1.

Correlate the Golden Rule of Confucius, the Middle Path of the Buddha and the Golden Mean of
Aristotle. Are these ethical precepts effective in living a good life, or Eudaimonia or a life where
there is human flourishing according to Aristotle? Justify your answer?  

Aristotle in particular elaborated the concept in his Nicomachean Ethics. The "golden mean" is the
desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. In Confucianism, the
golden mean or the doctrine of the mean was understood as a primary virtue, “do unto others as you
would have them do unto you.”, denotes that you should treat others the same way you would like to be
treated yourself. In Buddhism, the golden mean, or better known as the Middle Way, expresses the
discourse of emancipation.
Aristotle explains the origin, nature and development of virtues which are essential for achieving the
ultimate goal, happiness which must be desired for itself. Happiness is a golden mean between deficiency
and excess. It is essentially the same as the Buddha’s middle path between self-indulgence and self-
renunciation.  Similarly, Buddhism aims not to eradicate all feeling but to liberate it from its attachment to
false values. He gave the concept of the Middle Way, a path between the extremes of religious asceticism
and worldly self-indulgence to move away from false values.
Aristotle, Confucius and the Buddha reached very similar conclusions as to how we should conduct our
lives, if we wish to find happiness and fulfillment as human beings.
Aristotle suggested that there were signs that we could look for in our own and in others’ lives, to see
whether we or they were flourishing as people. He thought that these signs, and indeed the flourishing,
would mean that a person was growing as an individual and living a ‘good’ life.
It certainly is true that the ethical precepts are very deep-rooted in the human psyche, particularly
characteristics like fairness. These precepts suggested that if we can live in this way, or at the very least
strive to do these things, and occasionally succeed, then we are likely to be happier. Even if things go
wrong, it is still better to act ethically, and many people use this as a basis for resilience. Overall, we will
be happier if we do so. We should live in a way that enables us to explore and reflect on the ordinary
happenings of life, as well as the extraordinary. We should also try to act out ordinary things in an
extraordinary way.

2. Explain why in most ethical theories taken thus far, an individual is always directed to the pursuit
of happiness. And in some cases to the ultimate end of man, or ultimate happiness which is unity
with God or his Creator?

Happiness is the end which meets all these requirements. It is easy enough to see that we desire money,
pleasure, and honor only because we believe that these goods will make us happy. It seems that all other
goods are a means towards obtaining happiness, while happiness is always an end in itself. Happiness is
a final end or goal that encompasses the totality of one's life. It is not something that can be gained or
lost in a few hours, like pleasurable sensations. It is more like the ultimate value of your life as lived up to
this moment, measuring how well you have lived up to your full potential as a human being

3. Correlate the following concepts in Hindu Ethics, the four stages of life, the four ends of life, the
Caste System, ignorance (avidhya), illusion/delusion (maya), retribution (karma), transmigration
 (samsara), and liberation (moksha). What are the important differences between proximate and
ultimate liberation? 

Hindus believe that the real self is distinct from the temporary body made of matter. The eternal soul
identifies with matter and is entrapped by maya (illusion). Impelled by lust, greed, anger, etc., he
undergoes samsara (the cycle of repeated birth and death).

Each soul creates its unique destiny according to the law of karma (the universal law of action and
reaction). Under the influence of eternal time and the three gunas (material qualities) he moves
throughout the creation, sometimes going to higher planets, sometimes moving in human society, and at
other times entering the lower species.

The goal of most Hindus is moksha, liberation from this perpetual cycle, through re-identification with the
eternal brahman (Supreme). Hinduism accepts different paths towards this common goal (union with
God). Nonetheless, it stresses strict adherence to universal principles through the practice of
one’s dharma (ordained duty) as revealed through authorised holy books and usually received through
the guru (spiritual mentor).

Hindu philosophy traditionally observes four stages of life. These stages are known as ashramas. The
idea is to provide structure and guidance for daily life. A crucial piece of the ashrama lifecycle is its focus
on dharma, the Hindu concept of moral rightness. Dharma underlies many themes in Hindu life, and in
the four ashramas, dharma is learned, practiced, taught and realized. 

Along with the caste system and stages of life Hinduism contains a list of things most favourable to
mankind, in this life one can seek whatever they want there four basic ways also known as the four ends
of life in Hinduism. It is important to realize that all persons need go through all stages, and they will be
left alone if they pursue and enjoy any one of the following paths. The four parts include pleasure and
wealthy success which are derived from the path of desire followed by duty and liberation derived from
the path of reincarnation.

The ultimate goal of Hinduism is Moksha or liberation (total freedom). This is the personal and direct
realization of one's true self, which liberates one's from the cycles of rebirth, or Samsara.

