V.

Early Greek Ethics

In the 6th century bc the Greek philosopher Pythagoras developed one of the earliest moral philosophies from the Greek mystery religion Orphism. Believing that the intellectual nature is superior to the sensual nature and that the best life is one devoted to mental discipline, he founded a semireligious order with rules emphasizing simplicity in speech, dress, and food. The members observed rituals that were designed to demonstrate the decreed ethical beliefs.

In the 5th century bc the Greek philosophers known as Sophists, who taught rhetoric, logic, and civil affairs, were skeptical of moral absolutes. The Sophist Protagoras taught that human judgment is subjective, and that one's perception is valid only for oneself. The Sophist Gorgias went to the extreme of arguing that nothing exists; that if anything does exist, human beings could not know it; and that if they did know it, they could not communicate that knowledge. Other Sophists, such as Thrasymachus, believed that might makes right. Socrates opposed the Sophists. His philosophical position, as represented in the dialogues of his pupil Plato, may be summarized as follows: virtue is knowledge; people will be virtuous if they know what virtue is; and vice, or evil, is the result of ignorance. Thus, according to Socrates, education can make people moral.