“Calculation is the life blood of politics,” writes Ernest W. Lefever, “and the heart of ethics” (The Ethics of Calculation,” Worldview, October, italics added). This statement should be subjected to thorough scrutiny, and searchingly criticized.

Indeed, calculation is the heart of ethics as Mr. Lefever understands it. For this reason, there is for him no particular difficulty about making ethicopolitical judgements; and there is little to disturb or limit the “moral-political calculations” of which he speaks, since the heart of morality was already assumed to be calculative. Research the facts and weigh them properly: this is about all that is needed in politics; and, happily, also about all it is the business of ethics to do.