-
Socrates (470-399 BCE)
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socratic Ethics is concerned with the fact that virtue is knowledge. It also concerns that possessing virtue is essential for a good life. -
Plato (428-348 BCE)
“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils.” It is concerned with the virtue of justice being essential for a good life. Moreover, justice is attained by balancing the appetite, reason, and spirit of a person. -
Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
"Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." This ethics is concerned with the fact that living virtuously is important for having a good life. It discusses the Golden Mean which is that virtue is defined as the middle between a deficient and an excess trait. -
Epicurus
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” This ethics tells that a virtuous life is a life that produces the maximum pleasure. This also tells that pursuing pleasure is considered a virtuous thing to do. But, one is told to be mindful of the pursuit of pleasure by not seeking short-term gratification but instead long-term happiness. -
Marcus Aurelius
“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” This philosophy believes that a person should live by rationality. Furthermore, he must live his assigned role in nature to attain an ethical life. -
St. Augustine
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” This ethical philosophy tells that a person has the intellectual capacity to judge what is the best action to take. But, this knowledge of good could just be rejected by the individual to act other otherwise and unethically. -
St. Thomas Aquinas
“Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.” One of its main beliefs is that the human life's goal is fulfilled in his supernatural union with God in the afterlife. -
David Hume
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” Hume's ethics believe that feelings should prevail over reasoning in considering ethical philosophy. -
Immanuel Kant
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.” Kantian ethics tells that a moral person considering making an ethical action should treat the other person as an end by itself and not a means of the action. -
Jean-Paul Sartre (the man on the picture)
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
It is up to you to give [life] a meaning.” The first existential philosopher was Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). One of the beliefs in existential ethics is that people are free from the constraints of religions concerning values. On the other hand, they have the freedom to live authentically.