A return to Bentham's felicific calculus: From moral welfarism to technical non-welfarism

Antoinette Baujard

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2009, vol. 16, issue 3, 431-453

Abstract: This paper is a study of Bentham's felicific calculus. Challenging a view that contrasts 'cardinal' to 'ordinal' calculus, we show that these two forms of calculus constitute instead different phases of a single approach. Bentham sometimes has to rely upon proxy variables because of operational constraints, and consequently upon factors other than utility. As a utilitarian, Bentham is de facto welfarist from an ethical point of view. Surprisingly however, this study shows that Bentham resorts to non-welfare information in the actual application of his calculus. His approach reconciles non-welfarism from the technical standpoint with welfarism as a fundamental moral principle.

Keywords: Bentham; individual utility; utility calculus; utilitarianism; welfarism; social welfare (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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DOI: 10.1080/09672560903101294

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