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"Truth is relative. It is only a matter of opinion."
Protagoras was the most famous Sophist of his day. He was renowned as a teacher of rhetoric and politics throughout Greece by the time of his death. His most famous doctrine, that "man is the measure of all things," -
“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.”
Socrates of Athens 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 is, in fact, known as the "Father of Western Philosophy" for this reason. Socrates was the wisest man in the world because he did not claim to know anything of importance. -
"Knowledge is virtue."
Plato was a student of Socrates and later taught Aristotle. He founded the Academy, an academic program which many consider to be the first Western university. Plato wrote many philosophical texts—at least 25. He dedicated his life to learning and teaching and is hailed as one of the founders of Western philosophy. -
“Virtue lies in our power, and similarly so does vice; because where it is in our power to act, it is also in our power not to act."
Aristotle is viewed as the intellectual godfather of the virtue theory of ethics. This facet of business ethics is person rather than action based; meaning, it asks more about a person’s character in making ethical business decisions. -
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
Thomas Aquinas was the greatest of the Scholastic philosophers. He produced a comprehensive synthesis of Christian theology and Aristotelian philosophy that influenced Roman Catholic doctrine for centuries and was adopted as the official philosophy of the church in 1917. -
“If all men by nature desire to know, then they desire most of all the greatest knowledge of science."
John Duns Scotus was one of the most significant Christian philosophers and theologians of the medieval period. Scotus made important and influential contributions in metaphysics, ethics, and natural theology. -
"Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different."
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, scientist, and historian best known for his political philosophy. His enduring contribution was as a political philosopher who justified wide-ranging government powers on the basis of the self-interested consent of citizens. -
“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.”
David Hume is a scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. Hume tried to describe how the mind works in acquiring what is called knowledge. He concluded that no theory of reality is possible; there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience.