Applying modern economics to Edgeworth's Hedonical Calculus
Hedonics comes from Benthams utilitarianism. The main problem with reifying this into mathematics is that these are not measurable. Instead, one develops proxies for such, which I'd suggest the hedonics is and it suffers from the same problem.
Whilst it's easy to say that six apples are six apples and there are no two ways about it, it is much more difficult to measure 'a happiness index' in eating apples: someone may have an allergy to them, or perhaps they had a bad experience with them.
It reminds me of the Social Realism of Stalins Soviet Union. Official pronouncements of the happiness of the people whilst the people were suffering. Of course, Capitalism has its own Capitialist Realism - just look at adverts - they are the analogue to this art: happy consumers being 'overjoyed' in recieving new products. There's a good reason when many happiness surveys show that the people aren't as happy as one might think ...