Editing Ethical calculus

{{Short description|Application of mathematics to calculate issues in ethics}}
An '''ethical calculus''' is the application of [[mathematics]] to [[calculate]] issues in [[ethics]]. 

==Scope==
Generally, ethical calculus refers to any method of determining a course of action in a circumstance that is not explicitly evaluated in one's [[ethical code]].

A formal philosophy of ethical calculus is a development in the study of [[ethics]], combining elements of [[natural selection]], [[self-organizing systems]], [[emergence]], and [[algorithm]] theory. According to ethical calculus, the most ethical course of action in a situation is an absolute, but rather than being based on a static ethical code, the ethical code itself is a function of circumstances. The optimal ethic is the best possible course of action taken by an individual with the given limitations. 

While ethical calculus is, in some ways, similar to [[moral relativism]], the former finds its grounds in the circumstance while the latter depends on social and cultural context for moral judgment. Ethical calculus would most accurately be regarded as a form of dynamic [[moral absolutism]].

Ethical calculus is not to be confused with [[ethics in mathematics]] or [[ethics of quantification]] which study the moral questions coming from mathematical practice and quantification in society. 

==Examples==
Francis Hutcheson devoted a section of his 1725 work ''Inquiry into the Original of our ideas and Beauty and Virtue'' to "an attempt to introduce a Mathematical Calculation in subjects of Morality". Formulas included:<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YRurAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA173 Page 173] in: {{cite book|chapter=The Invention of the Ethical Calculus|title=Seventeenth Century Studies in the History of English Thought and Literature from Bacon to Pope|year=1951|author=R. F. Jones|publisher=Stanford University Press}}</ref>
* M = B × A
where,
*M is the moral importance of any agent
*B is the [[wikt:benevolence|benevolence]] of the agent
*A is the ability of the agent

Another example is the [[felicific calculus]] formulated by [[utilitarianism|utilitarian]] philosopher [[Jeremy Bentham]] for calculating the degree or amount of [[pleasure]] that a specific action is likely to cause.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bentham |first=Jeremy |title=An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation |publisher=Dover Publications Inc. |year=2007 |isbn=978-0486454528}}</ref>  Bentham, an [[ethics|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.

== See also ==
*[[Ethics]]
*[[Felicific calculus]]
*[[Formal ethics]]
*[[Moral absolutism]]
*[[Morality]]
*[[Science of morality]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ethical principles]]
[[Category:Utilitarianism]]