The Ring of Gyges

Ok Students,

We are finally back in business. Today we looked at the Ring of Gyges from Plato's The Republic. That is Plato to the left. By wearing this special ring that once belonged to a shepherd, you are able to turn it a certain way and you become invisible! You can do anything you want without someone seeing you.

Here is the excerpt from The Republic. As you consider your answer, please remember the two primary questions Plato seeks to answer in this important dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon.

“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. 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. Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. 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. For 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. 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.” — Plato's Republic, book 2.

Important note: Socrates was condemned to death because he 1) introduced strange Gods and 2) corrupted the young.

Worksheet is due at the beginning of class tomorrow (Tuesday)

Hasta mañana!