How Can Utility Be Measured?

Paper Summary:

The paper begins its discussion of measuring utility with a look at the work of Bentham, and ultimately rejects his "equation" to calculate utility. Next it establishes some crude, everyday ways in which utility can be measured in comparison. This premise leads to Griffin's work on "pockets of cardinality", which finds a more accurate way of measuring utility. The paper goes on to discuss Mill's ideas of the primacy of preference, and his ideal "competent judges", and then moves on to a discussion of the best distribution: the maximizing of average or of minimum happiness?

From the Paper:

"For a moral code to work, it needs to govern how we as individuals should live in relation to everybody else in the world. If it does not give us moral judgments on how to live the way it dictates, and simply concentrates on extremely abstract definitions and irrelevancies, it would not be much use. Mill is a philosopher with a palpable social conscience, who certainly cannot be accused of not considering the big picture of society and how it would be affected by his philosophy of utilitarianism. Many see his philosophy as inadequate when it comes to apply to society as a whole, not least because he jumps from detailed discussion about what is good for an individual, to what is good by extension for society. As many writers have since pointed out, this is too simple to work. Lastly, the questions of overall happiness and how it should be encouraged are still relevant to one of the big issues of today: overcrowding. Governments and agencies must consider these questions in some way when legislating in any area."

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