The circumstances you describe are pretty weird. When I search my wallet for a single, I don’t think, “There are twelve bills in my wallet. I hope one of them is a single.” I think, “That a single? Nope. That one? Nope. That one? There we go!” The question isn’t, “What’s the value of each bill in my possession,” but, “Do I have a single in my possession?” Discovering that I have a single simply does not entail discovering that I don’t have a bill of greater value.
But I think you may be missing the meaning of that happiness you experienced. Your immediate goal was buying M&M’s. You thought you couldn’t accomplish this. Then, you found out you could, and this made you happy. That happiness was not comparative; you simply experienced a kick of satisfaction because something you hoped for turned out to be true. Your happiness is not an indicator of your general preferences, it is a result of your hope being fulfilled. Concluding that experience indicates you preferred having $1 to having $5 may be inappropriate.
The circumstances you describe are pretty weird. When I search my wallet for a single, I don’t think, “There are twelve bills in my wallet. I hope one of them is a single.” I think, “That a single? Nope. That one? Nope. That one? There we go!” The question isn’t, “What’s the value of each bill in my possession,” but, “Do I have a single in my possession?” Discovering that I have a single simply does not entail discovering that I don’t have a bill of greater value.
But I think you may be missing the meaning of that happiness you experienced. Your immediate goal was buying M&M’s. You thought you couldn’t accomplish this. Then, you found out you could, and this made you happy. That happiness was not comparative; you simply experienced a kick of satisfaction because something you hoped for turned out to be true. Your happiness is not an indicator of your general preferences, it is a result of your hope being fulfilled. Concluding that experience indicates you preferred having $1 to having $5 may be inappropriate.