felicific calculus
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word felicific calculus. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word felicific calculus, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say felicific calculus in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word felicific calculus you have here. The definition of the word felicific calculus will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition offelicific calculus, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Widely attributed to British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), but apparently used only by his successors.[1]
Noun
- (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."
Synonyms
References
- ^ 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.