bentham had no hierarchy of pleasure, and so went for quantity over quality (Mill classified intellectual pleasures as superior to base bestial pleasures e.g. Actions are "good" if they maximise pleasure and minimise pain for the greatest number. It is used by practitioners of the Benthamite school of Utilitarianism to measure how much pleasure/pain actions will create. ![]() The Hedonic Calculus was formulated by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. ![]()
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