2 Philosophers and their Contributions

• Mahatma Gandhi: '"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."'
• Freedom


  The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint
• When it comes to morality, freedom is not just doing whatever one wants, it's about what one ought/must</b>
• Movie quote: '"With great power comes great responsibility"'
• Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist
• Gandhi was born in a Hindu family and was a devout Hindu throughout his life, but was strongly influenced by the ideas of other religions and had deep interest in comparative religion
• Gandhian Ethics


  • Strive with all their strength to follow the virtues of truth, love, nonviolence, tolerance, fearlessness, charity and service to mankind
  • Uphold the right, regardless of the personal consequences they may face
• Gandhi's idea of truth


  Not taken from epistemology or theory of knowledge, but viewed as an ideal of human conduct
• Gandhi's concept of service to society


  Only way to see God is to see him through his creations and identify oneself with it, possible through service to humanity
• Gandhi's emphasis on cleanliness


  • Internal (mental) and external (physical) cleanliness
  • "Cleanliness is next to Godliness"
  • Advocated moral self-purification
• Gandhi's view on ends and means

  • Men should adopt only good means to attain noble objectives
  • "No good can follow from bad deeds, even if they are well intentioned"
• Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative


  • An objective, rationally necessary and unconditional principle that we must follow despite any natural desires we may have to the contrary
  • The fundamental principle of morality - the law of an autonomous will
• Kant's classical views on virtue

  • Moral strength of a human being's will in fulfilling his duty
  • Trait grounded in moral principles, and vice as principled transgression of moral law
  • Virtue cannot be a trait of divine beings
• John Locke's ethical theory


  • Based on belief in the natural goodness of humanity
  • Immediate pleasures must give way to a prudent regard for ultimate good, including reward in the afterlife
• John Locke's view on morality

  • Morality and the ability to make moral decisions developed throughout your lives
  • The mind was a tabula rasa, a blank slate that is shaped and filled by the person's life experience and that ultimately creates a person's morality
• David Hume's view on free will

  • Believed in a limited form of free will, but ultimately believed that nature was in control of human destiny
  • Freedom was subject-based, meaning that you are free to make a moral decision and free to follow through with that action
  • Determined events create human free will and each individual is free to respond in their own way to those determined events