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469 BCE
SOCRATES (469-399BC)
The goal of Socrates' method is always ethical. He believed that if one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good. Thus if one truly understands the meaning of courage, self-control or justice, one will act in a courageous, self-controlled & just manner. Socrates questions opinions clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society, he worked to critically examine the foundational beliefs that were common in Greece during & encouraged other citizens to do so as well. -
428 BCE
PLATO (428-347 BC)
Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics. Plato held that moral values are objective in the sense that they exist in a spirit-like realm beyond subjective human conventions. He held that they are absolute, or eternal, in that they never change, and also that they are universal insofar as they apply to all rational creatures around the world and throughout time. (Racelis, 2017) -
384 BCE
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)
Aristotle emphasized that virtue is practical, and that the purpose of ethics is to become good, not merely to know. He also claims that the right course of action depends upon the details of a particular situation than being generated merely by applying a law. He was concerned with action, not as being right in itself irrespective of any other consideration, but with actions conducive to man’s good. Aristotle sets himself to discover what this good is and what the science corresponding to it.
