moral calculus
Weighing right wrong
Moral calculus is the process of weighing competing ethical considerations to reach a decision.
The term borrows from mathematics to suggest systematic evaluation: The moral calculus of war requires balancing civilian casualties against strategic objectives.
It often appears when choices involve trade-offs between values that can't easily be compared—lives against liberty, individual rights against collective good.
The phrase can carry skepticism, implying that some things shouldn't be reduced to calculation.
- ethicsStudy of right conduct
- utilitarianismGreatest-happiness moral theory
- trolleyWheeled cart or railcar
- ethical dilemmaSituation with competing values
- consequentialismEthics judging by results
tradeoff · lesser evil · weighing · dilemma · greater good · sacrifice · body count · cost-benefit · harm · suffering · intention · outcome · philosophy · Bentham · hedonic · scales · arithmetic · ledger
- Ethics Termsmeta-ethics, casuistry, teleology, utilitarianism, ethical theory
- utilitarianismutilitarianism, utility, consequentialism, welfarism, John Stuart Mill
- ethicsdeontology, dignity, sanctity of life, utilitarianism, consequentialism
- Leibniz philosophyLeibniz, monads, sufficient reason, theodicy, substance theory
moral calculusgut instinct
Immediate unreasoned knowing
moral intuition · intuition · gut feeling · snap judgment · instinct
moral calculusconscience
Internal moral sense
empathy · compassion · moral outrage · righteous anger · guilt
moral, morals, morality, moralist, moralistic, moralize, moralizing, morally, immoral