A qualification introduced by Jeremy Bentham, to distinguish between two different types of utilities, or, rather, sources of utility (for utility, being identical to pleasure, remains always qualitatively the same). Expectation utilities are future-regarding, and thus imply desires and beliefs; "natural" utilities are not. Expectation utilities allow for long-term projects, which provide a higher proportion of utility than the natural utilities favored by those agents that can only pursue their immediate interest.
Famous quotes containing the words expectation and/or utilities:
“I have no expectation that any man will read history aright who thinks that what has been done in a remote age, by men whose names have resounded far, has any deeper sense than what he is doing to-day.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Flowers and fruits are always fit presents; flowers, because they are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all of the utilities of the world. These gay natures contrast with the somewhat stern countenance of ordinary nature: they are like music heard out of a work-house.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)