Philosophy

Bentham tried to turn morality into arithmetic

Jeremy Bentham proposed that any action's rightness could in principle be calculated by weighing the pleasure and pain it causes across seven dimensions — intensity, duration, certainty and more — then summing the result for everyone affected. His 'felicific calculus' underpins utilitarianism: the idea that the right action produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation — 1789
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