"(Gr.hedone pleasure) a method of working out the sum
total of pleasure and pain produced by an act, and thus the total value of its
consequences; also called the felicific calculus; sketched by Bentham in chapter 4 of his Introduction to the
Principles of Morals and Legislation 1789. When determining what action is
right in a given situation, we should consider the pleasures and pains
resulting from it, in respect of their
·
intensity,
·
duration,
·
certainty,
·
propinquity,
·
fecundity (the chance that a pleasure is followed by other
ones, a pain by further pains),
·
purity (the chance that pleasure is followed by pains and
vice versa), and
·
extent (the number of
persons affected).
We should next consider the alternative
courses of action: ideally, this method will determine which act has the best
tendency, and therefore is right. Bentham envisaged
the calculus could be used for criminal law reform: given a crime of a certain
kind it would be possible to work out the minimum penalty necessary for its
prevention."
The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy
ed. Thomas Mautner