Socrates 470 BC in Athens Greece (religion  reason)

“Do not do to other what angers you if done to you by others.”

Important Quotes:
1. “I am not Athenian or Greek, but a citizen of the world.”
2. “The true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
3. “He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post & fight against the enemy”
4. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Dialectics: Seeking True Knowledge.

“The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.”

Morality Vs Majority:
Socrates said that what majority thinks may not be always right.

Socratic Ignorance:
“He used to think that he knowledgeable just because he accepts that he knows nothing.”

Ethical Intellectualism:
“Knowledge is the source of all virtues.”
People do bad thing as they are not aware of what is good or bad. “Everyone wants to do good.”

Persuasion
Important value system of Socrates: Morality, Perseverance, Commitment, Courage of Conviction.
Plato 429 BC born in Athens
“Human behavior is guided by desire, emotions and knowledge.”

Theory of Forms:
“He said that ultimate reality of things was given by their forms.”
- Real world is unchanging, eternal and beyond our senses.
- He argued that for every form we have an ideal image in our mind.
- We can understand the reality through intellectual study.

Plato’s Justice:
“Our citizens of an ideal state can be moral.”
- Justice is relation b/w individuals depending on social and political organization.
- In an ideal commonwealth every citizen will perform his duties without craving for the role of others.
- Justice can be thought as a sense of duty where everybody does their own work.

Plato’s REPUBLIC:
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy.”
- “Individual virtue is possible only for citizens of moral state” and citizens of ideal state can be moral.
- Citizens of Republic -3 Classes
Guardians, Soldiers, Common People
- “Families ties leads to corruption.”

Plato Doubts his Ideal Republic:

“One Royal Lie.” – propound and propagate the myth that God has created 3 types of men – Rulers,
Military Class, Common Citizenry.
 Plato’s Virtue:
Socrates says “Virtue is knowledge.”
Plato says “Mere knowledge of virtue is not enough, a good life is the life of virtues.”
“Man has to cultivate virtues through the habit of doing morally good actions.”
4 Important Virtues:
Wisdom  Philosophers
Courage  Soldiers
Temperance  Traders
Justice  Virtue of befitting the social order.
These are the Cardinal Virtues as they support the moral life of an man in society.

Quotes:
“If you do not take interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the
rule of fools.”
“The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
“We are twice armed if we fight with faith.”

Aristotle (Student of Plato) -384 BC – Grecian colony in Thrace

Aristotle said “Friend of Plato but a great friend of truth”

Theory- SUMMUM BONUM – “Final end towards which human activity is directed” – every human act
has an end or aim, but many end are means to other ends or ways to achieve some larger ends.

Happiness = People attach different meaning to ‘happiness’. For instance, instead of spending money on
material means of pleasure, X may donate to charities or go on pilgrimages.
For Aristotle, every being in nature has its proper end, and its achievement is the special function of that
being. The adequate performance of the special function is the good for any being. Sensation is the
special function of animal, and hence sensual pleasures cannot be the good for man. Summun Bonum or
ultimate good for men is to be found in the life of reason.

Virtue = mean b/w two extremes and those extremes must be avoided.
Intellectual virtue ranked higher than ethical virtue because they are applied to man’s special function
as a rational creature.

Aristotle’s Justice – “Justice is a virtue of state not of an individual”

Distributive Justice – reward people according to their merit. More meritorious  More reward.
Corrective Justice – inflicting punishment for wrong doing.

Freedom of will – he criticizes Socrates for his rejection of will to humans. Aristotle argues that freedom
of human will implies that man can choose b/w good and evil.

Politics and State:

“Politics is the ethics of state” – individual morality find its end in the state which is not possible without
state. The end of a state includes the end of the individuals.
Social Contract Theory said that said is seen as the outcome of contract b/w individuals in search of
security.

Quotes:
“The entire purpose of society is to enable each person attain a higher and better life by the mutual
exchange of their different services.”

