Can happiness be measured?

Written by Juwon Lee

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Nineteenth-century philosophers, most notably John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, evaluated the morality of an action based on its ability to generate the greatest happiness. These two philosophers both believed in Utilitarianism, which is a consequentialist ethical theory that suggests that the best action is the one that causes the most happiness and minimises suffering. And yet, how each of them measured happiness varied greatly. Mill proposed that the quality of pleasure was more significant than the amount, distinguishing between intellectual pleasures, such as deep reading, and lower sensational pleasures, such as food. Contrastingly, Bentham focused more on the quantity of pleasure; in his perspective, if the cookie was more delicious than the book was good, then the person was happier eating the cookie. 

For Mill, it was pretty easy to measure which actions led to happier results; he simply had to consider how intellectual the action was. However, Bentham’s measure of happiness is more subjective; two kids could eat the same chocolate cake and feel different quantities of joy. One might like chocolate more, have a larger appetite, or simply be in a better mood. So can happiness have a scale? Modern technology says yes. From self-report surveys to advanced neuroimaging, we are exposed to countless methods to compute our happiness. 

In short, the answer to the question is yes; whether you seek intellectual joy or want a solid number on a machine, happiness is measurable by numerous scales. But another question now arises. Measuring happiness forces the abstract concept of happiness into concrete statistics. On that account, here is one final question: is happiness meant to be measured? 

Bibliography

The Floating Press. Utilitarianism. The Floating Press, 1879, https://www.utilitarianism.com/jsmill-utilitarianism.pdf.

Piovarchy, Adam. “Pleasure, Happiness, and the Moral Life John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, Chapter 2 – The Philosophy Teaching Library.” The Philosophy Teaching Library, https://philolibrary.crc.nd.edu/article/pleasure-equals-happiness/. Accessed 10 March 2026.

University of Oxford. Lecture III: Moving on from Bentham: Quantity and Quality. Lecture III: Moving on from Bentham: Quantity and Quality, https://users.ox.ac.uk/~ajryan/lectures/Utilitarianism/Mill%20Lecture%203.pdf.

West, Henry R. “Utilitarianism | Definition, Philosophy, Examples, Ethics, Philosophers, & Facts.” Britannica, 16 January 2026, https://www.britannica.com/topic/utilitarianism-philosophy. Accessed 10 March 2026.