Shaila Marie Lopez Bs Psychology 1-2

Ethical

Biography

of

Philosophers
Table of Contents
Socrates.............................................................3
Plato..................................................................4
Aristotle............................................................5
Confucius..........................................................6
King Solomon....................................................7
Gautama Buddha..............................................8
Immanuel Kant..................................................9
Thomas Hobbes..............................................10
John Stuart Mill...............................................11
Thomas Aquinas..............................................12
Ayn Rand.........................................................13
Jose “Pepe” Mojica.........................................14
Socrates
Socrates (469/470-399 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and is considered the father of
western philosophy. Plato (l. c. 428-348 BCE) was
his most famous student and would teach Aristotle
(l. 384-322 BCE) who would then tutor Alexander
the Great (l. 356-323 BCE). By this progression,
Greek philosophy, as first developed by Socrates,
was spread throughout the known world during
Alexander's conquests. Socrates was a widely
recognized and controversial figure in his native
Athens, so much so that he was frequently mocked
in the plays of comic dramatists. (The Clouds of
Aristophanes, produced in 423, is the best-known
example.) Although Socrates himself wrote
nothing, he is depicted in conversation in
compositions by a small circle of his admirers—
Plato and Xenophon first among them. He is
portrayed in these works as a man of great insight,
integrity, self-mastery, and argumentative skill.
The impact of his life was all the greater because of the way in which it ended: at age 70, he was
brought to trial on a charge of impiety and sentenced to death by poisoning (the poison probably
being hemlock) by a jury of his fellow citizens.
Plato, unlike Xenophon, is generally regarded as a philosopher of the highest order of
originality and depth. According to some scholars, his philosophical skills made him far better
able than Xenophon was to understand Socrates and therefore more valuable a source of
information about him. The contrary view is that Plato’s originality and vision as a philosopher
led him to use his Socratic discourses not as mere devices for reproducing the conversations he
had heard but as vehicles for the advocacy of his own ideas (however much they may have been
inspired by Socrates) and that he is therefore far more untrustworthy than Xenophon as a source
of information about the historical Socrates. Whichever of these two views is correct, it is
undeniable that Plato is not only the deeper philosopher but also the greater literary artist. Some
of his dialogues are so natural and lifelike in their depiction of conversational interplay that
readers must constantly remind themselves that Plato is shaping his material, as any author must.
The ultimate aim of Socrates' philosophical method is always ethical. Socrates believed
that if one knows what the good is, one will always do what is good. Thus, if one truly
understands the meaning of courage, self-control, or justice, one will act in a courageous, self-
controlled and just manner. In the end Socrates believed that the life of virtue (arete) was always
in a person’s best interest. He did not think that anyone could be happy in life who was not also
morally good. This fundamental belief of his expressed quite clearly in the Apology.
Plato
Plato, (born 428/427 BCE, Athens, Greece—
died 348/347, Athens), ancient Greek philosopher,
student of Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE), teacher of
Aristotle (384–322 BCE), and founder of the
Academy, best known as the author of philosophical
works of unparalleled influence. Building on the
demonstration by Socrates that those regarded as
experts in ethical matters did not have the
understanding necessary for a good human life,
Plato introduced the idea that their mistakes were
due to their not engaging properly with a class of
entities he called forms, chief examples of which
were Justice, Beauty, and Equality. In metaphysics
Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of
the forms and their interrelations, starting with the
most fundamental among them (the Good, or the
One); in ethics and moral psychology he developed
the view that the good life requires not just a certain
kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) but
also habituation to healthy emotional responses and therefore harmony between the three parts of
the soul (according to Plato, reason, spirit, and appetite). His works also contain discussions in
aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology, and the philosophy of
language. His school fostered research not just in philosophy narrowly conceived but in a wide
range of endeavours that today would be called mathematical or scientific.
Plato is both famous and infamous for his theory of forms. Just what the theory is, and
whether it was ever viable, are matters of extreme controversy. To readers who approach Plato in
English, the relationship between forms and sensible particulars, called in translation
“participation,” seems purposely mysterious. Moreover, the claim that the sensible realm is not
fully real, and that it contrasts in this respect with the “pure being” of the forms, is perplexing. A
satisfactory interpretation of the theory must rely on both historical knowledge and philosophical
imagination.
Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic
conception of ethics. Happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought
and conduct, and the virtues (arête: 'excellence') are the requisite skills and dispositions needed
to attain it. If Plato’s conception of happiness is elusive and his support for a morality of
happiness seems somewhat subdued, there are several reasons. First, he nowhere defines the
concept or makes it the direct target of investigation but introduces it in an oblique way in the
pursuit of other questions. Second, the treatment of the human good varies in the different
dialogues, so that readers find themselves confronted with the problem of what to make of the
discrepancies in different works.
Aristotle
Aristotle, Greek Aristoteles, (born 384 BCE,
Stagira, Chalcidice, Greece—died 322, Chalcis,
Euboea), ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, one
of the greatest intellectual figures of Western history.
He is still considered one of the greatest thinkers in
politics, psychology and ethics.  He was the author of a
philosophical and scientific system that became the
framework and vehicle for both Christian Scholasticism
and medieval Islamic philosophy. Even after the
intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance, the
Reformation, and the Enlightenment, Aristotelian
concepts remained embedded in Western thinking.
Aristotle wrote as many as 200 treatises and other
works covering all areas of philosophy and science. Of
those, none survives in finished form. The
approximately 30 works through which his thought was
conveyed to later centuries consist of lecture notes (by Aristotle or his students) and draft
manuscripts edited by ancient scholars, notably Andronicus of Rhodes, the last head of
the Lyceum, who arranged, edited, and published Aristotle’s extant works in Rome about 60
BCE. The naturally abbreviated style of these writings makes them difficult to read, even for
philosophers.
Aristotle’s intellectual achievement is stupendous. He was the first genuine scientist in
history. He was the first author whose surviving works contain detailed and extensive
observations of natural phenomena, and he was the first philosopher to achieve a sound grasp of
the relationship between observation and theory in scientific method. He identified the various
scientific disciplines and explored their relationships to each other. He was the first professor to
organize his lectures into courses and to assign them a place in a syllabus. His Lyceum was the
first research institute in which several scholars and investigators joined in collaborative inquiry
and documentation. Finally, and not least important, he was the first person in history to build up
a research library, a systematic collection of works to be used by his colleagues and to be handed
on to posterity.
Aristotle's ethics is a common-sense ethics built on naturalism and self-realization. He
distinguishes between happiness (eudaemonia) and moral virtue. Moral virtue is not the end of
life for it can go with inactivity, misery, and unhappiness while Happiness, the end of life, that to
which all aims, is activity in accordance with reason (reason is the arete or peculiar excellence of
persons).
Confucius
Confucius was an influential Chinese philosopher,
teacher and political figure known for his popular
aphorisms and for his models of social interaction.
Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.), also known as Kong
Qui or K’ung Fu-tzu, was a Chinese philosopher,
teacher and political figure. His teachings, preserved in
the Analects, focused on creating ethical models of
family and public interaction and setting educational
standards. After his death, Confucius became the
official imperial philosophy of China, which was
extremely influential during the Han, Tang and Song
dynasties. Confucius didn't start out as a wise teacher,
he worked several normal jobs first. They included
being a shepherd and a clerk, Eventually, Confucius
came to work for the government. He started out as the
governor of a small town and worked his way up until
he became an advisor at the top levels of government. Confucius developed his own philosophy
which he taught to others. Today, his philosophy is known as Confucianism. His ideas didn't
become popular until years after his death when they became the basic philosophy of the Chinese
culture for over two thousand years.
Confucius is credited with writing and editing some of the most
influential traditional Chinese classics. ‘Analects of Confucius’ Lunyu, which sets forth
Confucius’ philosophical and political beliefs, is thought to be compiled by his disciples. It is
one of the "Four Books" of Confucianism that Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi, a self-proclaimed
Neo-Confucian, published as Sishu in 1190. Far-reaching in its influence, Lunyu was later
translated into English under the title The Analects of Confucius. Other books by Confucius
include a rearrangement of the Book of Odes as well as a revision of the historical Book of
Documents. He also compiled a historical account of the 12 dukes of Lu, called the Spring and
Autumn Annals.
The central idea of Confucius is that every normal human being
cherishes the aspiration to become a superior man—superior to his fellows, if possible, but surely
superior to his own past and present self. This does not more than hint at perfection as a goal;
and it is said of him that one of the subjects concerning which the Master rarely spoke, was
“perfect virtue.” He also said, “They who know virtue, are few” and was far from teaching a
perfectionist doctrine. It refers rather to the perpetually relative, the condition of being superior
to that to which one may be superior, be it high or low, —that hopeful possibility which has ever
lured mankind toward higher things.