4. Trace the Platonic influences on the Ethics of St. Augustine and Aristotleian influences on the
Ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Augustine was influenced heavily through Neo-platonist metaphysics and ethical writings which
shaped Augustine's understanding of God as a source of absolute goodness and truth. Throughout many
of his writings he admits to holding on to reformed versions of Plato’s realm of forms; he viewed the
forms to be divine thoughts. This idea mirrored Plato's thinking idea of "forms." For Plato, every entity in
the world is a representation of a perfect idea of that entity. Thus, a tree in a field is an imperfect version
of a perfect form of a tree. For Augustine, God is the source of the forms. He also embraced Plato’s
morality, in that Plato taught that the moral person is truly moral because his actions are in line with his
understanding of the forms, or for Augustine Christ. Essentially, Augustine embraced nearly every
Platonist doctrine, that he did not understand to be incompatible with his Christian faith.

Aquinas was heavily influenced by Aristotle and their views line up nicely on matters related to
nature. To simplify it, Aristotle gave us the framework for determining who might be considered a good
person while Aquinas explained why one should be a good person.

For Aristotle, man is a “political animal.” From this it follows that the first society for man is the family
and the second is the city. It is here (in the city) that man can achieve the “good life” — without it, man
is either a beast or a God. In Aristotle’s teaching, political order is essential to the city and the city is
tasked with promoting virtue amongst its citizens. In addition, the good of the city is deemed better than
the good of the individual and this leads to a central question in political philosophy: who should lead the
city?

It is here that Aquinas takes Aristotelian political philosophy and blends it with theology by putting forth
the idea that God is that which produces laws and delivers justice — this is also what Machiavelli would
revolt against because he believed that leaving questions of politics up to the church was a big mistake.

Aquinas agreed with Aristotle about moral principles being subject to change, but the real area of
contention was whether or not there are any moral principles that remain unchanged regardless of the
situation. Aristotle saw natural right as variable while Aquinas tried to draw a hard line in regards to
natural law: there are some things that are never acceptable and others that are subject to one’s
circumstance.

5. Correlate the Ethics of Participation in St. Augustine and the Natural Law Ethics of St. Thomas
Aquinas.

Augustine was acquainted with a version of Plato’s philosophy, and he developed the Platonic idea of the
rational soul into a Christian view in which humans are essentially souls, using their bodies as a means to
achieve their spiritual ends. The ultimate objective remains happiness, but Augustine conceived of
happiness as consisting of the union of the soul with God after the body has died. It was through
Augustine, therefore, that Christianity received the Platonic theme of the relative inferiority of bodily
pleasures.

The precepts of the natural law are binding by nature: no beings could share our human nature yet fail to
be bound by the precepts of the natural law. This is so because these precepts direct us toward the good
as such and various particular goods. The good and goods provide reasons for us rational beings to act,
to pursue the good and these particular goods. As good is what is perfective of us given the natures that
we have, the good and these various goods have their status as such naturally. It is sufficient for certain
things to be good that we have the natures that we have; it is in virtue of our common human nature
that the good for us is what it is.

Aquinas does not simply wish to defend the claim that human acts are for the sake of some good.
Following Augustine, he insists that our actions are for the sake of a final good—a last end which we
desire for its own sake and for the sake of which everything else is chosen. If there was no such end, we
would have a hard time explaining why anyone chooses to do anything at all. The reason for this is as
follows. Aquinas argues that for every action or series of actions there must be something that is first in
“order of intention”. In other words, there must be some end or good that is intrinsically desirable and
serves the will’s final cause.

For Aquinas, the last end of happiness can only consist in that which is perfectly good, which is God.
Because God is perfect goodness, he is the only one capable of fulfilling our heart’s deepest longing and
facilitating the perfection at which we aim. Thus he says that human beings “attain their last end by
knowing and loving God”.  Aquinas refers to this last end—the state in which perfect happiness consists—
as the beatific vision. The beatific vision is a supernatural union with God, the enjoyment of which
surpasses the satisfaction afforded by those goods people sometimes associate with the last end.

Augustine is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. He reached
this status because he is the first Christian philosopher to formulate the doctrines of his religion in a
comprehensive and enduring world view. The central doctrine of Saint Augustine consists of the belief of
the original sin as well as divine predestination.

Saint Augustine believes that all humans are stained from the original sin of Adam and Eve, and therefore
they deserve only punishment. However, there are still a few chosen ones whom God bestows salvation
on as a free gift. There is no guidance as to how God selects His people for salvation. Therefore, neither
faith nor good works can ensure salvation – each person is predestined by God either to either salvation
or to damnation.

Another important theory of Saint Augustine is to love God is to love truth because God is the truth itself.
People may come to know truth through inner experience and conviction; however, they must first
believe in order to understand. Therefore, faith is the essential cornerstone for understanding God.
“Faith, knowledge, and mystical vision may be conceived as progressive steps on the way to the
transcendental understanding of God, who is the essence of all truth” (Great Traditions, 64).

