Major Ethical Philosophies

  • 428 BCE

    Plato

    Plato supports a eudaemonistic eudaemonistic ethics based on virtue. Happiness or well-being, to put it another way. He devised a methodical, logical examination of the shapes and their interrelationships, beginning with the most fundamental.
  • 399 BCE

    Socrates

    If evil were never done deliberately or voluntarily, then evil would be an involuntary act and consequently no one could properly be held responsible for the evil that is done. Since, on Socrates' view, the good is that which furthers a person's real interests, it will follow that if the good is known, people will seek it. But many times people do not.
  • 322 BCE

    Aristotle

    built around the premise that people should achieve an excellent character