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
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that There is no in-principle barrier to measuring how happy people are, at least roughly.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Nozick's experience machine thought experiment demonstrates that people's considered judgments about welfare systematically diverge from hedonic states.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If happiness is not identical to subjective hedonic experience, then existing self-report measures fail to track the very phenomenon they purport to quantify.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.A measure that reliably tracks the wrong target cannot constitute even a rough measure of happiness in any philosophically defensible sense.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Wittgenstein's private language argument entails that first-person hedonic reports cannot be publicly verified or calibrated across subjects.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Without interpersonal calibration, aggregate happiness scores conflate incommensurable subjective scales, rendering 'measurement' a category error.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Happiness measurement may never achieve the precision of Edgeworth's envisaged hedonimeter.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Even if happiness involves multiple dimensions that cannot be precisely quantified or summed, approximate measures of happiness or its dimensions remain feasible.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Depression lacks precise single-number quantification yet useful imprecise measures of depression exist, providing an analogous case.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.