PREPARED BY: LEO FRANCO BALDOZA

BSN 1-D

Ethical Philosophy
Ethical philosophy began in the fifth century BCE, with the appearance
of Socrates, a secular prophet whose self-appointed mission was to
awaken his fellow men to the need for rational criticism of their beliefs
and practices.

470 BCE - SOCRATES

He demanded reasons for rules of
conduct, rejecting the self-justifying
claim of tradition, and for this reason
he was denounced as a Sophist by
conservative writers like Aristophanes.

427 BCE - PLATO

Plato suggests in this and other passages
that ethical truths can be rigorously deduced
from self-evident axioms, and thus introduces
the mathematical model of knowledge that
has guided many philosophers ever since, he
does not employ a deductive procedure in his
discussions of specific ethical problems

384 BCE - ARISTOTLE

Aristotle modeled his system on biology,
stressing the importance of observation of
recurrent patterns in nature. Thus Plato's
goal for philosophical ethics was to make
human nature conform to an ideal blueprint,
while Aristotle tailored his ethical principles
to the demands of human nature.

341 BCE- EPICURUS

Epicurus based his ethics on the atomistic
materialism of Democritus, to which he added
the important modification of indeterminism
by postulating a tendency of the atoms that
make up the human body—and particularly its
"soul atoms"—to swerve unpredictably from
their normal paths, resulting in unpredictable
human actions.

PETER ABELARD- 1097

Abelard held that morality is an inner quality,
a property of motive or intention rather than
of the consequences of one's actions, a
principle that was later stressed by the
Reformation and attained its fullest
expression in the ethical system of Kant.

1224 - THOMAS AQUINAS

Augustinian ethics was absolutist, grounded on
faith, and independent of consequences. Now
one of these views is totally misguided, or else
there must be room for two different systems
of ethical concepts and principles.
 1588- THOMAS HOBBES
Hobbes conceived of man as a
complex system of particles in motion
and attempted to deduce ethical laws
from the principle of self-preservation.

1632- BENEDICT DE SPINOZA

Spinoza held that every event is deducible from
antecedent causes and concluded that ethical right is
identical with causal necessity. The rules of conduct are
therefore laws of human nature, obeyed by all but obeyed
blindly by the selfish person enslaved by his passions while
understood and accepted by the free man .

1632- JOHN LOCKE

Locke's main contribution to the clarification of the
meaning of ethical concepts was in his distinction
between "speculative" and "practical" principles.
Speculative knowledge is independent of action,
while practical principles (including ethical
principles) can be said to be believed and known to
be true only insofar as they are acted upon.

1711- DAVID HUME

Hume concludes that the function of ethical terms is not to
denote qualities or relations but to convey a "sentiment of
approbation," so that their meaning is to be found in the
feelings of the judge rather than in the object judged.

1712- JEAN-JACQUES
ROUSSEAU
Rousseau's religious mysticism and his preference for
feeling over rational prudence were contrary to the
general tone of the Enlightenment, his most lasting
contribution to ethical philosophy was his insistence that
good and evil tendencies are due to social causes

1724- IMMANUEL KANT

Kant made the most thorough attempt by any
philosopher to clarify and explain the difference between
ethical principles and laws of nature. The difference lies
both in our subjective sense of obligation to obey moral
laws, as contrasted with laws of nature, toward which we
feel no such obligation

1743- WILLIAM PALEY

Paley's psychological account of morality, like that of
earlier moral-sense theories, failed to explain why anyone
who lacks natural benevolence ought to have it. His
alternative justification of morality in terms of the fear of
divine punishment equally fails to explain why such
punishment would be just and why a nonbenevolent
nonbeliever in Christian theology can nevertheless be
expected to behave morally.
 1748- JEREMY BENTHAM
Bentham attempted to make ethics and politics
scientifically verifiable disciplines by formulating
quantitative standards of evaluation. He began
with the psychological generalization that all
actions are motivated by the desire for pleasure
and the fear of pain

1806- JOHN STUART MILL

Mill argued for democratic institutions, minimum state
interference in social life, and free economic competition.
Assuming a general convergence of individual and social benefit,
Mill, like Hume and Bentham, left unanswered the question why, in
cases of conflict, one ought to place public over private interest
and confined himself to explaining why we admire the person
who does so.

1818- KARL MARX

In the Marxist theory, moral principles represent
the sanctification of the interests of the ruling class
at each stage in the development of progressively
superior modes of economic organization.

1844- FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

The true source of value lies in the creative self-assertion
of the artist and the man of genius who produce new and
positive forms of good, while moral prohibitions produce
only resentment, envy, and dull conformity.

1848- BERNARD BOSANQUET

Bosanquet stressed somewhat more than Green the
uniqueness of individual values while at the same time
taking a Hegelian view of the state as the embodiment of
objective mind. Like Green, Bosanquet actively supported
liberal political causes.

1903- G.E MOORE

Recognize that this primacy is to a considerable degree
local and distinctive of the tradition of analytical ethics. On
the Continent and in Latin America the work of Max
Scheler and Franz Brentano has been a preeminent
influence.

1905- JEAN PAUL SARTRE

Sartre believed in the essential freedom of individuals,
and he also believed that as free beings, people are
responsible for all elements of themselves, their
consciousness, and their actions. That is, with total
freedom comes total responsibility.