Utility as an axiom for life?

[Steamy]

I define utility to be one's overall satisfaction at any given moment. For this to be the case, it must include all possible feelings a human can experience. Indeed, each emotion influences overall utility with a different weighting, and these weightings change with each moment subject to the environment.

Some have tried to objectively measure the utility of individuals, with not much success. While certain emotions such as happiness, pleasure and anger can be correlated with higher and lower utilities, overall utility is still very much personal to each individual. As it would be misleading to only include happiness and pleasure in utility, every single possible emotion is included, unlike hedonism and utilitarianism.
While utility is an immeasurable concept, there is no doubt that every human does have a set level of utility at all waking hours, since every human is always feeling something at every moment.

You make every decision in your life because you feel the outcome(s) of the decision will result in the highest utility for yourself, considering both the short and long term. If you felt it would not, you would have made a different decision. Note the difference between the utility that one earns from making a decision, and the utility one actually receives.
For example, consider person A that follows a hedonistic mindset (one that aims to maximise pleasure and minimise pain), and a more disciplined person B, who sacrifices the majority of pleasures in the present. Clearly, person B values the future much more than person A, and person A does not see much long-term payoff from feeling pain in the present. While they take opposite approaches to life, they both attempt to increase their overall utility. It is just that pleasure has a higher weight in person A's utility function, while person B's utility lost from physical and mental discipline is less than would be lost through the dissatisfaction of not working towards their long-term goals.

Here is the axiom I propose: In the present moment, every human prefers higher levels of utility to lower levels of utility.

Every single waking moment of every human life can be linked in some way to this principle of utility. Every decision you make, every goal you strive for, and every fulfilling activity and action can be derived from this principle of utility.
Since the principle of utility is truly universal, I propose it as an axiom for life.

[Agent Smith]

A valiant attempt, hats off ta ya, to tame the wild of the wilderness. It seems reasonable to come to the conclusion thou hast. Is it original or a variation of an older idea? Tell you what, it doesn't matter. I endorse the thesis, it's not gonna cause a mutiny on the creaky, old ship of life. That's a win in my book, we're running outta food and fresh water, and we have little to no clue where we are or where we're (supposed to be) headed. Hey, that'a just us being us, si?

There should be a crate of rum somewhere on the ship!

15 men on a dead man's chest!
Yo ho ho and a bottle a rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest!
Yo ho ho and a bottle a rum!

He drank, he puked, he slept.

[alan1000]

I think, Steamy, that nobody would question your axiom. It is surely the first principle of Utilitarian philosophy.

The central problem of the utilitarian ethic, though, as you yourself imply, is the problem of relative value. A christian fundamentalist and a secular humanist will have very different scales of values. And so a further, higher-level scale of values is needed to arbitrate and reconcile these value-scales. What model are you proposing to achieve this?

[cadi3]

To address the problem of relative value and reconcile different value scales, a possible approach is to consider a broader framework that incorporates multiple ethical theories or principles. This approach recognizes that different individuals or groups may prioritize different values and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.