Introduction to Ethical Studies (An Open Source Reader) Chapter 23 "The Ring of Gyges" by Plato

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 another’s, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be
a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another’s 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

8. THANKYOU