Saturday, November 29, 2014

Profit and Pleasure

The modeling of Utilitarianism on Smith's system is based on the correlations of Pleasure with Profit, and Pain with Loss.  Now, the latter of each pair connotes a net quantity, i. e. an increase or decrease with respect to a prior condition.  But, beginning with Locke, a sense-datum, such as Pleasure or Pain, is a presupposition-less event.  Therefore, because Utilitarianism is an Empiricist doctrine, Bentham's and Mill's attempts to apply Empiricism to Smith's system are structurally flawed, at minimum. 

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