Monday, December 8, 2014

Use-Value, Quantification, User-Value

As has been previously discussed, there are three problems with the quantification of Use-Value or Utility.  First, since Pleasure is a private experience, the common unit required by trans-personal quantification, e. g. the Utilitarian Calculus, is lacking.  Second, even when considered merely peersonally, Pleasure expresses a modification in a user, the quantification of which is, hence, comparative, not positive, from which, e. g. the 'Util' of Neoclassical Economics abstracts.  Therefore, third, the value to a user of a comparative quantity is contingent on specific circumstances, e. g. the +5 of a bowl of chicken soup to a sick person at -3 means a lot more than the +100 of a sumptuous chicken dinner to that person at +200.  Underlying the three problems is that Use-Value is essentially User-Value, relativized to each moment of experience, rather than uniformly possessed by a product.

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