Final answer:
Jeremy Bentham created the concept of 'hedonistic calculus' within the framework of utilitarianism, which assesses the moral worth of an action based on its capacity to produce pleasure and minimize pain for the greatest number. John Stuart Mill later refined Bentham's ideas by distinguishing between higher and lower pleasures, posing a more nuanced approach to utilitarian ethics.
Step-by-step explanation:
The concept of "hedonistic calculus" was created by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who founded the utilitarianism school of thought. This concept revolves around individuals maximizing pleasure and reducing pain, aiming to perform actions that produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Bentham’s utilitarianism incorporates ideas of intensity, duration, certainty, proximity, fecundity (the likelihood of pleasures or pains giving birth to more of the same), purity (the chance that pleasures or pains will not be followed by sensations of the opposite kind), and extent (the number of people affected by the pleasure or pain) to evaluate the moral value of an action.
John Stuart Mill, another utilitarian philosopher, expanded upon Bentham's ideas, introducing a qualitative differentiation between pleasures. Mill suggested that intellectual or 'higher' pleasures should hold more weight in the calculus of happiness compared to more basic or 'lower' pleasures. This refinement addresses criticisms that merely quantitative assessments of pleasure and pain are insufficient for ethical decision-making.