Major Ethical Philosophies

LAO TZU - (618-907 C.E.)

618 BCE

Espoused awareness of the self through meditation; Disputed conventional wisdom as inherently biased, and urged followers of the Tao to find natural balance between the body, senses, and desires; Urged individuals to achieve a state of wu wei, freedom from desire, an early staple tenet of Buddhist tradition thereafter.

CONFUCUIS - (551-479 BC)

551 BCE

Developed a belief system focused on both personal and governmental morality through qualities such as justice, sincerity, and positive relationships with others; Advocated for the importance of strong family bonds, including respect for the elder, veneration of one’s ancestors, and marital loyalty; Believed in the value of achieving ethical harmony through skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules, denoting that one should achieve morality through self-cultivation.

SOCRATES - (470-399 BC)

470 BCE

Argued that Athenians were wrong-headed in their emphasis on families, careers, and politics at the expense of the welfare of their souls; Is sometimes attributed the statement “I know that I know nothing,” to denote an awareness of his ignorance, and in general, the limitations of human knowledge; Believed misdeeds were a consequence of ignorance, that those who engaged in nonvirtuous behavior did so because they didn’t know any better.

PLATO - (428-347 BCE)

428 BCE

Expressed the view, often referred to as Platonism, that those whose beliefs are limited only to perception are failing to achieve a higher level of perception, one available only to those who can see beyond the material world; Held the foundational epistemological view of “justified true belief,” that for one to know that a proposition is true, one must have justification for the relevant true proposition.

ARISTOTLE - (384-322 BC)

384 BCE

Asserted the use of logic as a method of argument and offered the basic methodological template for analytical discourse; Defined metaphysics as “the knowledge of immaterial being,” and used this framework to examine the relationship between substance (a combination of matter and form) and essence, from which he devises that man is comprised from a unity of the two.

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS - (1225-1274)

1225

Adhered to the Platonic/Aristotelian principle of realism, which holds that certain absolutes exist in the universe, including the existence of the universe itself. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) declared his Summa Theolgoiae — a compendium of all the teachings of the Catholic Church to that point — “Perennial Philosophy.”

KARL MARX - (1818-1883)

1818

Argued that societies develop through class struggle, and that this would ultimately lead to the dismantling of capitalism; Characterized capitalism as a production system in which there are inherent conflicts of interest between the bourgeoisie (the ruling class), and the proletariat (the working class), and that these conflicts are couched in the idea that the latter must sell their labor to the former for wages that offer no stake in production.