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469 BCE
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens. According to him, no one chooses to do evil; no one chooses to act in ignorance. We pursue the good but are unable to attain it due to ignorance or an insufficient knowledge about how to obtain it. No one, he believes, would deliberately hurt themselves. If an individual lacks moral knowledge, he can commit moral evil. Sometimes, even though an individual has intelligence, he willfully commits an evil act to further his secret motive. -
428 BCE
Plato (428-348 BC)
Plato was an Athenian and is deemed as the greatest philosophers of the world. Moral values are objective in the sense that they reside outside of subjective human norms in a spirit-like world. He believed they are absolute or eternal, in the sense that they never alter, and universal in the sense that they relate to all logical beings everywhere and at all times (Racelis, 2017). Virtues are the necessary skills and attitudes to pursue happiness, the highest goal of moral thinking and behaviour. -
384 BCE
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher.The ethics of Aristotle, or study of character, is based on the idea that achieving a high level of virtuous character is a prerequisite for happiness or well-being. Aristotle's ethics is concerned with acts that are conducive to man's benefit, not with actions that are right in and of themselves, regardless of other considerations.Aristotle sets out to determine what this benefit is, as well as the science that corresponds to it.(Copleston, 1993). -
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
According to Hobbes, the idea of good and bad is linked to human desire and aversion. Meaning, what a person desires is what he considers to be good, what he dislikes is what he believes to be bad. If people in a society constantly pursued their own self-interests, they will continue to harm each other and be trapped in a "state of war." Members of a community would be in a "state of peace" if they were made to remain within such boundaries that made it impossible for them to hurt one another. -
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
When actions appear to cause happiness or pleasure, they are approved; when they tend to trigger unhappiness or pain, they are disapproved. If and only if, an action is more productive of pleasure or happiness, or more preventive of pain or unhappiness than any alternative, it is said to follow the principle of utility. Instead of 'pleasure' and 'happiness,' the word 'welfare' is more appropriate: the meaning of an action's results is primarily measured by the welfare of individuals.
