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felicific calculus

felicific calculus noun: 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.

Noun

felicific calculus

  1. (historical) 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.
    • Bentham's way of becoming the Newton of the moral world was to develop the "felicific calculus."1918, Wesley C. Mitchell, “Bentham's Felicific Calculus”, in Political Science Quarterly, volume 33, number 2, page 164
    • 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.2011, Theodore Dalrymple, Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality

Synonyms of felicific calculus

Origin of felicific calculus

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

Questions about felicific calculus

What does felicific calculus mean?
Felicific calculus means 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.
What part of speech is felicific calculus?
Felicific calculus is a noun.

Words near felicific calculus in the dictionary

  1. Felicians
  2. felicias
  3. felicidal
  4. felicide
  5. felicific
  6. felicific calculus
  7. felicifically
  8. felicificity
  9. felicitate
  10. felicitated
  11. felicitates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: felicific calculus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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