Intensity: How intense will the pleasure or pain be on the other side of our decision? Duration: How long will the pleasure or pain go on? Certainty: How certain are we that the pleasure or pain will actually happen? Onset: How long will it take for the pleasure or pain to arrive? (Bentham refers to this as “propinquity”.) Repeatability: What are the chances that these consequences will be repeated over and over again? Opposite effect: What are the chances that the pleasure or pain created could be reciprocated back onto oneself? Number of people: How many people will be affected by this decision, and in what way? Simple enough, right? Not exactly. Felicific calculus and utilitarianism have their fair share of critics. The most common objection is whether or not happiness is actually quantifiable; Bentham’s formula invites decision-makers to assign “utils” as units of measurement to tally a score, but the numerical value designated to various outcomes is … [Read more...] about This centuries-old framework is surprisingly effective for making better decisions
