Glaucon's Use Of The Ring Of Injustice According To Plato
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In Plato, Republic, Glaucon tells a story of a man who experiences an earthquake that creates a huge hole in the ground. He climbs into it and discovers a ring and if he turns the ring inward, he suddenly becomes invisible. The man uses this power to become invisible and seduce the queen then kill the king, and make himself the ruler.
Based on the Ring of Gyge’s, Plato wants to say that Gyge’s ancestors use the ring for injustice. Plato, speaking through Glaucon, emphasizes that no person is so righteous that he will be capable of resisting the temptation of using the power of invisibility to do anything he wishes. Glaucon says if anyone had a ring that would make them invisible, then that person would be a fool if they did not act likewise to Gyge’s ancestors. He states that if someone thinks that justice is good-in-itself, they will not use the ring for injustice. Therefore, no one thinks justice is good-in-itself and they only practice justice unwillingly.…show more content… He believes that if anyone had possession of the ring, they would use it for unjust reasons. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take anything he wanted out of the store, or go into houses and sleep with people at his pleasure, or kill whomever he disliked, and he could be viewed like a God among all people. Both the actions of the just and the actions of the unjust would be the same and they would both end at the same point. Because of this we can affirm that a man is not just and good-in-itself because he would use the power for unjust reasons. Therefore, justice is not good-in-itself. Glaucon thinks a person would be foolish if they did not abuse that power of invisibility. So, Glaucon is stating that no one thinks that justice is