Individual Utility in a Context of Asymetric Sensitivity to Pleasure and Pain: An Interpretation of Bentham's Felicific Calculus

André Lapidus and Nathalie Sigot ()

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This paper aims at exploring, in a formal way, Bentham's statement that "the pleasure of gaining is not equal to the evil of losing", which belongs to those aspects of the principle of utility left aside by Jevon's reconstruction. Consequently, the agent's preference order will be viewed as depending on his initial situation, and on asymmetric sensitivity to gains and losses, relative to this situation. This leads i) to discuss the coexistence of multiple preference orders, illustrated by Bentham's analysis of the optimal labour contract, and ii) to introduce true deliberation as a consequence of the gap between positive choice and rival assessments of utility.

Keywords: inversion de préférences; utilitarisme; Bentham; endogeneous preferences; individual utility; pain and pleasure; preference reversal; utilitarianism; préférences endogènes; utilité individuelle; peine et plaisir (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://paris1.hal.science/hal-00344899
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2000, 7 (1), pp.45-78

Downloads: (external link)
https://paris1.hal.science/hal-00344899/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Individual utility in a context of asymmetric sensitivity to pleasure and pain: an interpretation of Bentham's felicific calculus (2000)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00344899

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().