The Pursuit of Happiness

Abstract

Utilitarianism began as a movement for social reform that changed the world. To understand Utilitarianism, we must understand utility – how is it to be measured, and how aggregate utility of a group can be understood. The authors, a cognitive scientist and a philosopher, pursue these questions from Bentham to the present, examining psychophysics, positivism, measurement theory, meaningfulness, neuropsychology, representation theorems, and dynamics of formation of conventions.