-
Protagoras, one of the first sophists (those who teach the skill of public speaking), denied the existence of objective moral truth and advocated for a form of moral relativism. He emphasized how moral codes are largely human constructs, consisting of a set of norms followed and defended by specific societies. -
Socrates was convinced that virtues must be possessed and exercised in order for a person to have a good and happy (eudaimon) existence. The objective of philosophical investigation into the virtues is that acting rightly necessitates understanding of the human good. Indeed, Socrates appears to have believed that the virtues of self-control, wisdom, and courage are just another sort of knowledge. -
"Whatever the city establishes as just, is just for that city as long as it judges so," he is supposed to have stated in Plato's Theaetetus. Callicles argues in Plato's Gorgias that traditional moral norms are the creations of a weak majority in order to subjugate the dominant minority. Weak men foster belief in equality's goodness because that is the best they can achieve. It is a natural law that the strong should have more than the weak. -
Happiness (eudaimonia)—living well—depends on a creature's innate attributes being perfected, according to Aristotle. As a result, the good life for man is achieving virtue or greatness in reason. In general, he claims that character and intellect virtues are ways of refining reason and thus essential to a decent human life. He does not, however, dismiss the importance of friends, riches, and social rank in leading a happy life. -
Saint Augustine (354 BCE–430 BCE) believed that one could know the right thing to do but not do it. Augustine creates a concept of the will as an executive force that is not bound by the intellect's judgements in order to make sense of this potential. A person can carry out an action that he believes is completely unjustifiable. The will has the ability to reject the intellect's decisions at any time. The will has the ability to choose to do something that the intellect deems to be harmful. -
Epicurus associates eudaimonia with a life of pleasure, defining it as a more or less continuous feeling of pleasure, as well as freedom from suffering and misery (ataraxia). Epicurus, on the other hand, does not recommend indulging in any and all pleasures. Rather, he advocates for a policy that prioritizes long-term pleasures. Some pleasures aren't worth having because they lead to more pains, while others are worth having because they lead to more joys. -
The universe itself is guided by laws of reason and built in the greatest possible way, according to Stoic thinking. This philosophical theory is linked to the ethical belief that the good life is one lived according to reason. Moral goodness and happiness are achieved by reflecting the world's flawless logic in oneself and discovering and living one's allocated function in the cosmic order of things.