From moral welfarism to technical non-welfarism: A step back to Bentham’s felicific calculus of its members

Antoinette Baujard

Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) from Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS

Abstract: A focus on the information used in Bentham’s felicific calculus sheds new light on the contemporary debate in normative economics opposing non-welfarism to welfarism. As a utilitarian, Bentham is de facto welfarist on a moral sense. Unexpectedly, this study shows Bentham resorts to non-welfarist information in his calculus. Thus, technical non-welfarism is coherent with moral welfarism, and even, the former proves necessary not to betray utilitarian principles. To sustain this claim, we challenge a view opposing a “cardinal” to an “ordinal” calculus: these two calculi constitute different stages of a unique calculus; because of operational constraints, Bentham is bound to rely on proxies, hence on non-utility information.

Keywords: Bentham; individual utility; utility calculus; utilitarianism; welfarism; non-welfarism; social welfare; technical welfarism; moral welfarism. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B12 B31 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe and nep-upt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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