Timeline of Major Ethical Philosophies

Socrates (470 BCE - 399 BCE)

470 BCE

Socrates was convinced that possessing and exercising the virtues are absolutely crucial if a person is to lead a good and happy life. Socrates seems to have held that the virtues of self-control, wisdom, and courage are nothing other than a particular type of knowledge.

Plato (428 BCE- 348 BCE)

428 BCE

Plato is perhaps the best known, most widely studied, and most influential philosopher of all time. He 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 BCE - 322 BCE)

384 BCE

Aristotle made significant and lasting contributions to nearly every aspect of human knowledge, from logic to biology to ethics and aesthetics. His basic thought is that happiness depends on a creature’s perfecting its natural endowments. It follows that the good life for a man involves the attainment of virtue or excellence in reason.

Moral Positivism

1588

Thomas Hobbes believes that human beings are
basically selfish creatures who would do anything to improve
their position. According to Hobbes, people would act on their
evil impulses if left alone for themselves; therefore, they
should not be trusted to make decisions on their own. Hobbes’ moral positivism anticipates the chaotic outcome if laws are not abided.

Utilitarianism

1748

Utilitarianism is one of the most powerful and persuasive approaches to normative ethics in the history of philosophy. This was founded by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill The principle of Utilitarianism is used in Cost-Benefit Analysis, for example, more benefit, less cost, is a good action. It can also be used in the resolution of labor-management conflicts.