![]() Might makes right (exactly what it says on the tin).There was, however, a rather different theory of ethics which people believed in: With the exception of virtue ethics, none of these ethical theories were fully elucidated in Plato's time. Virtue ethics ("The right thing exemplifies virtues such as honesty and integrity.").Contractualism ("Society is an agreement not to harm one another.").Kantian ethics ( very roughly "Don't use people as means to ends.") or deontology generally ("Morality is determined by our adherence to duties.").Utilitarianism ("The right thing creates the greatest amount of total happiness.") or consequentialism generally ("Morality is determined by the consequences of an action.").Gyges's actions are unethical under a broad spectrum of "modern" ethical theories, such as these examples: If you want to understand why Gyges behaves as he does, it's important to recognize the historical context of The Republic. If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice.The past is a foreign country they do things differently there. And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust.įor all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust they would both come at last to the same point. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a god among men. Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. Glaucon wants Socrates to argue that it is beneficial for us to be just, independent of any consideration for our reputation. Glaucon asks whether any man could be so virtuous that he may resist the temptation of killing, robbing, raping, or generally doing injustice to whomever he pleased if he could do so remaining undetected. In Republic, the tale of the ring of Gyges is described by the character of Glaucon, the brother of Plato. Arriving at the palace, he used his new power of invisibility to seduce the queen, and with her help, murder the king, and become king of Lydia himself. He then arranged to become one of the king's messengers as to the status of the flocks. ![]() He discovered that by adjusting the ring, he gained the power of invisibility. Entering the chasm, he discovered that it was in fact a tomb with a bronze horse containing a corpse, larger than that of a man, who wore a golden ring, which he then pocketed. After an earthquake, a chasm was revealed in a mountainside where he was feeding his flock. In Glaucon's recounting of the myth, an unnamed ancestor of Gyges was a shepherd in the service of the ruler of Lydia. All, however, agree in asserting that he was originally a subordinate of King Candaules of Lydia, that he killed Candaules and seized the throne, and that he had either seduced Candaules' Queen before killing him, married her afterwards, or both. Various ancient works-the most well-known being The Histories of Herodotus -gave different accounts of the circumstances of his rise to power. Gyges of Lydia was a historical king, the founder of the Mermnad dynasty of Lydian kings. Through the device of the ring, this section of the Republic considers whether a rational, intelligent person who has no need to fear negative consequences for committing an injustice would nevertheless act justly. It grants its owner the power to become invisible at will. The Ring of Gyges / ˈ dʒ aɪ ˌ dʒ iː z/ ( Ancient Greek: Γύγου Δακτύλιος, Gúgou Daktúlios, Attic Greek pronunciation: ) is a hypothetical magic ring mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his Republic (2:359a–2:360d).
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