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For Socrates (469–399 BC), intellectualism is the view that "one will do what is right or best just as soon as one truly understands what is right or best"; that virtue is a purely intellectual matter, since virtue and knowledge are cerebral relatives, which a person accrues and improves with dedication to reason.
Virtue ethics began with Socrates, and was subsequently developed further by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. [17] Virtue ethics concentrates on the character of the individual, rather than the acts (or consequences thereof) of the individual. There is debate among adherents of virtue ethics concerning what specific virtues are praiseworthy.
He believed that all virtue was based on knowledge (hence Socrates is characterized as a virtue intellectualist). He also believed that humans were guided by the cognitive power to comprehend what they desire, while diminishing the role of impulses (a view termed motivational intellectualism). [ 120 ]
Socrates said that his awareness of his ignorance made him wiser than those who, though ignorant, still claimed knowledge. This claim was based on a reported Delphic oracular pronouncement that no man was wiser than Socrates. While this belief seems paradoxical at first glance, in fact it allowed Socrates to discover his own errors.
Socrates (c. 470 – 399 BC). The first historical figure who is usually called an "intellectualist" was the Greek philosopher Socrates (c. 470 – 399 BC), who taught that intellectualism allows that "one will do what is right or [what is] best, just as soon as one truly understands what is right or best"; that virtue is a matter of the intellect, because virtue and knowledge are related ...
Metaethics explores the underlying assumptions and concepts of ethics. It asks whether there are objective moral facts, how moral knowledge is possible, and how moral judgments motivate people. Influential normative theories are consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. According to consequentialists, an act is right if it leads to the ...
In Aristotle's work, phronesis is the intellectual virtue that helps turn one's moral instincts into practical action. [4] [5] He writes that moral virtues help any person to achieve the end, and that phronesis is what it takes to discover the means to gain that end. [4]
Socrates equated wisdom with knowing one's own ignorance, while Plato argued that wisdom was the highest form of knowledge. [10] Aristotle distinguished between practical wisdom ( phronesis ) and theoretical wisdom ( sophia ), defining wisdom as the ability to deliberate well about the good life.