King Solomon
Solomon, Hebrew Shlomo, biblical Israelite king
who built the first Temple of Jerusalem and who is
revered in Judaism and Christianity for his wisdom and in
Islam as a prophet. Nearly all evidence for Solomon’s life
and reign comes from the Bible (especially the first 11
chapters of the First Book of Kings and the first nine
chapters of the Second Book of Chronicles). According to
those sources, his father was David (flourished c. 1000
BCE), the poet and king who, against great odds, founded
the Judaean dynasty and united all the tribes of Israel
under one monarch. Solomon’s mother was Bathsheba,
formerly the wife of David’s Hittite general, Uriah. She
proved to be adept at court intrigue, and through her
efforts, in concert with the prophet Nathan, Solomon was
anointed king while David was still alive, even though he
was younger than his brothers. Material evidence for
Solomon’s reign, as for that of his father, is scant.
Although some scholars claim to have discovered artifacts
that corroborate the biblical account of his reign in the early 10th century BCE, others claim that
the archaeological record strongly suggests that the fortified cities and even the Temple of
Jerusalem actually emerged more than a century later. In the latter view, the kingdom of
Solomon was far from the vast empire that the biblical narrative describes.
Solomon was renowned as a sage. When two women each claimed to be the mother of
the same baby, he determined the real mother by observing each woman’s reaction to the
prospect of dividing the child into two halves; he acknowledged the woman who protested as the
mother. Solomon was deemed wiser than all the sages of Egypt and the Middle East—even wiser
than some ancient paragons of wisdom. The biblical Book of Proverbs contains collections of
aphorisms and other wise teachings attributed to him. Like his father, Solomon was also revered
as a poet. The biblical Song of Solomon is attributed to him—albeit spuriously and likely
because of his posthumous fame—in the opening verse. His reputation as a great lover, reflected
in the size of his harem, is appropriately a major theme in the Song of Solomon. Postbiblical
tradition attributed later works to him: the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon, on the one hand, and
the Odes of Solomon and Psalms of Solomon, on the other, are tributes to him as sage and poet.
Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha was a spiritual
leader on whose teaching’s Buddhism was
founded. He is believed to have lived in eastern
India/ Nepal during the 6th to 4th century B.C.
Born as a prince, he spent his childhood in the lap
of luxury. He lost his mother at an early age and
his doting father tried his best to keep his young
son away from the miseries of the world. When
he was a little boy, some wise scholars predicted
that he would become either a great king or a
renowned spiritual leader. His father hoped that
his son would one day become a great king. The
prince was kept away from all forms of religious
knowledge and had no idea about the concepts of
old age, sickness and death. Once on a trip
through the city on a chariot he witnessed an old man, a diseased person, and a corpse. This new
knowledge about the sufferings in the world gave rise to several questions within his mind and
the prince soon renounced all his worldly affairs in order to embark on a journey of self-
discovery. Finally, after years of rigorous contemplation and meditation, he found
Enlightenment, and became the Buddha, meaning “awakened one" or "the enlightened one".
Gautama Buddha is a major figure in Buddhism. The religion of Buddhism has its
foundation in his teachings; he gave the Four Noble Truths which express the basic orientation of
Buddhism and provide a conceptual framework of the Buddhist thought, and proposed the
Eightfold Path to end suffering. He was a highly influential figure in world history. The principal
figure in Buddhism, he is also worshipped as a manifestation of God in Hinduism, Ahmadiyya
Muslim Community and the Bahá'í faith.
A central foundation for Buddhist morality is the law of karma and rebirth. The Buddha
is recorded to have stated that right view consisted in believing that (among other things): "'there
is fruit and ripening of deeds well done or ill done': what one does matters and has an effect on
one’s future; 'there is this world, there is a world beyond': this world is not unreal, and one goes
on to another world after death". The root of one's intention is what conditions an action to be
good or bad. There are three good roots (non-attachment, benevolence, and understanding) and
three negative roots (greed, hatred and delusion). Actions which produce good outcomes are
termed "merit" (puñña – fruitful, auspicious) and obtaining merit (good karma) is an important
goal of lay Buddhist practice. The early Buddhist texts mention three 'bases for effecting karmic
fruitfulness’ (puñña-kiriya-vatthus): giving (dana), moral virtue (sila) and meditation (zazen).[9]
One's state of mind while performing good actions is seen as more important than the action
itself. The Buddhist Sangha is seen as the most meritorious "field of merit". Negative actions
accumulate bad karmic results, though one's regret and attempts to make up for it can ameliorate
these results.
