Edgeworth's mathematization of social well-being

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's unduly neglected monograph New and Old Methods of Ethics (1877) advances a highly sophisticated and mathematized account of social well-being in the utilitarian tradition of his 19th-century contemporaries. This article illustrates how his usage of the ‘calculus of variations’ was combined with findings from empirical psychology and economic theory to construct a consequentialist axiological framework. A conclusion is drawn that Edgeworth is a methodological predecessor to several important methods, ideas, and issues that continue to be discussed in contemporary social well-being studies. •Provides an account of Francis Ysidro Edgeworth's psychological and economic views, and how his interlocutors influenced him.•Discusses his methodology in the monograph New and Old Methods of Ethics.•Illustrates his usage of mathematical methods in physics for the application of social well-being research.•Contributes to the history of well-being research by way of 1870's economic thinking.•Present methods and issues in social well-being methodology have precedent in the 1870's.