IMMANUEL KANT Born: April 22, 1724 From: East Prussia Greatest Work: The Critique of Pure Reason

Died: 1804 ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY Concept of the good or moral will: ,orally right not because of its beneficial actions or the kind and generous motives which produce those actions, but because its maxims (rules governing actions) are adopted not only in accord with duty or morality but for the sake of morality We can be held responsible only for those things we can control Categorical imperative - treat persons as ends and never as means, or as subjects and never as objects Moral imperative - our unconditional obligation to act out of respect for the moral law Hypothetical imperative - Kant's term for an imperative that is binding only in relation to the achievement of some particular end or purpose; the proposition expressing what ought to be done if a particular result is desired Imperative - Kant's term for a prescriptive proposition, ethical principle, law or rule governing action, one that specifies what it is a person's duty to do in a given situation NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI Born: May 3, 1469 From: Florence, Italy Greatest Works: 1) The Prince - emphasis was on the need for an absolute monarch 2) The Discourses - about the Roman republic, expressing enthusiasm for the self-government and liberty Died: 1527 ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY: Machiavelli's Radical principle of governance: The end justifies the means and his view on cruelty, selfishness and the bad side of human nature. --- a leader should be prepared to do evil when necessary to gain power ( gaining and maintain political power and in the process creating a strong republic.) If his principles were intended for the greater good, then they are neither immoral nor unethical. However, when the same principles are to be used by people for personal gain, they become immoral and unethical. Machiavelli's main vision: the creation of a strong Italian Republic UTILITARIANISM - derived from the Latin word utile bonum or utilis which means usefulness. - makes utility a norm of morality - If an act administers to the empiral welfare and happiness of man, then it is good. But if an act obstructs or hinders or retards happiness, it is bad Two major proponents: Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill Utilitarian ethics - considered the most important consequential theory, whose principle is best explained by the maxim "Do whatever produces the greatest good for the greatest number." Or "what makes an act right is its consequences and not the motive of the action." JEREMY BENTHAM A child prodigy Greatest work: 1) Fragments of Government - a critique on Blackstone 2) Wrote daily commentaries on the need to bring reason, order, empirical evidence, and morality to British Law. Died: 1842 ETICAL PHILOSOPHY He advocated prison and educational reform, and the extension of voting rights. He wanted to create laws not just for the convenience of the elite but also for the best interest of the whole community The term utility , according to Bentham, has two meanings property in any object which tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good or happiness.

Utilitarian ethics: puts emphasis and significance on the consequences as a result of an act and completely disregards the motive of an act. An action is considered right or wrong depending on the consequence Utilitarian principle - disregards the importance of motive because motive is known only to the person who has it. Motives are personal, hence, it is difficult or impossible to know this with high degree of certainty Utilitarian Principle can be coined in the praise -- "the greatest good is the grEatest pleasure of the greatest number." - An action is considered to be good if it gives the peRson the greatest pleasure or happiness (in the view of Mill) to the majority of people affected by the action. An action is bad or evil if it does otherwise. JOHN STUART MILL Born: 1806 From: London Died: 1873 - He fell into a "dull state of nerves" - He attributed his breakdown to his education which overemphasized the analytical and ignored the emotional values ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY: "Through the training bestowed on me, I started, I may fairly say, with an advantage of a quarter of a century over my contemporaries. Unfortunately, I was never a boy." Human beings pursue happiness naturally and will avoid pain or suffering - since man naturally seeks happiness and avoids pain, then what constitutes good moral is happiness and avoids pain, then what constitutes good moral is happiness and pain constitutes moral evil. Therefore, an act that promotes happiness is moral, and that which causes pain is immoral. According to Mill, happiness can be defined positively and negatively. Positive definition: happiness is anything that is pleasurable to the greater number of people. Negative definition: happiness is the absence of pain. The concepts of pleasure and pain is central to the utilitarian theory. "What is pleasurable is good, and what is painful is bad; what causes pleasure is moral, what causes pain is immoral. Pleasure, according to John Mill has two forms; the physical (sensual indulgences to bodily gratification ex. Sexual intercourse, eating, drinking, dancing and others. It is the lower form of pleasure and considered by Mill as animalistic or beastly since it appeals to the lower faculties of man) and the mental (intellectual, spiritual and moral pleasures ex. Man's noble feelings, imagination and moral sentiments). It is superior and is generally more difficult to achieve and pursuing them gives dignity to man. It includes enjoyment of the freedom of the will, intellect, social recognition, feeling of self-worth and respect, feeling of peace and security, and others. Mill's utilitarianism - refers to the mental pleasures when it defines happiness as pleasure THOMAS HOBBES Born: 1588 From: London Greatest work: Leviathan - people are naturally wicked and could not be trusted to govern. Died: 1679 An absolute monarchy- a government that gives all power to a king or queen - was best. ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY - Human beings are basically selfish creatures who would do anything to improve their position. According to Hobbes, people would act on their evil impulses if left alone for themselves. Therefore, they should not be trusted to make decisions on their own. - For Hobbes, each country is in constant battle for power and wealth hence he wrote "If men are naturally in a state of war, why do they always carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their doors?"

