Felicific calculus Felicific calculus The felicific calculus is an algorithm formulated by utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) for calculating the degree or amount of pleasure that a specific action is likely to cause. Bentham, an ethical hedonist, believed the moral rightness or wrongness of an action to be a function of the amount of pleasure or pain that it produced. The felicific calculus could, in principle at least, determine the moral status of any considered act. The algorithm is also known as the utility calculus, the hedonistic calculus and the hedonic calculus. To be included in this calculation are several variables (or
Philosophy of human rights man’ correlative, interdependent and ‘one to one-cum-one for other’ approach, namely, the ‘Man for Man Theory’ approach of world peace. The idea of human rights is not without its critics. Jeremy Bentham, Edmund Burke, Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx are examples of historical philosophers who criticised the notion of natural rights. Alasdair MacIntyre is a leading contemporary critic of human rights. His criticisms are discussed below. Edmund Burke was an 18th-century philosopher, political theorist and statesman largely associated with the school of conservatism. His views on natural rights are best articulated in "Reflections on the Revolution in France", which directly