Major Ethical Philosophies - Joseph Scott Bundoc

Socrates (469-399 BC)

469 BCE

• Was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher who is considered to be one of the Founders of Western Philosophy.
• First Great Moral Philosopher of Western Civilization
• He developed the Socratic method that laid the groundwork for the development of Western systems of Logic and Philosophy.
• "Wonder is the feeling of a Philosopher, and Philosophy begins in Wonder."

Plato (428-348 BC)

428 BCE

• Ancient Greek Philosopher who founded the Academy in Athens.
• He is widely considered as the pivotal figure in the development of Western Philosophy.
• He sustains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics.
• "A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers."

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

384 BCE

• He is an Ancient Greek Philosopher and Scientist who established the Lyceum.
• Father of Western Philosophy, alongside Plato
• He is widely known for The Golden Mean Principle which signifies that happiness is obtained through living a life of moderation.
• "He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander."

Augustine (354-430)(AD)

354

• A fourth century Roman African philosopher whose phenomenal philosophy incorporated Christian Doctrine with Neoplatonism.
• He is a renowned theologian and prolific writer, as well as a skilled preacher and rhetorician.
• He is one of the Latin Fathers of the Church and is recognized as well as the Doctor of the Church in Roman Catholicism.
• "Patience is the companion of wisdom."

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

1225

• He was considered as the Greatest of the Scholastic Philosophers.
• He was an immensely influential philosopher, jurist, and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, wherein he is also known as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis.
• Based on his views, economic transactions, as human interactions, cannot be separated from ethics.
• "Love takes up where knowledge leaves off."

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

1588

• Was considered as the First Great figure in Modern Moral Philosophy.
• His theory was Moral Positivism wherein it holds that the basis or source of all moral laws is the laws of the State.
• His main concern was the problem of social and political order : how human beings can live together in peace and harmony, and avoid the fear and danger of civil conflict.
• "It is not wisdom but authority that makes a law."

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

1724

• Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and is considered as one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment.
• He argued that there was a supreme principle of morality which he refers to as The Categorical Imperative, wherein it determines our moral duties.
• His Metaphysics of Morals has two distinct parts: the Doctrine of Right and the Doctrine of Virtue.
• "Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life."

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

1748

• He was an English philosopher and political radical.
• He was also an economist, jurist, and legal reformer.
• He was considered as the Father of Modern Utilitarianism, a moral theory that argues that actions should be judged right or wrong to the extent they increase or decrease human well-being or utility.
• "The said truth is that the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong."

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

1806

• He was the most influential English philosopher of the 19th century.
• He was a classical utilitarian alongside with Jeremy Bentham.
• His ethical theory is mostly articulated in his classical text Utilitarianism (1861), wherein Its goal is to justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation of morals.
• "Originality is the one thing which unoriginal minds cannot feel the use of."

John Rawls (1921-2002)

1921

• He was an American legal, moral, and political philosopher in the liberal tradition.
• He is prominently known for his defense of egalitarian liberalism in his works.
• Rawls's theory of justice as fairness suggests equal basic liberties, equal opportunities, and facilitating the maximum benefit to the least advantaged members of society, in which inequalities may occur.
• "The principles of justice are chosen behind a veil of ignorance."