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551 BCE
Confucius ( 551 BCE-479 BCE) “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
During the 6th century BC, Confucius saw the moral decline that has resulted from the deterioration of Chinese principles. He believed it was his obligation to reinforce the societal values and compassion. He saw a better society where moral principles are based on the Golden Rule, "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others."
His reciprocity ethics were based on the concept of self-discipline. A leader must set a positive example, remain humble, and treat his people with compassion. -
470 BCE
SOCRATES (470-399 BCE) "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing."
According to a quotation from him, he was wise because he understood his own ignorance, but ignorant because he had any ideas. He asked questions rather than bragged about his knowledge. The audience is forced to reason through a problem to a logical conclusion using a technique known as dialectic method. Western systems of logic and philosophy are built on the Socratic approach. -
427 BCE
Plato(428-348 BCE) "Knowledge is Virtue."
Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics. That is to say, happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues (aretê: 'excellence') are the dispositions/skills needed to attain it. -
384 BCE
Aristotle (384-322 BCE) "We are not studying in order to know what virtue is, but to become good, for otherwise there would be no profit in it."
Aristotle believed that knowledge is acquired through interaction with objects, and coined the term "ethics" to describe a branch of knowledge created by his forebears. He argued that knowledge is gained through experience, and ethics can be found in reason and thought as well as conduct. -
1225
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) "Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do."
Aquinas believes that we should always follow our conscience, even when it is wrong or causes great harm. Since we have no way of knowing whether our consciences are wrong, they are the best guide we have as to what is the moral thing to do. -
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) "We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without."
He is the most important proponent in philosophical history of deontological, or duty based, ethics. In Kant's view, the sole feature that gives an action moral worth is not the outcome that is achieved by the action, but the motive that is behind the action. -
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do.”
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 -
Max Stirner(1806-1856) “Whoever will be free must make himself free.
Stirner argued that ideologies beyond the true self never lead to true self-interest and true freedom. An ethical egoist has a clear idea of what the self 'is' and only then is free to act in a self-interested way. -
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) "The Greatest Happiness Principle holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness and wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."
Mill defines utilitarianism as a theory based on the principle that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness." Mill defines happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain. -
Martin Buber (1878-1965) “When two people relate to each other authentically and humanly, God is the electricity that surges between them.”
Buber's ethical concept of the demarcation line—to be drawn anew every day between the maximum of good that can be done in a concrete situation and the minimum of evil that must be done in it—calls for an I–Thou relation whenever possible and settles for an I–It relation whenever necessary -
Viktor Frankl(1905-1997) “No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same.”
Frankl emphasized that freedom of will is the essence of human existence; it is the inevitable first principle. Human beings ought to act in an ethical and responsible way towards others as well as the demands of life. This “oughtness” within is similar to Kant's moral obligation -
John Rawls (1921-2002) “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. "
Rawls argued that only under a "veil of ignorance" could human beings reach a fair and impartial agreement (contract) as true equals not biased by their place in society. They would have to rely only on the human powers of reason to choose principles of social justice for their society. -
Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) "The human's being right to do as he pleases without interfering with someone else's rights is a formula defining rights prior to social legislation."
Cognitive in nature, Kohlberg's theory focuses on the thinking process that occurs when one decides whether a behaviour is right or wrong. Thus, the theoretical emphasis is on how one decides to respond to a moral dilemma, not what one decides or what one actually does.