What Does Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle Believe in Ethics?

To begin with, think about this problem, is having power good? Furthermore, what justifies having power, is it if you are smart, or rich, or taller or stronger? The Greek philosopher Socrates believes that power is either the truth or its good.

Plato wrote a Socratic dialogue called Gorgias. In this article, Socrates is arguing with Callicles on who is better and if the parameters of being better affects their life style. In justice and natural order, Callicles argues by nature, the stronger, more intelligence, braver, should rule over others and take a larger scale of resources, but Socrates thinks are the “better” always equates to stronger or more intelligent? The real power is related to daily life, as Socrates argue that having better self-control and having orderly life leads to happiness.

But fulfilment comes from satisfying desires without restraint, especially for the naturally superior. This is an interesting point, are things that makes you happy always the right thing to do? And when achieving the desired goal, is the process always happy and joyful? This question was fully discussed in class, there are many contrapositive and contradictive statements. For example, doing cocaine could end up happy, but drugs in general is bad. Being sick and requires a surgery might cause physical pain, but in the end, you heal up and become healthy again, the process is bad. If good things can lead into bad, and bad things lead into good, are all good things good and bad things bad?

Socrates uses a jar analogy to describe people, those who have disciplined like has sound jars, and indiscipline person has leaky jars, requires constant refilling, which symbolises endless desires. The overall article is a Critique of Hedonism, Socrates critiques the hedonistic view that happiness comes from indulging in pleasures, showing the emptiness of such a life without restraint or purpose.

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics states that the highest good, or eudaimonia (“happiness and flourishing”) achieves by living a life of rational activities in accordance with virtue. And virtue as a “mean” between deficiency and excess.
:- Courage lies between recklessness and cowardice
:- Generosity lies between wastefulness and stinginess

What is ‘end’? What ‘science’ investigates it?

Everything that aims at an end is good, therefore, some ‘good’ is what we aim at. Pollical science investigates it, political tells society how to act, it’s about governing and behaviour.

How is happiness acquired?

Aristotle argues that it is a sort of habituation, and there are two kinds of virtue:
:- Intellectual – can be taught or read from book
:- Moral – rational thought requires time and thought

The Greeks believe truth might not be a thing, because everything is seen from our human eyes. Imagine you are a goat, or a cow, or a fish. Since they have different eyes, the world they see differs from what we see.

In the end, it leaves us with two things. Moral quality or Physical quantity.