According to Hobbes, man is wolf unto his fellowmen (homo homini lupus) and the best government is one that has the greatest power of leviathan, or sea monster. He believed in the rule of the king and that democracy (allowing citizens to vote for government leaders) would never work . DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS - often used in ethical debates. - this theory says that there is a divine being, who has set down a finite series of rules that adherents claim can provide guidance to most, if not all, moral decisions. - an important example is the Ten Commandments - a variant of divine command theory is a command theory based on a non-divine but morally exemplary, individual such as the Buddha which means "the enlightened" ETHICAL EGOISM - the theory which says that the promotion of one's own good is in accordance with morality- it is the view that one ought to do what is in man's self-interest, if necessary to the exclusion of what is in other people's interests. AYN RAND Born: February 02, 1905 From: St. Petersburg, Russia Died: 1982 Greatest works; "Fountainhead", "Atlas Shrugged", "For the New Intellectual", "The Virtue of Selfishness", "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology" and "Philosophy, who Needs IT? ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY:
My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists and in a single choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these. To live, man must hold three things as the ruling values of his life: Reason PurposeSelf-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledgePurpose, as his choice of the happiness which that tool must proceed to achieve Self-esteem, as his inviolate certainty that his mind is competent to think and his person is worthy of happiness, which means: worthy of living. These three values imply and require all of man's virtues Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged. The objectivist ethics rebuilds morality from the ground up. "You cannot say "I love you" if you cannot say the "I", wote Ayn Rand. Acoording to her Objectivism, a person's own life and happiness is only ultimate god. The attainment of happiness requires a morality of rational selfishness -- one that does not give undeserved rewards to others.

The means to a happy life are the values of objectivism. They include such things as wealth, love, satisfaction in work, education, artistic inspiration, and much more. Rand also considers "altruism" as a tool of evil and a manifestation of a false morality. Egotist A person who has very HIGH OPINION OF HIMSELF and whose language often consists of SELF PRAISE Someone who is SELF-CENTERED OR SELFISH, often without realizing it A person who is childishly concerned only with his most myopic, IMMEDIATE SELF-INTEREST; he is a solipsist; a here-and-now type of fellow Egoist A person who thinks in terms of his OWN ADVANTAGE, generally by disregarding the interest of others An ARROGANT OR CONCEITED PERSON, always himself Concerned with both his LONG-TERM AND SHORT TERM INTERESTS

Egotism Egoism The PRACTICE of too frequently using the word I; hence, a The PRESCRIPTIVE DOCTRINE that all persons ought to act speaking or writing overmuch of one's self; self exaltation; from their own self-ineterest self-praise; the act or practice of magnifying one's self or parading one's own doings

An EXAGGERATED SENSE of self -importance: CONCEIT

EXCESSIVE CONCERN for oneself with or without exaggerated feelings of self-imprtance

