Dhatu Aryantika(20141010355) Chapter 23 The Ring of Gyges
- 1. CHAPTER 23 THE RING OF GYGES by Plato 20141010355 Dhatu Aryantika
- 2. About the author Plato (427-347 BC) is a Greek philosopher and mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogue and founder of the Platonist school of thought, and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. He was a student of Socrates. Plato was a teacher from Aristotle. His most famous work is The Republic which contains an outline description which he sees under "ideal" conditions. One of Plato's famous parables is the parable of people in the cave. Cicero said Plato scribend est mortuus (Plato received a compilation being written). https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato
- 3. The Reading Selection from The Republic They say that doing injustice is basically good, but the effect of evil outweighs the effect of goodness. And when people have done and suffered injustice and have experienced both, unable to avoid one and get the other, they think that they are better off agreeing between themselves not to have both; hence a law and collective agreement appears; and what is ordained by law is can be accepted by both parties.
- 4. The Ring of Gyges According to the tradition, Gyges was a shepherd in the service of the king of Lydia. There was once a big storm, and an earthquake caused by the fury of the god Aspa, and made a hole in the earth where he feeds his flock. he descended into the opening, where, among other marvels, he beheld hollow brazen horse, at which he stooping and looking in and saw a dead body of stature, as appeared to him, more than human, and having nothing on but a gold ring, then he took from the finger of the dead corpse. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Der_Ring_des_Gyges_%28Ferrara_16_Jh%29.jpg
- 5. Since the catastrophe of the god Aspa, and especially after Gyges began to appear and disappear with the help of the gold ring, his personality began to change. His life began to depend on the gold ring. Therefore he planned his bad intentions to overthrow the king, where as soon as he arrived he tempted the queen, and with her help, gyges conspired against the king and killed him, and took the kingdom.
- 6. do humans naturally tend to justice or injustice? If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was anothers, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one anothers faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice. According to Glaucon, only a fool would act morally when unobserved; his actions would be seen as irrational, as people tend to do right only when they cannot get away with doing wrong. https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/the-ring-of-gyges-is-justice-always-self-interested-f67b4689f742
- 7. In conclusion, it is clear that the story of The Ring of Gyges is significant in the Republic book II as the ring is connected with injustice because it tempted Gyges and gave him the power to do as he pleased. This story remains important to us today because it concerns what we can expect humans to do with power over others. In politics, we give power to others, hoping that they will do what is right. Because, anyone who gains power without accountability is liable to use it unjustly. https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl201/modules/Philosophers/Plato/plato_dialogue_the_ring_of_gyges.html
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