Timeline of Major Ethical Philosophers

  • Period: 500 BCE to

    TIMELINE OFMAJOR ETHICAL PHILOSOPHERS

  • Socrates
    470 BCE

    Socrates

    -Is among the most famous figures in world history for his contributions to the development of ancient Greek philosophy which provided the foundation for all of Western Philosophy.
    -He believed that philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater well-being of society. Socrates pointed out that human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness.
  • Aristotle
    384 BCE

    Aristotle

    -A Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition.
    -Teleological- from the Greek word "telos" means "end". What conduces to the attainment of his good or end will be a "right" action on man's part; the action that is opposed to the attainment of his true good will be a "wrong" action.
  • Plato
    348 BCE

    Plato

    -According to him, moral values are absolute truths, eternal and spirituql objects. Having been inspired on mathematics, he gave an example such as 1+1=2, the concept seem to be timeless and never change.
    -Plato shares the teaching of his master, Socrates, to make all virtue is knowledge and vice is ignorance or erraneous view. Whence the conclusion is inevitable: No evil deed is willfully done; and therefore, no man is to blame for being wicked (Coppens, 1985).
  • Thomas Hobbes

    Thomas Hobbes

    -Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian best known for his political philosophy, especially as articulated in his masterpiece Leviathan
    -A political philosopher who justified wide-ranging government powers on the basis of the self-interested consent of citizens. In Hobbes’s social contract, the many trade liberty for safety.
  • Karl Marx

    Karl Marx

    -Karl Marx was a German philosopher during the 19th century. He worked primarily in the realm of political philosophy and was a famous advocate for communism. He cowrote The Communist Manifesto and was the author of Das Kapital, which together formed the basis of Marxism.