Fri 14 Mar 2008
Ethics: The Three Systems
1. The Ethics of Buddha and Jesus:
• All men are equally precious.
• Resists evil only by returning good.
• Identifies virtues with love.
• Inclines in politics toward unlimited Democracy.
2. The Ethics of Macchiavelli and Nietzsche:
• Accepts the inequality of men.
• Relishes the risk of combat and conquest and rule.
• Identifies virtue with power.
• Exalts a hereditary aristocracy.
3. The Ethics of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle:
• Only the informed and mature mind can judge, according to diverse circumstance, when love should rule, and when power.
• Identifies virtue with intelligence and knowledge.
• Advocates a varying mixture of aristocracy and democracy in government.
Reconciliation by Spinoza: Making Happiness the goal of conduct.
(Original source: Will Durant’s “The Story of Philosophy” extracted and compiled by Matias Masucci)
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