While Saint Augustine fully expresses his love of God in his work, Saint Thomas Aquinas focuses on
morality and natural law. Saint Thomas Aquinas is the most famous classical proponent of natural
theology, and he is considered by the Catholic Church to be its greatest theologian. His moral theories
resemble those of Aristotle; some people say they are the Christianized version of Aristotle’s principles.

Being another Christian philosopher, Saint Aquinas also has his own definition of humans’ relationship to
God: “God is seen to be both the creator of all things and the determiner of their purposes” (Great
Traditions, 81). Similar to Saint Augustine, Saint Aquinas believes that God is omnipotent and supreme.
“Now there is but one supreme good, namely God….Therefore all things are directed to the highest good,
namely God, as their end” (Great Traditions, 83).

Nevertheless, Saint Aquinas does not believe in divine predestination and thinks that people have free will
that directs them to distinctive human ends. Moreover, Aquinas believes that all human ends can be
attained. Moreover, while Saint Augustine thinks it is false pride for people to believe that they can know
God by their own efforts, Saint Aquinas does not seem to reject the possibility that people can search for
truth on their own. In fact, he encourages the search of truth: “The highest end for humanity is
contemplation of the truth” (Great Traditions, 82).

In sum, Saint Aquinas provides people with moral guidance, which help people to reason, comprehend,
and thus obey eternal law. Saint Augustine, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of love for
God, and that this love is the motive for obeying eternal law. Both Saint Aquinas and Saint Augustine
respect God very much; however, they differ in the way they show as well as wanting people to show
this respect.

6. Correlate the idea of virtue in Plato and Aristotle. What are their justifications in living a good life? 

In the Protagoras Plato, through Socrates, argues that virtue is knowledge. The argument begins with the
premise that everyone wants what he or she believes to be good. From this it follows that when a person
does something wrong or bad it cannot be because they want to do it, knowing it is bad, it must be that
they want to do it, believing it to be good. What separates the virtuous person from the un-virtuous is
not a desire for what is good, everyone desires what they think to be good, but rather the knowledge of
what the good really is. On this account, Plato’s conception of human virtue boils down to knowing the
good, and being able to correctly choose the actions that bring about the most good
However, Aristotle insists that the virtues differ from the crafts and all branches of knowledge in that the
former involve appropriate emotional responses and are not purely intellectual conditions. For Aristotle,
moral virtue is the only practical road to effective action. What the person of good character loves with
right desire and thinks of as an end with right reason must first be perceived as beautiful. Hence, the
virtuous person sees truly and judges rightly, since beautiful things appear as they truly are only to a
person of good character. It is only in the middle ground between habits of acting and principles of action
that the soul can allow right desire and right reason to make their appearance, as the direct and natural
response of a free human being to the sight of the beautiful.

7. Explain the ethical ideals of human nature in Confucius, Mencius and Hzun Tzu and establish the
connections of their ethical principles.

Confucius was optimistic about human potential; he wanted people to be sages or wise persons who
instantiate the goodness of the heavens within them. This is accomplished by being benevolent. The
result of being moral, essentially benevolent, is joy. He was not clear on why so few people become wise,
benevolent sages, but he suggested that it might be that we freely choose not to be good. He also
thought that our environment plays a large role in shaping us. Thus, we need to be molded so as to
achieve moral perfection, molded especially by a culture and a social system conducive to our moral
development.

Mencius subscribed to the former, while Hsun-tzu to the latter. Mencius tries to refute the view that
human nature is neither good nor bad, arguing that humans are inherently good. For Mencius, the heart
is a gift from the heavens which inherently contains compassion, shame, courtesy, and a sense of
morality which will sprout into benevolence, dutifulness, observation of rites, and wisdom. Nonetheless,
Mencius grants that people are also selfish and the good qualities of the human heart must be cultivated.
Thus, the right conditions must apply. Mencius even offers an argument that humans are inherently
good: if they saw a child in danger they would instinctively try to help the child. 

Hsun-tzu argued that our interior life is dominated by desires. As these desires are unlimited and
resources limited, a natural conflict between people will result. Our nature thus is generally bad and we
must work consciously to be good. Hsun-tzu says that the desire for profit, as well as envy, hatred, and
desire, are our natural tendencies which lead to strife, violence, crime, and wantonness. Still Hsu-tzu
believed that with proper education, training and ritual everyone could become morally excellent. This
takes effort and is aided by a good culture.

Despite their disagreements both Mencius and Hsun-tzu agree that the path of sagehood consists of
action based on the examples of previous sages. For Hsun-tzu we are naturally warped boards that need
to be straightened; for Mencius we are relatively straight boards that can be warped.

