Abstract
Many will object, no doubt, that the notions which we treat are Incapable of any measurement
The popular opinions. tend to deter any man from attempting tasks which, however difficult, ought, some day, to be achieved. If we trace the history of other sciences, we gather no lessons of discouragement. In the case of almost everything which is now exactly measured, we can go back to the age when the vaguest notions prevailed. It seems strange indeed that economists have not bestowed more minute attention on a subject which doubtless furnishes the true key to the problem of economics... It is very curious that in this subject, which reaches to the very foundations of political economy, we owe more to early than later writers.
Having no means of ascertaining numerically the variation of utility, Bernoulli had to make assumptions of an arbitrary kind, and was then able to obtain reasonable answers to many important questions.
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Jevons, W.S. (1991). Cardinal Utility. In: Chikán, A. (eds) Progress in Decision, Utility and Risk Theory. Theory and Decision Library, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3146-9_1
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