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469 BCE
SOCRATES - (469-399 BC)
"No one commits an evil act knowingly and doing wrong arises out of ignorance." Sometimes a person may have knowledge but he deliberately commits an evil act to satisfy his hidden motive. Socrates was the first person to give philosophy and ethics a realistic and political emphasis. He believed that if one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good. -
428 BCE
PLATO - (428-348 BC)
"It is only by being virtuous that we can hope to be happy." Plato's main concern is to challenge the views most people have about goodness, he maintains a eudaemonistic interpretation of ethics focused on virtue. In other words, happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the primary goal of moral thinking and behavior, and virtues are the necessary abilities and dispositions required to achieve it. -
384 BCE
ARISTOTLE - (384-322 BC)
"Virtue is the golden mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency."
One of Aristotle's main point of ethical philosophy is moral virtue is a relative mean between extremes of abundance and lack. No human appetite or desire is evil if it is regulated by reason on the basis of a moral principle. Aristotle's "The Golden Mean Principle" states that to be happy, live life of moderation. In everything that we do, we must avoid extremes. -
THOMAS HOBBES - (Moral Positivism)
"Government is necessary, not because human is naturally bad but because man is by nature more individualistic than social." Hobbes believes that human beings are basically selfish creatures who would do anything to improve their position. It is a must for every nation to have someone who would administer them. Where political authority exists, our obligation appears to be very simple: to respect those in power. -
JEREMY BENTHAM - (Utilitarianism)
"It is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." Bentham is the founder of modern utilitarianism, an ethical theory whereby acts are morally acceptable if they tend to encourage happiness or pleasure (and morally wrong if they tend to cause unhappiness or pain) among all those affected by them. An act is good if and when it gives good results otherwise it is bad.