VI.

Greek Schools of Ethics

Most later Greek schools of moral philosophy were derived from the teachings of Socrates. Four such schools originated among his immediate disciples: the Cynics, the Cyrenaics, the Megarians (a school founded by Euclid of Megara), and the Platonists.

The Cynics, notably the philosopher Antisthenes, maintained that the essence of virtue, the only good, is self-control and that it is capable of being taught. The Cynics disdained pleasure as an evil, if accepted as a guide to conduct. They considered all pride a vice, including pride in appearance or cleanliness. Socrates is reputed to have said to Antisthenes, “I can see your pride through the holes in your cloak.”

The Cyrenaics, notably Aristippus of Cyrene, were hedonists, postulating pleasure as the chief good (as long as it does not dominate one's life), that no one kind of pleasure is superior to another, and that it is measurable only in degree and duration.

The Megarians, Euclid's followers, posited that although good may be called wisdom, God, or reason, it is “one,” and that good is the final secret of the universe, which can be revealed only through logical inquiry.

According to Plato, good is an essential element of reality. Evil does not exist in itself but is, rather, an imperfect reflection of the real, which is good. In his Dialogues (first half of the 4th century bc) he maintains that human virtue lies in the fitness of a person to perform that person's proper function in the world. The human soul has three elements—intellect, will, and emotion—each of which possesses a specific virtue in the good person and performs a specific role. The virtue of intellect is wisdom, or knowledge of the ends of life; that of the will is courage, the capacity to act; and that of the emotions is temperance, or self-control. The ultimate virtue, justice, is the harmonious relation of all the others, each part of the soul doing its appropriate task and keeping its proper place. Plato maintained that the intellect should be sovereign, the will second, and the emotions subject to intellect and will. The just person, whose life is ordered in this way, is therefore the good person.

Aristotle, Plato's pupil, regarded happiness as the aim of life. In his principal work on ethics, the Nicomachean Ethics (late 4th century bc), he defined happiness as activity that accords with the specific nature of humanity; pleasure accompanies such activity but is not its chief aim. Happiness results from the unique human attribute of reason, functioning harmoniously with human faculties. Aristotle held that virtues are essentially good habits, and that to attain happiness a person must develop two kinds of habits: those of mental activity, such as knowledge, which lead to the highest human activity, contemplation; and those of practical action and emotion, such as courage. Moral virtues are habits of action that conform to the golden mean, the principle of moderation, and they must be flexible because of differences among people and conditioning factors. For example, the amount one should eat depends on one's size, age, and occupation. In general, Aristotle defines the mean as being between the two extremes of excess and insufficiency; thus, generosity is the mean between prodigality and stinginess. For Aristotle, the intellectual and the moral virtues are merely means toward the attainment of happiness, which results from the full realization of human potential.