they observe the choices made by consumers and use this information to rank consumption options from the least preferred to the most desirable.

Initially, the term utility equated usefulness with the production of pleasure and avoidance of pain by moral philosophers, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. In line with this philosophy, the concept of utility was defined as "the feelings of pleasure and pain" and further as a "quantity of feeling".

Contemporary mainstream economic theory frequently defers metaphysical questions, and

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