Now how do you normalize the two scales,
As I said above, this could be done either in terms of felt intensity or intensity of desire.
This exchange seems to have proceeded as follows:
Lukas: You can't normalize the pleasure and pain scales.
Pablo: Yes, you can, by considering either the intensity of the experience or the intensity of the desire.
Lukas: Ah, but you need to rely on introspection to do that.
Pablo: Yes, but you also need to rely on introspection to make comparisons within pains.
Lukas: But you can't normalize the pleasure and pain scales.
As my reconstruction of the exchange indicates, I don't think you are raising a valid objection here, since I believe I have already addressed that problem. Once you leave out worries about introspection, what are your reasons for thinking that classical utilitarians cannot make non-arbitrary comparisons between pleasures and pains, while thinking that negative utilitarians can make non-arbitrary comparisons within pains?
If you write down all we can know about pleasures (in the moment), and all we can know about pains, you may find parameters to compare (like "intensity", or amount of neurotransmitters, or something else), but there would be no reason why people need to choose an exchange rate corresponding to some measured properties. I believe your point is that we "have reason" to pick intensity here, but I don't see why it is rationally required of beings to care about it, and I believe empirically, many people do not care about it, and certainly yo...
I've always been more of a theoretician, but it's important to try one's hand at practical problems from time to time. In that vein, I've decided to try three simultaneous experiments on major Less Wrong themes. I will aim to acquire something to protect, I will practice training a seed intelligence, and I will become more familiar with many consequences of evolutionary psychology.
In the spirit of efficiency I'll combine all these experiments into one:
She's never seen Star Wars or Doctor Who.
She's never seen David Attenborough or read J. L. Borges.
She's never had a philosophical debate.
She's never been skiing.
Never had sex, never been hugged or even been licked by a dog!
She has so much to look forwards to...
(Though she'll be very boring for several months yet!)