Jeremy Bentham, a
British utilitarian, believed that
one could develop a
hedonistic calculus to determine what
the ethically correct choice in any given situation. Being a
utilitarian he believed that only acts that produced more
pleasure in the world than
pain were ethical. In
An
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
he lays out the way in which be believes that you can actually
calculate the moral rightness or wrongness of an action.
He lays out
seven basic factors that go into this calculation:
Zero: The
intensity of the pleasure or pain.
One: The
duration of the pleasure or pain.
Two: The
probability that the pleasure or pain will actually follow from the action that you are contemplating.
Three: The
propinquity or
remoteness of the pleasure or pain. (i.e. how much time will elapse before anyone experiences the pleasure or pain)
Four: The
fecundity of the pleasure or pain. How likely is it that a pleasure will lead to more pleasure or a pain to more pain.
Five: The
purity of the pleasure or pain. How likely is it that the a pleasure will
not be followed by pain or that a pain will
not be followed by pleasure.
Six: The
extent of the pleasure or pain. How many people are affected by it.
To actually calculate the moral rightness or wrongness of an act you simply think of all the possible pleasures or pains that could result from that act. You then determine the value of the six factors above for each of the possible pleasures and pains. Then for each pleasure or pain you take
intensity times
duration times
probability times
extent. Sum up those results and take
propinquity,
fecundity, and
purity into consideration as mitigating factors. If you end up with more
hedons than
dolors then the act is justified by the
principle of utility otherwise it is not.