Welfare Hedonism (alt. formulation):

• The number that measures how good someone's life is, for him, is the number that measures (in hedons) the amount of pleasure his or her life contains, minus the number that measures (in dolors) the amount of pain his or her life contains.

• The number that measures (in hedons) the amount of pleasure someone's life contains is equal to the sum of the numbers that measure (in hedons) the amounts of pleasure in the episodes of pleasure his or her life contains. (Similarly for pain.)

• The number that measures (in hedons) the amount of pleasure in an episode of pleasure is the product of the number that measures (in seconds) the duration of that pleasure, and the number that measures (in ???) the intensity of that pleasure. (Similarly for pain.)

Scenario: Pip the Pig Lover. Pip is not like you or me. He enjoys just the things pigs enjoy. He spends all his days in the pig sty, with the ten pigs that live there. He wallows in the mud with them. He eats the pig slop the farmer brings. These things bring him great pleasure. So he spends his days filthy and gross eating disgusting food. He doesn't read any books, or think deep thoughts on any topic. He never went to school. He has no human friends. Still, nothing in Pip's life is painful. The pigs never trample him, he never feels bored or lonely.

An argument against hedonism, based on the Pip the Pig Lover scenario:

1. If welfare hedonism is true, then Pip is living a very good life, a life high in welfare.
2. But Pip is not living a very good life.
3. Therefore, welfare hedonism is false.

Scenario: the drug addict.

Scenario: the matrix. Trinity is plugged into the matrix, and has been her whole life. "Inside" the matrix she is a successful computer programmer, famous among hackers for getting into a particularly high-security mainframe. She has lots of friends, a nice house, lots of money. Her life is full of pleasant sensations. However, she is completely wrong about the "source" of those pleasant sensations. She thought that she had a particularly strong feeling of pleasure when she hacked into that mainframe. But she never hacked into it; it was all an illusion created by the Matrix.

Scenario: painfully obtained wisdom. Christina goes to graduate school in philosophy to become wise. Graduate school is difficult. There are long nights feeling frustrated, not understanding what philosopher X has said, or struggling to get her ideas onto paper. But when she graduates she finds that she is wise.

An argument against hedonism, based on the Christina scenario:

1. If welfare hedonism is true, then Christina is not living a good life.
2. Christina is living a good life.
3. Therefore, welfare hedonism is false.