Ethical Philosophers

By reya07
  • 470 BCE

    Socrates

    Socrates
    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 and just manner.
  • 428 BCE

    Plato

    Plato
    Happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues (aretê: 'excellence') are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it.
  • 384 BCE

    Aristotle

    Aristotle
    His ethics, or study of character, is built around the premise that people should achieve an excellent character (a virtuous character, "ethikē aretē" in Greek) as a pre-condition for attaining happiness or well-being (eudaimonia).
  • 341 BCE

    Epicurus

    Epicurus
    Teaches that the greatest good is to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquillity, freedom from fear ("ataraxia") and absence from bodily pain ("aponia").
  • 335 BCE

    Zeno of Citium

    Zeno of Citium
    Taught that the Logos (Universal Reason) was the greatest good in life and living in accordance with reason was the purpose of human life.
  • 354

    St. Augustine

    St. Augustine
    Regards ethics as an enquiry into the Summum Bonum: the supreme good, which provides the happiness all human beings seek.
  • 1274

    St. Thomas Aquinas

    St. Thomas Aquinas
    Believes that moral thought is mainly about bringing moral order to one's own action and will.

  • Thomas Hobbes

    Thomas Hobbes
    His main grounding in philosophy was on the basis of materialism, believing that everything that happens is a result of the physical world and that the soul, as previous philosophers discussed it, does not exist.

  • Immanuel Kant

    Immanuel Kant
    His ethics are organized around the notion of a “categorical imperative,” which is a universal ethical principle stating that one should always respect the humanity in others, and that one should only act in accordance with rules that could hold for everyone.

  • Jeremy Bentham

    Jeremy Bentham
    Was a philosopher, economist, jurist, and legal reformer and the founder of modern utilitarianism, an ethical theory holding that actions are morally right if they tend to promote happiness or pleasure (and morally wrong if they tend to promote unhappiness or pain) among all those affected by them.