The Ring Of Gyge In Plato's The Republic

While people like to think that humans are built to be inherently good, that is not necessarily true. Humans’ minds are wired to indulge in matters that appeal to their own benefit. In Plato’s The Republic, there is a section in which Glaucon uses a story of the ring of Gyges to illustrate the natural unjust of people. He claims that no man, given the opportunity, would reject the chance to do injustice without punishment. I agree with Glaucon’s perspective. Humans would do absolutely anything if they couldn’t be held accountable for their actions. In the story of Gyges’ rings, as Glaucon tells it, Gyges was a shepherd who had the good fortune of finding a dead body wearing nothing but a golden ring. He took this ring, without regard of whether his actions were just or unjust in nature. Later, he discovered that if the ring
As Glaucon puts it, “no man can be imagined to be of such iron nature that he would stand fast in justice.” Simply, we do not have the willpower to abstain from committing unjust acts, especially without the threat of retribution. All men believe in their hearts, Glaucon writes, that injustice is far more profitable to the individual and that humans are only practicing justice out of necessity to abide laws. Wherever a man thinks he can safely be unjust, he will be unjust. The Purge movies are an excellent example of people doing whatever they want just because they can. “The Purge” is a night in which all crime is deemed legal, to create a more peaceful society the rest of the year. Participants steal, murder, and rape, among other heinous crimes. And even though the criminals are given amnesty for these twenty-four hours only, they are still criminals. Law enforcement is just looking the other way, as if the participants of the purge have their own invisibility cloak or magic