Ethics 101

Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Buddha, is the primary figure of Buddhism. Siddhartha sat under a Bodhi tree and vowed not to arise until he had found the truth. After forty-nine days he is said to have attained enlightenment. The teachings of this enlightened Buddha include the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, and they form the basis of Buddhist ethics.

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Confucius, an influential Chinese philosopher, sought to reinforce the values of compassion and tradition based on the principle of jen, or loving others.

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The term ethics comes from the Greek word ethos, meaning habit or custom. In fact, ancient Greece, and the city of Athens in particular, is thought to be the birthplace of Western philosophical ethics.

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Protagoras, depicted in this painting by Salvator Rosa, was one of the first Sophists (an ancient Greek teacher who used the tools of philosophy and rhetoric to teach). Protagoras is known for causing great controversy in ancient times through his statement “Man is the measure of all things.” This phrase is often interpreted as meaning there is no absolute truth except what each individual person believes to be the truth.

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The taijitu, or yin/yang symbol, represents how the universe works. The universe is composed of a series of opposites, yins and yangs. These opposing forces are always in motion, swirling and moving into each other in this fluid and interconnected way. One opposite cannot exist without the other, nor is either one superior to the other. There is good and there is evil, there is pleasure and there is pain, and these things can only exist in relation to each other.

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Thomas Aquinas is credited with trying to marry the ethical philosophies of the ancients, particularly Aristotle, with the teachings of the Catholic Church. As a result, he is credited with creating a moral philosophy for Christianity while contributing to the development of Western philosophy in general.

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The book Leviathan is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory (the ethical and philosophical questioning of the legitimacy of the authority of the state over the individual). Written by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in 1651, this work marks for many the beginning of modern political philosophy.

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Voltaire was a French poet, novelist, and playwright who used his works to praise civil liberties and the separation of church and state. He supported civil liberties, most prominently freedom of religion and social reform. Voltaire leaned toward libertinism and hedonism—the philosophy that pleasure and the pursuit of pleasure is the point of life.

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David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist who believed that moral decisions are based on moral sentiment. In other words, feelings govern ethical actions, not reason.

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Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and a central figure in modern Western philosophy. Kant believed human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure the human experience. Human reason therefore gives itself moral law, which is the basis of our belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore science, morality, and religion are all mutually consistent because they all rest on the same foundation.

Immanuel Kant was the first philosopher of note to teach at a university for the majority of his career. Kant taught at the University of Königsberg for over fifteen years. Though bigger universities tried to woo him away, he stayed at Königsberg, preferring to teach in his native land. The university was left in ruins after World War II and was rebuilt. Today it is known as Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.

Jean-Paul Sartre and his partner Simone de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and ethical assumptions of the post–World War II world. Sartre’s primary idea was that people were “condemned to be free” and were “things in themselves,” meaning that people receive no interference from a higher power, and that they are responsible for all of their actions, good or evil, without excuse.

Sartre believed in socialist ideals and the labor party. He supported a number of leftist movements, one of which, in a move to protest the price hike at the Paris metro that directly impacted French workers, stole metro tickets and gave them away to workers. In memory of that act, visitors often leave their metro tickets on Sartre’s grave in Paris out of reverence to his fight for the common man.