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Period: 469 BCE to 399 BCE
Socrates
The philosopher Socrates is still as mysterious and puzzling today as he was during his lifetime he is regarded as one of the few thinkers who forever altered how philosophy itself was to be understood. According to him, knowledge and wisdom should come before personal desires since "the unexamined life is not worth living." In this way, knowledge is pursued as a tool for moral behavior. -
Period: 428 BCE to 348 BCE
Plato
By many accounts, Plato is one of the most brilliant authors in the Western literary canon as well as one of the most insightful, all-encompassing, and important thinkers in the history of philosophy. Plato, like the majority of other ancient philosophers, promotes a virtue-based, eudaemonistic view of ethics. Eudaimonia, or happiness or well-being, is the ultimate goal of moral thought and behavior, and the virtues (aretê: "excellence") are the necessary abilities and attitudes to achieve it. -
Period: 384 BCE to 322 BCE
Aristotle
One of history's greatest philosophers is Aristotle. Only Plato can rival Aristotle in terms of philosophical influence alone; his writings, which influenced philosophy from the Late Antiquity to the Renaissance, are still read today with a deep, non-antiquarian interest. The foundation of Aristotle's ethics, or study of character, is the idea that virtuous character, or "ethikē aretē" in Greek, should be attained by individuals as a requirement for achieving happiness or well-being.