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant, (born April 22, 1724,
Königsberg, Prussia died February 12, 1804,
Königsberg), German philosopher whose
comprehensive and systematic work in epistemology
(the theory of knowledge), ethics, and aesthetics greatly
influenced all subsequent philosophy, especially the
various schools of Kantianism and idealism. Kant was
one of the foremost thinkers of the Enlightenment and
arguably one of the greatest philosophers of all time. In
him were subsumed new trends that had begun with the
rationalism (stressing reason) of René Descartes and the
empiricism (stressing experience) of Francis Bacon. He
thus inaugurated a new era in the development of
philosophical thought. Immanuel Kant was the fourth of
nine children born to Johann Georg Cant, a harness
maker, and Anna Regina Cant. Later in his life,
Immanuel changed the spelling of his name to Kantto to
adhere to German spelling practices. Both parents were devout followers of Pietism, an 18th-
century branch of the Lutheran Church. Seeing the potential in the young man, a local pastor
arranged for the young Kant's education. While at school, Kant gained a deep appreciation for
the Latin classics.
In 1740, Kant enrolled at the University of Konigsberg as a theology student but was
soon attracted to mathematics and physics. In 1746, his father died, and he was forced to leave
the university to help his family. For a decade, he worked as a private tutor for the wealthy.
During this time, he published several papers dealing with scientific questions exploring the
middle ground between rationalism and empiricism. Though the Critique of Pure
Reason received little attention at the time, Kant continued to refine his theories in a series of
essays that comprised the Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgement. Kant
continued to write on philosophy until shortly before his death. In his last years, he became
embittered due to his loss of memory. He died in 1804 at age 80.
Kant's theory is an example of a deontological moral theory–according to these theories,
the rightness or wrongness of actions does not depend on their consequences but on whether they
fulfill our duty. Kant believed that there was a supreme principle of morality, and he referred to
it as The Categorical Imperative. Kant also has something to say about what makes someone a
good person. Keep in mind that Kant intends this to go along with the rest of his theory, and
what one's duty is would be determined by the categorical imperative. However, one can treat
this as a separate theory to some extent and consider that one's duty is determined by some other
standard. Keep in mind that what is said below has to do with how one evaluates people, not
actions. A person's actions are right or wrong, a person is morally worthy or lacks moral worth.
A person's actions determine her moral worth, but there is more to this than merely seeing if the
actions are right or wrong.
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes, (born April 5, 1588,
Westport, Wiltshire, England—died December 4,
1679, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire), English
philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for
his political philosophy, especially as articulated in
his masterpiece Leviathan (1651). Hobbes viewed
government primarily as a device for ensuring
collective security. Political authority is justified by a
hypothetical social contract among the many that
vests in a sovereign person or entity the
responsibility for the safety and well-being of all. In
metaphysics, Hobbes defended materialism, the view
that only material things are real. His scientific
writings present all observed phenomena as the
effects of matter in motion. Hobbes was not only a
scientist in his own right but a great systematizer of
the scientific findings of his contemporaries, including Galileo and Johannes Kepler. His
enduring contribution is as a political philosopher who justified wide-ranging government
powers based on the self-interested consent of citizens. For nearly the whole of his adult life,
Thomas Hobbes was employed by members of the wealthy and aristocratic Cavendish family
and their associates as tutor, translator, traveling companion, keeper of accounts, business
representative, political adviser, and scientific collaborator.
Thomas Hobbes’s political philosophy influenced not only successors who adopted the
social-contract framework—John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Immanuel Kant, for
example—but also less directly those theorists who connected moral and political decision
making in rational human beings to considerations of self-interest broadly understood. Hobbes
presented his political philosophy in different forms for different audiences. De Cive states his
theory in what he regarded as its most scientific form. Unlike The Elements of Law, which was
composed in English for English parliamentarians—and which was written with local political
challenges to Charles I in mind—De Cive was a Latin work for an audience of Continental
savants who were interested in the “new” science—that is, the sort of science that did not appeal
to the authority of the ancients but approached various problems with fresh principles of
explanation.
Hobbes believed that human beings endeavor desperately to fulfill their desires for food,
clothing, shelter, power, honor, glory, comfort, pleasure, self-aggrandizement, and a life of ease.
