EpicureanFriends Net Pleasure Maximization WorksheetNPM Worksheet

About This Worksheet

This worksheet was prepared by Cassius Amicus with the assistance of others at EpicureanFriends.com.

For more information about this worksheet, see this page at EpicureanFriends.com.

Ultimately, pleasure and pain are not reducible to standard units. Jeremy Bentham and the English Utilitarians are associated with the idea that units of “hedon” and “dolor” can be used to calculate a general scale of pleasure, and thereby derive a “greatest good for the greatest number.” Individual differences between people and circumstances doom such a “group ethics” approach to failure.

For the individual, however, it is highly useful to review the many aspects of pleasure, pain, and happiness identified by Epicurus. Once identified, those factors can be used to evaluate your own personal context. Regularly stepping through the process consciously allows you to train yourself to consider these factors instantly and intuitively.

Of course, the calculations made by this worksheet are hypothetical, and not intended as specific advice for any person or situation. Use of this worksheet is entirely a matter of your own free agency and responsibility for the outcome — just as Epicurus taught in opposition to those who embraced “hard determinism.”