Moral Philosophy

Philosophical ethics are an attempt to define moral action. Theories try to answer questions such as ‘what is a moral action?’ and ‘how should men act?’ In the case of classical theories the main question is ‘What is the good life? We all grow up learning our ethics, or morals, from our parents and society. As we grow we are told things; do not cross the road alone, clean your room. But there are a set of instructions that we are told, and we grow to learn that they have quite a different motive behind them; do not to lie, play nice with the other children, do not take other peoples belongings. We do not know it at the time but these are ethics being instilled in us. We learn that our actions affect other people and so we must take their feelings into consideration. Ethics are almost inextricably linked with other people and society, ‘they demand that we pay attention to the interest of others’ (Beauchamp, 1982, p. 7). John Hartland-Swann advocated that ‘the concept of morality refers to the keeping or violating of customs considered to be socially important’ (Beauchamp, 1982, p. 7). Yet philosophers, being philosophers, of course want to delve into the very depths of the concept and ask ‘Why are such actions, motives, or judgements categorized as moral at all?’ (Beauchamp, 1982, p. 6). What defines an action as moral? Many philosophers give their own accounts of how they conceive morals should be judged, sometimes completely separate from society. In this essay we are going to concentrate on some of the most influential minds to tackle the subject from ancient Greece up to the nineteenth century; Plato, Aristotle, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant. The first two theories covered are classical.
‘Education ends with a moral illumination’ (Groarke, 2011, p. 125). Plato (429-347BC), born in Athens, was one of the great Greek philosophers and one of the most influential of all time. Plato’s standing on ethics is conveyed in his most famous work The