Timeline of Major Ethical Philosophies

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  • 551 BCE

    CONFUCIUS (551–479 BCE)

    CONFUCIUS (551–479 BCE)
    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.
  • 469 BCE

    SOCRATES (469-399 BC)

    SOCRATES (469-399 BC)
    Socrates says that a man worth anything at all does not reckon whether his course of action endangers his life or threatens death. He looks only at one thing – whether what he does is just or not, the work of a good or of a bad man.
  • 428 BCE

    PLATO (428-348 BC)

    PLATO (428-348 BC)
    “Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.” Virtue ethics says that the reasoning of what is moral is decided by the person instead of by rules or consequences.
  • 384 BCE

    ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)

    ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)
    Aristotle argues that what separates human beings from the other animals is the human reason. So the good life is one in which a person cultivates and exercises their rational faculties by, for instance, engaging in scientific inquiry, philosophical discussion, artistic creation, or legislation.

  • JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704)

    JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704)
    Argued that in order to be true, something must be capable of repeated testing, a view that girded his ideology with the intent of scientific rigor.

  • DAVID HUME (1711–77)

    DAVID HUME (1711–77)
    Assessed that human beings lack the capacity to achieve a true conception of the self, that our conception is merely a “bundle of sensations” that we connect to formulate the idea of the self.

  • JOHN STUART MILL (1806–73)

    JOHN STUART MILL (1806–73)
    Advocated strongly for the human right of free speech, and asserted that free discourse is necessary for social and intellectual progress.

  • FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844–1900)

    FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844–1900)
    Believed in the individual’s creative capacity to resist social norms and cultural convention in order to live according to a greater set of virtues.

  • JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905–80)

    JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905–80)
    Believed that human beings are “condemned to be free,” that because there is no Creator who is responsible for our actions, each of us alone is responsible for everything we do.

  • MICHEL FOUCAULT (1926-1984)

    MICHEL FOUCAULT (1926-1984)
    Believed oppressed humans are entitled to rights and they have a duty to rise up against the abuse of power to protect these rights.