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How to measure Pain and Pleasure.
In finall sums the quantity of pleasure is nearly as the quantity of money.
-paratively but narrow beyond which pleasure
can not go. There are men whose pleasure the
acquisition of a hundred guineas would carry to this utmost
limit: which borders upon distraction; beyond which even with is lies pain. a hundred thousand could not carry it
farther beyond. Here then is the quantity of money encreased
a thousand fold, and that of pleasure
not at all. For all this it is true enough
for practise with respect to such proportions small quantities as ordinarily
occurr, that casteris paribus the proportion between
pleasure and pleasure is the same as
that between sum and sum: [at best it] so much is is
strictly true that the ratios between ratios between the two
pairs of quantities are nearly being a ratio nearer to that of equality
of equality than to any other ratio that can
be assigned. We shall Men will therefore stand a better
chance of being right by supposing them equal,
than by supposing them to be any otherwise
than equal. They might therefore, in every
case , in which no particular reason can be
given to the contrary, to be supposed equal, and
spoken of as such.
Speaking then in general we may therefore
Title of a Chapter. In what circumstances the same produces different degrees of pain or pleasure. or briefly Proportion of pain & pleasure to money
Money is capable of being accurately divided truly say, that in small quantities the pleasures produced by two
sums, are as the sums producing them. But
money is capable of being measured: Any sum of it considered as a is whole is capable
of being divided into parts, the ratio of which
parts one to another may be made evident to the
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How to measure Pain and Pleasure.
Money the only current instrument of pleasure
The business of the Legislator is to augment the
sum of happiness in a state as much as possible.
If the sum of Happiness is encreased, be it on any occasion encreased it must be by encreasing
the sum of pleasures, or diminishing that of
pains. This must may be done on any occasion in either of three
ways. 1 st By introducing a pleasure instead of
a pain. 2 dly By introducing a less pain instead
of a greater pain. 3 dly By introducing a greater
pleasure in the room of a lesser pleasure. The business These effects
then is done, then (is) are brought about sometimes by applying pain,
sometimes by applying pleasure. But the Legislator Now as to
has no applying pain the Legislator
has many modes and those very certain in
their operation of doing applying it at all times and
that directly to the object: With pleasure this is
not the case: whenever it were to be applied some
time or other individual period must be fixed for the operation to
be performed: and were even the object a given person, there is no operation whatever
which the Legislator could be certain would at any fixed period
produce pleasure in <add>such that object</add> give him pleasure. To produce pleasure
therefore the Legislator has but one way:method course to take
which is to lay in a man's way to some instrument
of pleasure, and leave it the application of
it to himself. By instrument of pleasure we
are here to understand <gap> any thing that goes under
the name of a possession: whether that possession be
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::l v g propatria [britannia motif]]] |
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caroline vernon |
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