Compare and Contrast the Different Ethical Perspectives

Compare and Contrast the Different Ethical Perspectives One Discovers In Plato, Aristotle, Buddha and Augustine. Which Perspective(s) Do You Believe Would Contribute To Establishing a Social Ethic and Why?
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Social ethics are moral or philosophical principles that represent the code of conduct that governs what society regards to as acceptable or unacceptable. Social ethics usually include doing good deeds, sharing and acknowledging peoples different viewpoints. Ancient philosophy had a certain standpoint on social ethics. Up to this day, works by these ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle contribute a lot to modern definitions and parameters of social ethics.
Plato had critically studied matters of ethics, politics and society as a whole. Plato’s opinion on ethics in society is agreed upon even in modern philosophy. Plato’s ethical proposition that evil actions are the result of ignorance to virtue is closely related to knowledge and encourages intellectual insight into the nature of wrong and right. According to Plato, morally correct behaviour was characterized by knowing the rules and following them. There is a lot to be learnt about social ethics from Plato’s work. In the Apology, Plato is not only communicating with the courtroom but the entire city as well. In the Apology, Socrates has spent his entire life searching for wisdom and looking for a right answer to the question,-what is virtue? Instead, he claims to have attained human knowledge which according to him is not knowledge of virtue but the awareness of one’s ignorance to it.
In Plato’s apology, Socrates relates the knowledge of virtue to be beyond human understanding and implies that he has never encountered a human that has mastered the knowledge of virtue. However, the fact that human belief in virtue is a basis for their moral actions and self-respect is enough to guide them on how to live in society. Socrates sounds quite boastful in the apology especially after he explains the limits of human wisdom. He considers himself a good man. The social ethic of virtue according to this text is not an art that can be studied. It is more like an instinct. Our ability to understand what virtue entails even without the ability to understand its true meaning is what makes a good man.
On the other hand, Aristotle explains ethics as a result of every action’s aim at a specific good deed. For this reason, a good result is what every action aims at according to Aristotle. However, the end product or activity differs depending on the action. In his views, Aristotle argues that the products of an activity have to be better than the activities. He insists on the positivity of every life changing action that man does. For instance, in medicine, the art of healing results to health as the art of shipbuilding results in good vessels. It is for the sake of what we do that good deeds are pursued. Our knowledge on what impacts the results of our actions have on society is the reason why man does what he does to this day. According to Aristotle, our knowledge of the good has a great influence on life. He compares the ability to understand the ultimate good with a master art like politics.
Politics categorizes what education a social structure has to master and to what level. It legislates what we are supposed to do and what we are supposed to abstain from. Since politics uses all the aspects of sciences, its end must be positive not only for an individual but for a society as well. Aristotle argues that an ethic is not selfish in nature. Good deeds and moral behaviour are supposed to be for the greater good of the people just like in political science. A good social ethic according to Aristotle is that it has to be subject to an opinion. Fine and just actions are an example of ethics that vary due to the fluctuation of opinion. For such opinion to be positive in nature, man has to be educated. Aristotle insists that man judges well the things he knows which makes the difference between a good judge and a bad judge. Justice and just decisions can therefore only be made by a well-educated person.
Aristotle’s work emphasises on achievement of good ethics through knowledge brought about by wisdom and education. Plato also questioned how knowledge affects the decisions we make in a society. Both of these philosophers had a common opinion about knowledge and qualification. Plato suggests that knowledge exists to a certain extent whether one is educated or not. Whether qualified or not qualified, every moral decision is as a result of what is known to us. Both of them agree that ignorance is the cause of bad ethics in society.
The teachings of Buddha are not similar to most philosophical opinions about ethics. Buddhist ethics hinge on man’s ability to learn his weaknesses and train...