8. Explain, discuss and correlate the four noble truths, the eight fold path, the three characteristics of
existence, Anatta, Anicca and Dukkha, the three jewels of Budhhism, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,
the concept of ignorance, karma, samsara, the middle way and Nirvana. What are the fundamental
differences between the Arahat and the Boddhisattva?  

Eightfold Path, in Buddhism, an early formulation of the path to enlightenment. The idea of the Eightfold
Path appears in what is regarded as the first sermon of the founder of Buddhism, Siddhartha Gautama,
known as the Buddha, which he delivered after his enlightenment. There he sets forth a middle way, the
Eightfold Path, between the extremes of asceticism and sensual indulgence. Similarly, just as what is
noble about the Four Noble Truths is not the truths themselves but those who understand them, what is
noble about the Eightfold Noble Path is not the path itself but those who follow it. Accordingly, four noble
truths might be more accurately translated as the “Eightfold Path of the noble.”

In brief, the eight elements of the path are: (1) correct view, an accurate understanding of the nature of
things, specifically the Four Noble Truths, (2) correct intention, avoiding thoughts of attachment, hatred,
and harmful intent, (3) correct speech, refraining from verbal misdeeds such as lying, divisive speech,
harsh speech, and senseless speech, (4) correct action, refraining from physical misdeeds such as killing,
stealing, and sexual misconduct, (5) correct livelihood, avoiding trades that directly or indirectly harm
others, such as selling slaves, weapons, animals for slaughter, intoxicants, or poisons, (6) correct effort,
abandoning negative states of mind that have already arisen, preventing negative states that have yet to
arise, and sustaining positive states that have already arisen, (7) correct mindfulness, awareness of body,
feelings, thought, and phenomena, and (8) correct concentration, single-mindedness.

The eight elements are portrayed not so much as prescriptions for behaviour but as qualities that are
present in the mind of a person who has understood nirvana, the state of the cessation of suffering and
the goal of Buddhism.

As a proposition, the four truths defy an exact definition, but refer to and express the basic orientation
of Buddhism: unguarded sensory contact gives rise to craving and clinging to impermanent states and
things, which are dukkha, "incapable of satisfying" and painful. This craving keeps us caught
in samsara, "wandering," usually interpreted as the endless cycle of repeated rebirth, and the
continued dukkha that comes with it. There is a way to end this cycle, namely by attaining nirvana,
cessation of craving, whereafter rebirth and the accompanying dukkha will no longer arise again. This can
be accomplished by following the eightfold path, confining our automatic responses to sensory contact by
restraining oneself, cultivating discipline and wholesome states, and
practicing mindfulness and dhyana (meditation).

The nature of things is described by the three characteristics, namely impermanence (Anicca), un-
satisfactoriness or suffering (dukkha), and nonself-hood (anattā). It points out that all things are
impermanent (Anicca), all things are unsatisfactory (dukkha), and all things are not selves (anattā). As
long as one lacks the knowledge of Anātman principle, one is bound to go mindlessly liking or disliking
things in one way or another or bound to be reborn endlessly in this Saṃsāra. So only the cultivation of
mind or literally called meditation one may perceive precisely of this nature of things. In Buddhism, in
order to cultivate our mind pure, there is requirement of morality is the first step then the next is very
important as well meditation, the cultivation of mind in fact, there are many ways to practice meditation
according to the Buddha which will be narrated later. Lastly from meditation, we shall get Paññāor
wisdom is the final salvation, when wisdom arises, human beings will see clearly the nature of things
such as Anātman. All these based on the Noble Eightfold Path.

An Arhat is not reborn in any realm. This is the highest spiritual achievement, the goal of all meditation
and practice. The Arhat is the final stage of 4 stages of spiritual evolution – the stream enterer, the once
returnee, the non-returnee and the Arhat.

The stream enterer is one who has entered the path of Nirvana and within a maximum of 7 rebirths will
attain to the level of Arhat. He cannot go back into the realm of suffering. The once-returnee as the
name suggests is reborn only once before he becomes an Arhat. The non-returnee has no more rebirths
in the lower realms but has not yet become an Arhat. The Arhat is one who has extinguished all desire,
all ignorance which leads to rebirth.
Bodhisattva, which is the Mahayana ideal, is someone who has taken the vow to save all sentient beings,
wherever they are however innumerable they are, from ignorance and the rounds of rebirth and until
then, he does not enter Nirvana. In order words, he does not free himself until he has helped each and
every other being to free themselves. The Bodhisattva willingly gets reborn in order to fulfill his vow.

A Bodhisattva is also someone who is eventually going to become a Buddha in a time to come. So if you
are intent of attaining Buddhahood, you need to take the Bodhisattva vow and help people in
innumerable lifetimes, leading to the perfections and eventually to Buddhahood.