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"The unexamined life is not worth living," Socrates says, emphasizing the need of seeking knowledge and wisdom over personal desires. Thus, knowledge is pursued as a path to ethical behavior in this way. Socrates claims that virtue can be taught, though he claims to not have known it himself, and that those who conduct badly do so only because they are unaware of or misunderstand the true nature of virtue. -
Plato, like most other ancient philosophers, believes in virtue-based ethics. Plato's major goal is to challenge most people's notions about goodness because it is here that they go horribly wrong in their attempts to live happy lives. He believes that happiness, or well-being, is the highest goal of moral thought and action and that the virtues are the necessary talents and dispositions to achieve it. -
Virtues, according to Aristotle, are excellent habits that we develop and that manage our emotions. In contrast to Plato, he did not believe virtues to be simple knowledge in his philosophy. He described it as something that should be done in moderation and in harmony with nature. Aristotle's "The Golden Mean Principle" focuses on the point where two extremes meet in the middle, although as Aristotle says, the middle ground is frequently closer to one extreme than the other. -
Thomas Hobbes believed that if individuals were left to their own devices, they would act on their negative impulses; hence, they could not be trusted to make decisions on their own. Furthermore, Hobbes believed that nations, like people, are motivated by self-interest. Moral positivism, as envisioned by Hobbes, foresees chaos if laws are disobeyed. -
Utilitarianism is a distinct ethical perspective that did not arise until the 18th century, and while it is commonly credited to Jeremy Bentham, there were previous thinkers who advanced notions that were substantially similar. The maxim "Do whatever creates the greatest good for the greatest number" best explains utilitarian ethics, which contends that the effects of an action, not the motive for the activity, determine its morality.