“The light of the truth is found here in the material world, and our job is to understand and find our
place in it.”

“Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

Kantian Philosophy (German philosopher born in Prussia in 1724):

“In law a man is guilty when he commits crime, in ethics he is guilty if he thinks of committing it.”

Deontological Theory: “Moral theory is grounded on the idea of duty.”

- An action is moral if it is the outcome of a moral agent’s sense of duty. (irrespective of the
consequence)

How to act in moral way?

If moral agent acts according to his duty, he can rationally recommends such action to others.

Kant’s Universal Law – When a moral agent acts rationally, his action is based on a rule or maxim. Now
rule or maxim that everyone must follow would be a law, a rule of action that is universal and applicable
to everyone.
Kant says “So act that the maxim of your will might always hold as a principle of universal law.”

Categorical Imperatives:
1. “One’s action can be justified only when it turns out to be a maxim or universal law which can be
practiced by anyone.”
- One ought not to steal
- One ought not to injure
- One should be kind to others
- One should not lie
2. “Act so as to treat people always as ends in themselves, never as mere means.

Kant’s Morality:
Kant traces the origin of moral law to man’s rationality or reason. He rejects education, civic
constitution, inner perfection and God’s will as source of moral law.

J S Mill Philosophy (1806 – British philosopher, political economist & civil servant):
“Genius can breathe freely only is an atmosphere of freedom.”

Mill’s Utilitarianism (max good for max no. of people):

“Its better to be human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”
Happiness: Pleasure + absence of pain
Unhappiness: Pain + absence of pleasure
- Action which produces pleasure and avoids pain is morally good.
- Consequence of actions decides if an action is right or wrong. (diff from deontological theory)
- Pleasure is different in both qualitative and quantitative terms.

Utility Principle: Pleasure & freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends.
Greatest Happiness Principle: Actions are right in proportion as they tend to produce happiness and
wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

Mill on Liberty:
Mill has supported Individual Liberty, but asks as if “when can a society interfere with the liberty of an
individual.” – if it can harm to others.
Freedom of Expression:
Freedom of expression  individual development  rational behavior  morality increases  society
develops  which in turn leads to freedom of expression.
“Minority opinion must never be suppressed even if it is wrong or right.”

Representative form of Government;

- Supported democracy form of government but democracy only for those societies where people are
educated, rational, noble, virtuous and even supported the concept of plural voting.
- Mill said that democracy is not suitable for non European societies & supported despotism where
the ruler holds absolute power.
- He also supported human rights and equality.
-
Machiavelli Philosophy (1496, Italy):
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has.”

Human Nature
“For it is good general rule about men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars & deceivers, fearful of
danger and greedy for gains.”

Conventional Morality:
In law of necessity Machiavelli says that “being effective is more important than be virtuous” and if it is
necessary prince must ignore the morality.

“Any man who is good all the time is bound to come to ruins among the great number who are not
good.”

Rousseau (1712, poor family in Switzerland)

“Man is born free and is everywhere in chains”
Famous essay: “The discourse on the Arts and Science” and “Discourse on Origin of inequality”

Rousseau State of Nature: Isolated, Peaceful, Mute, No futuristic vision, state of bliss, neither conflict
nor any cooperation, no morality nor happiness or unhappiness. Unlike Hobbs who have criticized the
state of nature saying there are selfish and insecure.

Man lives like an animal but a social animal.

“As man becomes civilized these qualities get corrupted.”

Private Property  Beginning of Society  Inequality in Society  Cause of all social problems

In 1762, Rousseau published his major work “The Social Contract”

Rousseau Social Contract: Protection of life and property of each member. Each person obeys himself &
remains free as before.
Rousseau says both corporate will and private will must coincide with the General Will.

Rousseau Freedom:
- Freedom from any restraints
- Freedom of self determination (Higher self-good (general will)law ; lower self-bad)
“Man must be forced to be free” – forced to follow general will.