Product Utilitarianism and an Old-New Way to Measure Utility

Abstract

A theory of hedonic episodes is given. A representation theorem is given, which measures utility on a ratio scale.For aggregation of pleasures for a group, the product of individual utilities is meaningful without interpersonal comparisons. Common “counterexamples” to Utilitarianism turn out not to be meaningful. There are two distinct kinds of group expected utility: one violates group rationality, the other violates Pareto dominance.