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368 BCE
ARISTOTLE
*At the age of seventeen, he went to Athens to study and became a member of the Academy in 368/7 BC where Plato's later dialectic was being developed and the religious tendency was gaining ground in the great philosopher's mind.
*Teleological- from the Greek word "telos" means "end". What conduces to the attainment of his good or end will be a "right" action on man's part; the action that is opposed to the attainment of his true good will be a "wrong" action. -
Period: 354 BCE to 430 BCE
AUGUSTINE
CONFESSION
Although autobiographical narrative makes up much of the first 9 of the 13 books of Augustine’s Confessines (c. 400; Confessions), autobiography is incidental to the main purpose of the work. For Augustine, “confessions” is a catchall term for acts of religiously authorized speech: praise of God, blame of self, confession of faith. The book is a richly textured meditation by a middle-aged man (Augustine was in his early 40s when he wrote it) on the course and meaning of his own life. -
348 BCE
PLATO
*According to him, moral values are absolute truths, eternal and spirituql objects. Having been inspired on mathematics, he gave an example such as 1+1=2, the concept seem to be timeless and never change.
*Plato shares the teaching of hus master, Socrates, to make all virtue is knowledge and vice is ignorance or erraneous view. Whence the conclusion is inevitable: No evil deed is willfully done; and therefore, no man is to blame for being wicked (Coppens, 1985). -
Period: 347 BCE to 427 BCE
PLATO
Ideal rulers are described for an ideal state; he should be a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, combining intellectual insight with practical intelligence. They should be educated for literature, art, gymnastic, mathematics (so that he will know how to generalize and find the accuracy in details), and tested for fortitude. Chief rulers must be chosen from those who are best qualified in dialectics (wisdom). -
Period: 322 BCE to 384 BCE
ARISTOTLE
• Social good is above the individual good, only in so far as individuals make up a society and their actions attain the good of the society, it is the subject of political sciences (science of ethics).
• Defines well being as the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue during the period of a complete life.
• Doctrine of mean: every kind of excellence (=virtue) is a mean between two extreme, one an excess and the other a defect. -
Period: 1201 to 1500
THOMAS AQUINAS
St. Thomas Aquinas was called to defend the unity of man's mind. Siger of Brabant's theology seemed to say a statement could be true in theology although false in philosophy. Aquinas won that battle. He could have become proud. -
1274
THOMAS AQUINAS
His moral philosophy has two apparently dispirate traditions: Aristotelian eudaimonism and Christian theology. The telos or final goal at which all human actions aim. Telos is eudaimonism, or happiness, where "happiness" is understood in tes of completion, perfection, or well-being. According to Aquinas, perfect happiness, the ultimate end, is not to be found in any created thing, but only in God, who is Himself the supreme and infinite Good. -
Period: to
IMMANUEL KANT
He says that the only absolutely good thing is the “good will”. It is the principle of action that ought to be obeyed by all rational beings, under all circumstances and for its own sake. This principle of action is adopted by the person, and not the laws which are independent of the person. Kantian “Categorical Imperative” suggests that “A person should act on that principles, and when everybody act like that principles become a universal law”. -
EMMANUEL KANT
Critique of Pure Reason appeared. His other works appeared in the year 1788 Critique of Practical Reason and the subsequent Critique of Judgment in the year 1790. His ethics emphasizes a single principle of duty. According to him, we have moral duties to oneself and other, such as developing one’s talents and keeping our promises to others. “Categorical imperative” is the most foundational principle of duty that encompasses our duties. He gives four versions of categorical imperative. -
Period: to
JEREMY BENTHAM
He says that “Nature has placed man under the governance of
two masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them to tell us what we
ought to do, therefore, we shall do. What is the measure of pleasure and pain? For the personal
pleasure; (1) intensity, (2) duration, (3) certainty, (4) propinquity, (5) tendency to be followed by other pleasures, (6) purity (freedom from pain) are the criteria for the measure. For the community it follows; (7) the extent (the number of persons to share the pleasure). -
JEREMY BENTHAM
Developed system of utilitarianism.He proposed that we tally consequences of each other action we perform and thereby determine on a case to case basis whether an action is morally right or wrong. Act-utilitarianism would be morally wrong to waste time on leisure activities. Prohibiting leisure activities does not seem reasonable. Rule- utilitarianism a behavioral code or rule is morally right if the consequences of adopting that rule are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone.
