Ethical Philosophers and their Respective Ethical Philosophies

Socrates

469 BCE

Weakness of will-doing wrong when you genuinely knew what was right. People only did wrong when at the moment the perceived benefits seemed to outweigh the costs. Hence, the development of personal ethics is mastering what he called "the art of measurement," correcting the distortions that skew one's analyses of benefit and cost.

Plato

428 BCE

Plato held that moral values are objective in the sense that they exist in a spirit-like realm beyond subjective human conventions. He held that they are absolute, or eternal, in that they never change and also that they are universal in so far as they apply to all rational creatures around the world and throughout time.

Aristotle

384 BCE

The ethics of Aristotle is concerned with action, not as being right in itself irrespective of any other consideration, but with actions conducive to man's good. Aristotle sets himself to discover what this good is and what the science corresponding to it is. Aristotle argued that virtues are good habits that we acquire, which regulate our emotions.

Thomas Hobbes - Moral Positivism

1600

According to Thomas Hobbes, people would act on their evil impulses if left alone for themselves; therefore, they should not be trusted to make decisions on their own. In addition, Hobbes felt that like people, nations are selfishly motivated. For him, each country is in a constant battle for power and wealth.

Utilitarianism

1700

"Do whatever produces the greatest good for the greatest number." The theory argues that what makes an act right is its consequences and not the motive of the action. The effects or consequences determine the goodness or badness of an action.