Unfortunately, such things do not exist in abundance; they are scarce. In addition, he believed
that persons were relatively equal in their power. Given desires, scarcity, relative power equality,
and the predominant sense of self-interest all human beings exhibit, Hobbes concluded that
human beings, in a state of nature, would be engaged in a fierce struggle over scarce resources.
Individuals would attack, steal, destroy and invade to protect themselves and prove their status.
Thus, Hobbes’ first thesis: the state of nature is a state of war.
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill, (born May 20, 1806, London,
England—died May 8, 1873, Avignon, France), English
philosopher, economist, and exponent of Utilitarianism.
He was prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of
the 19th century, and remains of lasting interest as a
logician and an ethical theorist. The eldest son of the
British historian, economist, and philosopher James
Mill, he was born in his father’s house in Pentonville,
London. He was educated exclusively by his father, who
was a strict disciplinarian. By his eighth year he had
read in the original Greek Aesop’s Fables, Xenophon’s
Anabasis, and the whole of the historian Herodotus. He
was acquainted with the satirist Lucian, the historian of
philosophy Diogenes Laërtius, the Athenian writer and
educational theorist Isocrates, and six dialogues of Plato.
He had also read a great deal of history in English.
Mill sought relief by publishing a series of books
on ethics and politics that he had meditated upon and
partly written in collaboration with his wife. The essay
On Liberty appeared in 1859 with a touching dedication to her and the Thoughts on
Parliamentary Reform in the same year. In his Considerations on Representative Government
(1861) he systematized opinions already put forward in many casual articles and essays. It has
been remarked how Mill combined enthusiasm for democratic government with pessimism as to
what democracy was likely to do; practically every discussion in these books exemplifies this.
His Utilitarianism (in Fraser’s Magazine, 1861; separate publication, 1863) was a closely
reasoned attempt to answer objections to his ethical theory and to remove misconceptions about
it. He was especially anxious to make it clear that he included in “utility” the pleasures of the
imagination and the gratification of the higher emotions; and to make a place in his system for
settled rules of conduct.
The ethical theory of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is most extensively articulated in his
classical text Utilitarianism (1861). Its goal is to justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation
of morals. So, Mill focuses on consequences of actions and not on rights nor ethical sentiments.
Utilitarian’s are, for him, consequentialists who believe that pleasure is the only intrinsic value.
Mill defines "utilitarianism" as the creed that considers a particular “theory of life” as the
“foundation of morals”
Thomas Aquinas
Italian Dominican theologian Saint Thomas
Aquinas was one of the most influential medieval
thinkers of Scholasticism and the father of the
Thomistic school of theology. Philosopher and
theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas was born circa
1225 in Roccasecca, Italy. Combining the
theological principles of faith with the
philosophical principles of reason, he ranked
among the most influential thinkers of medieval
Scholasticism. An authority of the Roman Catholic
Church and a prolific writer, Aquinas died on
March 7, 1274, at the Cistercian monastery of
Fossanova, near Terracina, Latium, Papal States,
Italy. Before Saint Thomas Aquinas was born, a
holy hermit shared a prediction with his mother,
foretelling that her son would enter the Order of
Friars Preachers, become a great learner and
achieve unequaled sanctity. Saint Thomas Aquinas spent the next five years completing his
primary education at a Benedictine house in Naples. During those years, he studied Aristotle's
work, which would later become a major launching point for Saint Thomas Aquinas's own
exploration of philosophy. After completing his education, Saint Thomas Aquinas devoted
himself to a life of traveling, writing, teaching, public speaking and preaching. Religious
institutions and universities alike yearned to benefit from the wisdom of "The Christian Apostle."
A prolific writer, Saint Thomas Aquinas penned close to 60 known works ranging in
length from short to tome-like. Handwritten copies of his works were distributed to libraries
across Europe. His philosophical and theological writings spanned a wide spectrum of topics,
including commentaries on the Bible and discussions of Aristotle's writings on natural
philosophy. Saint Thomas Aquinas is also known for writing commentaries examining the
principles of natural philosophy espoused in Aristotle's writings: On the Heavens, Meteorology,
On Generation and Corruption, On the Soul, Nicomachean Ethics and Metaphysics, among
others.
The first principle of Aquinas’s moral thought is that good should be done or pursued,
and evil (or badness) avoided. Without this principle, other moral rules would have no force. The
maxim “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is also quite fundamental, and
sometimes interpreted as a rephrasing of the first principle. Others have interpreted it as an
orientation to the fulfilment of everyone, now and in the future. Aquinas sees these ethical
principles as effects of natural moral knowledge. Everyone has an innate knowledge of the
natural law, known as synderesis. Inclinations obey the natural law only if they are ruled by
reason. Any natural good can be pursued in inappropriate ways if it is not ruled by reason.
