The Classical Philosophers and their Philosophies

SOCRATES (469-399 B.C)

469 BCE

An ancient Greek philosopher that has a huge influence on Western philosophy. The ultimate aim of Socrates' philosophical method is always ethical. Socrates believed that if one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good. Socrates states no one chooses evil; No one chooses to act in ignorance. We seek the good, but fail to achieve it by ignorance or lack of knowledge as to how to obtain what is good. He believes no one would intentionally harm themselves.

PLATO (428-347 B.C)

428 BCE

He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he wrote in the middle of the fourth century (BCE) in ancient Greece. He was influenced and increased the ideas of his teacher (Socrates). Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics. That is to say, happiness or well-being is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it.

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C)

384 BCE

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher in the Classical period in Ancient Greece and was taught by Plato.The moral theory of Aristotle, like that of Plato, focuses on virtue, recommending the virtuous way of life by its relation to happiness. His most important ethical work, Nicomachean Ethics, devotes the first book to a preliminary account of happiness, which is then completed in the last chapters of the final book, Book X. This account ties happiness to excellent activity of the soul.

THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679)

1588

In philosophy, he defended a range of materialist, nominalist, and empiricist views against Cartesian and Aristotelian alternatives. His main grounding in philosophy was on the basis of materialism, believing that everything that happens is a result of the physical world and that the soul, as previous philosophers discussed it, does not exist. Hobbes' contention was that the concept of good and evil are related to human desire and aversion.

JEREMY BENTHAM (1749-1832)

1749

Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher, economist, jurist, and legal reformer and the founder of modern utilitarianism, an ethical theory holding that actions are morally right if they tend to promote happiness or pleasure (and morally wrong if they tend to promote unhappiness or pain) among all those affected by them. He is primarily known today for his moral philosophy, especially his principle of utilitarianism, which evaluates actions based upon their consequences.