What Is Plato's View Of People Being Unjust

In the world there are people who are just or unjust; some might even be both. A person who goes out in the day may be just because he wants people to recognize his good behavior, and praise him for it. But that same person may go out at night, and be completely unjust because no one can see him. Therefore, in his mind his actions don’t matter. In Plato’s The Republic, the view of justice is illustrated by the story of Gyges’ ring, and that view is that if people could turn invisible almost all of them would be unjust. If this were the case many people would agree with the view of people being unjust because if a person is not seen nothing is stopping him from abiding by the law. People would agree with this for many reasons one being, if a person wanted something he knew was wrong, but he knew no one could see him, would he use the opportunity to take it? For many people the answer would be yes.
In The Republic, Glaucon, the speaker says that “having given both to the just and the unjust power to do what they will, let us watch and see whither desire will lead them.” He then goes on to say that people will discover that both the unjust man and the just man are headed in the same direction which is the unjust road, but because of the force of law they are diverted back to justice.
The speaker is saying that if people didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble with the law they would not care about the consequences of their actions, and they would all turn into unjust people. Because they are seen in public and don’t want to get in trouble they continue to abide by rules and be just. Moreover, when their actions are just, and they are doing good deeds people will praise them for that, which fuels the fire for them to be
just. Later on in the story when Glaucon is explaining the tale of the rings, and people being able to obtain power he states that “no man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked.” People are naturally greedy so if they were given the opportunity to steal, or take something they wanted with no one knowing they would do it in a heartbeat. Even the most just people have injustice in them because when given the chance most people would take what they want. However, just because no one can see the person does not mean it is right, it’s wrong to steal anything, and even though no one saw the person take it, it is still considered a crime and an injustice. In conclusion, when a person is being unjust towards someone that person is receiving injustice and it becomes a never ending cycle. People with a great amount of power can either do justice or injustice depending on the type of person that they are. But when it comes down to it, when people are given the opportunity to do injustice to someone to get what they want, they almost always pick injustice.