Interest in previously boring (due to repetition) things regenerates over time. Eating strawberries every six months may not be as good as the first time (although nostalgia may make it better), but it’s not obvious that it declines in utility.
We may also actively value non-boredom in some mid-level contexts, e.g. in sexual fidelity, or for desires that we consider central to our identity/narratives.
“Eating strawberries every six months may not be as good as the first time (although nostalgia may make it better), but it’s not obvious that it declines in utility.”
Isn’t “not being as good” just what “declines in utility” means?
Maybe the problem is trying to assign utility to “eat strawberries” rather than to the whole timeless state “ate strawberries Tuesday, blueberries Wednesday, bananas Thursday” etc.
We do seem to run into some weird problems if we say that the marginal utility of strawberries declines each time you eat a strawberry… though maybe we could say that this is true, everything else held constant or something like that.
Interest in previously boring (due to repetition) things regenerates over time. Eating strawberries every six months may not be as good as the first time (although nostalgia may make it better), but it’s not obvious that it declines in utility.
We may also actively value non-boredom in some mid-level contexts, e.g. in sexual fidelity, or for desires that we consider central to our identity/narratives.
“Eating strawberries every six months may not be as good as the first time (although nostalgia may make it better), but it’s not obvious that it declines in utility.”
Isn’t “not being as good” just what “declines in utility” means?
Read that as “continues to decline in utility every six months.”
Maybe the problem is trying to assign utility to “eat strawberries” rather than to the whole timeless state “ate strawberries Tuesday, blueberries Wednesday, bananas Thursday” etc.
We do seem to run into some weird problems if we say that the marginal utility of strawberries declines each time you eat a strawberry… though maybe we could say that this is true, everything else held constant or something like that.
Maybe they meant that it doesn’t continue getting less and less good. I dunno.