Preface

Summary

The utility of an event depends on various factors. According to tradition, it may be broken down into the event's utility for each of the people it affects, or the utilities of the possible worlds it may yield, or the utilities of the goods and bads it realizes. Each form of utility analysis introduces a dimension along which an event's utility is dispersed. Utility analysis gains power and versatility if traditional methods of analysis are systemized to form one multidimensional method of analysis. My aim is to bring about this unification and thereby advance decision theory, which relies on analyses of an option's utility.

Multidimensional utility analysis both improves and enriches decision theory. It improves decision theory by providing new formulations of important decision principles, such as the principle to maximize expected utility. It also enriches decision theory by adding the power to solve recalcitrant decision problems. In particular, the richer theory handles cases in which an expert makes a decision for a group of people. The multiple dimensions of analysis create a decision space broad enough to accommodate all factors affecting an option's utility.

My theory's cornerstone is a new form of intrinsic utility analysis. It uses basic parcels of utility to which all other utilities are reducible. Other forms of utility analysis use utilities constructed from these basic parcels.