What Is Socrates A Tyrant
In Book II of Plato’s Republic, Glaucon argues that a person who can act unjustly and get away with it has no reason to live a just life. In fact, he would be happier if he didn’t. To support his claim, Glaucon told the story of the ring of Gyges. This story is about a servant who discovered a ring that gave him the power of invisibility. With this power, he seduced the queen, and then, with her help, was eventually able to kill the king. Furthermore, because no one knew it was him, he was able to claim the kingdom as his. Glaucon said that if the same ring were given to a just and unjust person they would act in the same way out of the natural desire to do and be better. However, later on in Book IX, Socrates describes the life of a tyrant
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He says that the tyrannical man is like the tyrannical city in that both are ruled by lawless appetites and the desire for honor and power. Socrates describes these appetites as, “the ones that wake up when we are asleep, whenever the rest of the soul—the rational, gentle, and ruling element—slumbers” (571c3-5) and rids the soul of temperance. So, then just as a tyrannical city is enslaved to the tyrant, the tyrant is enslaved to the most wicked part of himself. And because the tyrannical city is least able to do what it wishes, so is then the tyrannical soul. The character, Dorian Gray, from the 1945 film The Picture of Dorian Gray can also be described in this …show more content…
The first similarity is that neither of these characters were born unjust. They only became this way under the influence of someone or something else. Socrates describes this as something like a winged drone that implants a powerful passion inside anyone it stings. He goes on to say that this causes the person to be ruled by his own lawless desires and draws him towards shameless and criminal things. And, to protect himself from the consequences of this, he instills a fear in the people of his city. But, just like Dorian Gray, he never has any true friends. Because of these experiences, he will be full of disorder and regret, and as Dorian did, he will beg for forgiveness only when it is too late. Once the appetitive element of the soul has taken over and destroyed the rational element, there is no way to turn back; subsequently leading Dorian to a willful
He says that the tyrannical man is like the tyrannical city in that both are ruled by lawless appetites and the desire for honor and power. Socrates describes these appetites as, “the ones that wake up when we are asleep, whenever the rest of the soul—the rational, gentle, and ruling element—slumbers” (571c3-5) and rids the soul of temperance. So, then just as a tyrannical city is enslaved to the tyrant, the tyrant is enslaved to the most wicked part of himself. And because the tyrannical city is least able to do what it wishes, so is then the tyrannical soul. The character, Dorian Gray, from the 1945 film The Picture of Dorian Gray can also be described in this …show more content…
The first similarity is that neither of these characters were born unjust. They only became this way under the influence of someone or something else. Socrates describes this as something like a winged drone that implants a powerful passion inside anyone it stings. He goes on to say that this causes the person to be ruled by his own lawless desires and draws him towards shameless and criminal things. And, to protect himself from the consequences of this, he instills a fear in the people of his city. But, just like Dorian Gray, he never has any true friends. Because of these experiences, he will be full of disorder and regret, and as Dorian did, he will beg for forgiveness only when it is too late. Once the appetitive element of the soul has taken over and destroyed the rational element, there is no way to turn back; subsequently leading Dorian to a willful