Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Utility

0/5 ( ratings)

Utilitarianism began as a movement for social reform that changed the world, based on the ideal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. There is a tendency to enter into debates for and against the ethical doctrine of Utilitarianism without a clear understanding of its basic concepts. The Pursuit of Happiness now offers a rigorous account of the foundations of Utilitarianism, and vividly sets out possible ways forward for its future development.

To understand Utilitarianism, we must understand utility: how is it to be measured, and how the aggregate utility of a group can be understood. Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms, respectively a cognitive scientist and a philosopher, pursue these questions by adopting both formal and historical methods, examining theories of measuring utility from Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the Utilitarian movement, to the present day, taking in psychophysics, positivism, measurement theory, meaningfulness, neuropsychology, representation theorems, and the dynamics of formation of conventions. On this basis, Narens and Skyrms argue that a meaningful form of Utilitarianism that can coordinate action in social groups is possible through interpersonal comparison and the formation of conventions.

Pages: 208

Format: Hardcover

Release: December 08, 2020

ISBN 13: 9780198856450

The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Utility

0/5 ( ratings)

Utilitarianism began as a movement for social reform that changed the world, based on the ideal of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. There is a tendency to enter into debates for and against the ethical doctrine of Utilitarianism without a clear understanding of its basic concepts. The Pursuit of Happiness now offers a rigorous account of the foundations of Utilitarianism, and vividly sets out possible ways forward for its future development.

To understand Utilitarianism, we must understand utility: how is it to be measured, and how the aggregate utility of a group can be understood. Louis Narens and Brian Skyrms, respectively a cognitive scientist and a philosopher, pursue these questions by adopting both formal and historical methods, examining theories of measuring utility from Jeremy Bentham, the founder of the Utilitarian movement, to the present day, taking in psychophysics, positivism, measurement theory, meaningfulness, neuropsychology, representation theorems, and the dynamics of formation of conventions. On this basis, Narens and Skyrms argue that a meaningful form of Utilitarianism that can coordinate action in social groups is possible through interpersonal comparison and the formation of conventions.

Pages: 208

Format: Hardcover

Release: December 08, 2020

ISBN 13: 9780198856450

More books from Brian Skyrms

Evolution of the Social Contract

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Ten Great Ideas about Chance

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Signals: Evolution, Learning, & Information

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Choice and Chance: An Introduction to Inductive Logic

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Dynamics of Norms

Causal Asymmetries

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Social Dynamics

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Probability and the Art of Judgment

Dynamics of Rational Deliberation

Causal Necessity: A Pragmatic Investigation of the Necessity of Laws

From Zeno to Arbitrage: Essays on Quantity, Coherence, and Induction

Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science IX. Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics, Volume 134.

Causation in Decision, Belief Change, and Statistics: Proceedings of the Irvine Conference on Probability and Causation

Decision Space: Multidimensional Utility Analysis

The Dynamics of Norms (Cambridge Studies in Probability, Induction and Decision Theory)

The Pursuit of Happiness: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations of Utility

Existence and Explanation: Essays Presented in Honor of Karel Lambert

Signals: Evolution, Learning, and Information

Rate this book!

Write a review?