Ayn Rand
Born in Russia in 1905, Ayn Rand moved to
the United States in 1926 and tried to establish herself in
Hollywood. Her first novel, We the Living (1936),
championed her rejection of collectivist values in favor
of individual self interest, a belief that became more
explicit with her subsequent novels The Fountainhead
(1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957). Following the
immense success of the latter, Rand promoted her
philosophy of Objectivism through courses, lectures and
literature. She died in New York City on March 6, 1982.
Rand became an extra on the set of his 1927 film The
King of Kings, where she met actor Frank O'Connor.
They married in 1929, and she became an American
citizen in 1931. Rand also completed her first novel, We
the Living. Published in 1936 after several rejections, We
the Living championed the moral authority of the
individual through its heroine's battles with a Soviet totalitarian state. Rand followed with the
novella Anthem (1938), about a future collectivist dystopia in which "I" has been stamped out of
the language.
Rand soon honed her philosophy of what she termed "Objectivism": a belief in a concrete
reality, from which individuals can discern existing truths, and the ultimate moral value of the
pursuit of self interest. The development of this system essentially ended her career as a novelist:
In 1958, the Nathaniel Branden Institute formed to spread her message through lectures, courses
and literature, and in 1962, the author and her top disciple launched The Objectivist Newsletter.
Her books during this period, including For the New Intellectual (1961) and Capitalism: The
Unknown Ideal (1966), were primarily comprised of previously published essays and other
works. Although she weathered criticism for her perceived literary shortcomings and
philosophical arguments, Rand undeniably left her mark on the Western culture she embraced. In
1985, Peikoff founded the Ayn Rand Institute to continue her teachings. The following year,
Braden's ex-wife, Barbara, published a tell-all memoir, The Passion of Ayn Rand, which later
was made into a movie starring Helen Mirren.
For Rand, philosophy is not an esoteric subject but a daily force shaping individual lives
and human history. You must have some view of the kind of world you live in, of how best to
understand and deal with it, and of what to aim at in life. Your only choice is whether your
philosophical premises are acquired by your own independent thinking or absorbed
unquestioningly from those around you. Formally, Rand called her philosophy “Objectivism,”
but informally she called it “a philosophy for living on earth.”
Jose “Pepe” Mojica
José Mojica, in full José Alberto Mojica Cordano,
(born May 20, 1935, Montevideo, Uruguay), Uruguayan
politician who served as president of Uruguay (2010–15)
after being long imprisoned for his guerrilla activities with
the Tupamaro revolutionary organization. Mojica was born
to parents of modest means and grew up in a neighbourhood
on the outskirts of Montevideo. In the early 1960s Mojica
joined the Tupamaro, a revolutionary organization founded
by Raúl Sendic and others whose goal was to undermine
Uruguay’s repressive leadership. Within a few years the
Tupamaro turned to violent actions, including arson,
political kidnappings, and assassinations of several police
officers and some others. Mojica was arrested several times
for his activities and was convicted in 1971 of having killed
a police officer. He escaped from prison twice but was
recaptured both times and served some 14 years in all. As a
prisoner of the brutal military dictatorship that seized power
in a coup in June 1973, Mojica was tortured and spent long
periods of time in solitary confinement, including two years at the bottom of a well.
Mojica served one term in the Chamber of Representatives (1995–2000) and was then
elected to the Senate in 2000. In 2004 he was reelected to the Senate as a member of the
Progressive Encounter–Broad Front (Encuentro Progresista–Frente Amplio; EP-FA) coalition,
which captured majorities in both legislative houses and whose presidential candidate, socialist
Tabaré Vázquez, also won election. In the process, Mojica was sworn in as Senate leader in
February 2005. He also served as minister of agriculture (2005–08) in Vázquez’s cabinet. He has
been called "the world's 'poorest' president" because he donates around 90 percent of his $12,000
monthly salary to charities to help poor people and small entrepreneurs.
He bases the res publica, as well as his private life, on the pursuit of happiness which,
in his way, is synonymous of sobriety. “the sense of happiness corresponds to the sense of
measure”. He believed that we do not come into this planet simply to develop, just like that,
indiscriminately. We come into this planet to be happy. Because life is short, and it slips away
from us. And no material belonging is worth as much as life, and this is fundamental.