felicific calculus

English

Etymology

Widely attributed to British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), but apparently used only by his successors.[1]

Noun

felicific calculus

  1. (historical, philosophy, economics) A quasi-mathematical technique proposed by 19th-century utilitarian ethical theorists for determining the net amount of happiness, pleasure, or utility resulting from an action, sometimes regarded as a precursor of cost-benefit analysis.
    • 1918, Wesley C. Mitchell, “Bentham's Felicific Calculus”, in Political Science Quarterly, volume 33, number 2, page 164:
      Bentham's way of becoming the Newton of the moral world was to develop the "felicific calculus."
    • 2011, Theodore Dalrymple, Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality:
      Peter Singer is a strict utilitarian who believes in the felicific calculus: that to behave ethically one’s actions must be calculated to bring about the maximum of pleasure and the minimum of pain.

Synonyms

References

  1. ^ The technique of felicific calculus was famously described by Bentham in chapter 4 of An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), although Bentham did not use the precise term "felicific calculus" in that work.
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