VIRTUE ETHICS - focuses on the character of the person and the virtues he manifests. - the main proponents of virtue ethics are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle SOCRATES - he was known to have an "ugly" physical appearance but he saw not his physical defects and believed that the inner beauty is that of the soul. ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY: Socrates posited three (3 )special tenets in his moral philosophy a. Virtue (moral excellence) is identical with knowledge b. Vice (moral evil) is identical with ignorance (lack of moral knowledge) c. No one comits an evil act knowingly. Doing wrong arises out of ignorance. PLATO His given name was Aristocles but he earned the name "Plato" which means "broad" or wide due to his physical attributes like his wide forehead and wide shoulders. Plato followed the trial of his friend and mentor -- Socrates ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY: Knowing the Forms -- these are eternal or universal principles and perfect ideas. Plato maintained that all things in the physical world are symbols of these perfect Forms. But since these forms are symbols, the world is not the true reality. - According to Plato, people are only doing evil acts because they are acting due to ignorance. ARISTOTLE His parents decided to send himto Plato's Academy. Because of Aristotle's prolific intelligence, he earned the reputation as the "mind of the university." Aristole became the teacher of the son of King Philip of Macedonia, who later on became Alexander the Great. Aristotle later on went back to Athens and founded his school called Lyceum. He died due to stomach complications in Chalcis . ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY According to Aristotle, we must take the "middle way" or the mean between two extremes. Aristotle also rejected al forms of imbalance. We must not only develop our mind, but also our body. Virtue comes from the ability to govern excessive or lack of feelings. Any extreme would lead to vice. Thus, virtue comes from the means between these extremes. The Golden Mean Principle simple states that "to be happy, live life of moderation." In everything that we do, we must avoid extremes. For example, in taking food. Any excess or deficit in the food intake would cause problem to our health, e.g., too much food-gluttony, no food-starvation. THE CONCEPTS OF GOOD AND EVIL IN EPICUREANIST AND HEDONIST PHILOSOPHIES HEDONIST PHILOSOPHIES Hedonism - the "moral" doctrine called "hedonism" is indeed one of the so-calle major positions among different kinds of eudaimonism(a Greek word for happiness). It is based on the Greek concept of hdonth-hdon or sensous pleasure, and contends that happiness I the goal of our human life that must be searched for and pain must be avoided. Thus, to a hedonist, the pleasure derived from the satisfaction for a delicious food is not different from the pleasure derived from search of wisdom or the pursuit of knowledge. Accordingly, since there is no qualitative difference among pleasures, the sole distinction is that of "quantity," therefore it matters how much "quantity) we enjoy pleasure. The Hedonism consider further that the quantity of

pleasure must be understood and explained by the intensity of pleasure. According to hedonism, therefore, the more quantitatively (intensive) pleasure we have, the happier we shall be. EPICUREANISM: The Doctrine of Pleasure EPICURUS - founded the Garden, a combination of philosophical community and school in Athens. The residents of the Garden put Epicurus' teachings into practice. Epicurus died of kidney stones around 271 or 270 BCE. After Epicurus' death, Epicureanism continued to flourish as a philosophical movement. Epicureanism went into decline with the rise of Christianity. EPICUREANIST PHILOSOPHY Epicurus' philosophy deals with one's very own practical concerns, a way of living, not an abstract system of thought. Perhapts it may be said that the greatest appeal of Epicurus' philosophy lies in its simplicity and common sense. According to Epicurus, pleasure is our first and kindred good. It is the starting point of every choice and every aversion, and to it we come back and make feeling the rule by which to judge every good thing. Therefore, we call pleasure the Alpha and the Omega of a blessed life. For Epicurus, the real meaning of pleasure was not the pursuit of worldly goods and happiness but the search for a more profound and lasting pleasure, like, intellectual pleasures which last longer than bodily pleasures. And for Epicurus, the finest intellectual pleasure is the study of philosophy. In other words, Epicurus' moral doctrine or his doctrine of how to live is rightly called the philosophy of living, or you may call it a pursuit of pleasure guide by reason and intelligence in that a person is the master of his/her pleasure rather than being blindly enslaved by the intensity and glamour of the immediate, sensuous pleasures. The saying, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die", is really a travesty of Epicureanism as a philosophy. Types of Pleasure: 1. Movingl Pleasure - occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire, e.g., eating hamburger when one is hungry. These pleasures involve an active titillation of the senses, and these feelings are what most people call "pleasure" 2. Static pleasure - occur after one's desires have been satisfied (e.g., when one is full after eating), the state of satiety, of no longer being in need or want, is itself pleasurable. PRAGMATISM - a philosophy that attempts to clarify our ideas and to emphasize the practical usefulness of ideas and beliefs as the criteria of their meaning of truth. - the main proponents of this philosophy are: Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced Purce), William James, and John Dewey. Assumptions of Pragmatism as a Philosophy > All theories must be put into practice. (Dewey called his version of Pragmatism "Instrumentalism" or "Experimentalism." ) > Ideas are clear and distinct only if they are translated into meaningful actions (C.S. Pierce) > Ideas or theories without results are nonsense. Terms such as God, matter and the absolute must have cash value that is, they must possess practical worth if they are to be true (W. James).