Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Bentham's own felicific calculus required seven independe... — Carmelics
    Home
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Part of a larger discussion

    Supports→A perfect single-number hedonimeter measuring happiness with full precision may be impossible even in principle.

    Bentham's own felicific calculus required seven independent dimensions (intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, extent), each raising distinct incommensurability problems.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.

    No one has weighed in yet. Be the first to share reasons for or against this statement.

    Sign in or register to share your perspective on this statement.

    Key Terms

    Bentham(The statement references his specific idea about trust and power)
    Jeremy Bentham was an 18th-century British philosopher who believed the goal of society should be to create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
    Certainty(Rosmini, NE, vol. 3, 1044)
    A firm and reasonable persuasion that conforms to the truth; a characteristic of the person who knows
    Extent(as a dimension of measuring happiness)
    How many people are affected by the pleasure—a choice that makes one person happy counts differently than one that makes many people happy.
    Felicific calculus(as the system being described)
    A method Bentham invented to measure and compare different amounts of happiness or pleasure, kind of like a formula for deciding which choice will make people happiest.

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Explore a random proposition
    Start fresh with something unrelated.
    Incommensurability problems(as the core challenge of Bentham's system)
    Difficulties that arise when trying to compare things that can't be measured on the same scale—like trying to decide if an hour of intense joy is worth more than a week of mild happiness.
    Intensity(one way natural and supernatural cognition might differ)
    The degree or strength of something; here, how powerful or clear the knowledge is.
    duration(Bergson's conception, illustrated via the spool-and-tape image)
    Continuity of progress and heterogeneity; the prolongation of the past into the present.
    fecundity(One of Bentham's seven parameters for quantitatively measuring pleasure in the felicific calculus)
    A parameter of pleasure referring to its tendency to produce further pleasures
    propinquity(Contrasted with remoteness in Bentham's felicific calculus)
    Nearness in time; a parameter measuring how soon a pleasure will be experienced
    purity(One of Bentham's seven quantitative parameters for measuring pleasure)
    A parameter of pleasure in Bentham's calculus; implied to concern the degree to which a pleasure is unmixed with pain

    Connections

    1 topic

    Consequentialism1 linked

    Related

    A perfect single-number hedonimeter measuring happiness with full precision may ...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    0 (0 for, 0 against)
    Edits
    1 edit

    Open for perspectives

    This idea is waiting for its first supporting or challenging perspective.

    Share the first perspective