The Foundations of Ethics in Western Philosophy

This is the central question of ethics (or moral philosophy). “How should I live?” This is the central question of ethics (or moral philosophy). But this was not the first kind of inquiry that preoccupied the early philosophers. The earliest Greek philosophers concerned themselves with this question: “What is the nature of the universe?”

Western philosophy began in the country called Greece. Ancient Philosophy Western philosophy began in the country called Greece.

The Pre-Socratic Philosophers The earliest Greek philosophers are referred to as the pre-Socratic philosophers. They are also called cosmologists because they saw the world as a cosmos. Cosmos means the world (or the universe) as an ordered whole. The pre-Socratic philosophers introduced a systematic approach in explaining the cosmos. Where did everything come from? What is everything made of? These were the questions that they asked.

The Milesians The Milesian school was a school of thought founded in the 6th century BC. The Milesian philosophers were from the town of Milesia in Greece. These philosophers defined all things by what they thought was the first or basic stuff from which everything was made of: arche. The arche was the source of everything. In Greek, it means “first” or “beginning.”

1. Thales of Miletus Thales was the first of the Milesian philosophers. According to him, the arche was water. Thales shared his views with Milesians. His philosophy attracted many students, one of who was Anaximander.

2. Anaximander Anaximander disagreed with Thales. He thought, if everything was made of water, where did dust particles come from? The arche must be an unobservable, undefined element. It must be something which is infinite and boundless, something that has no characteristics of its own but is capable of becoming many things. He called this infinite and boundless substance the apeiron.

3. Anaximenes Anaximenes is the last of the three philosophers from Miletus. For him, Anaximander’s idea of the indefinite apeiron is vague and almost nonsensical. How could things come from an indefinite and boundless substance? Anaximenes suggested that the arche must be air. Aside from the three Milesian philosophers, there were other Pre-Socratic thinkers who contributed to the history of philosophy. Like the Milesians, these thinkers were also concerned with cosmology.

Pythagoras Pythagoras rejected the idea of arche that was suggested by the Milesian thinkers. He looked to mathematics to explain the cosmos. He said that numbers can be used to explain reality. To Pythagoras, mathematics calculations can be used to discover harmony in the universe.

“You cannot step on the same river twice.” Heraclitus Heraclitus is the philosopher who is known for his doctrine of change. For him, reality consists in the very process of change. To illustrate this, he used the image of fire. “You cannot step on the same river twice.”

Parmenides Parmenides was a philosopher from the town of Elea. He disagreed with Heraclitus, saying genuine change is impossible. For him, what basically exists is being itself. What does not exist is not being. He observed that being is everywhere because things exist everywhere.

Empedocles This philosopher is remembered for being the origin of the theory which claims that there are four elements: earth, air, fire and water. According to him, the four basic elements make all things in the world. These elements cannot be destroyed and cannot be changed. They are the “roots”.

The old Greeks used to explain their natural environment using what they believed to be the actions of gods and godesses. In contrast, the Pre-Socratic philosophers provided rational and prescientific explanations of the natural world. As such, they provided the very beginning of what developed in history as a discipline called “science”.

The Sophists In the second half of the 5th century BC, a group of teachers who were known as “sophists” gained popularity in Greece. These teachers traveled from one city to another to teach rhetorics. Most of them taught Greek students for a price. They preached that there was no absolute truth. What is true for one group of persons may not hold true for another group. Everything is relative. The first among the sophists – and the most popular – was Protagoras, who said, “Man is the measure of all things.” The Sophists explored one of the three major branches of philosophy: metaphysics, which deals with the principles of reality. They also led to the development of another branch known as epistemology, which is concerned with knowledge. In addition, their teachings led other philosophers to axiology, the philosophy of ethics.

Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”