Ring of Gyges

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The Ring of Gyges (Greek: ???????????? ? ) is a mystical magical artifact mentioned by the philosopher Plato in Book 2 of his book Republic (2: 359a-2: 360d). This gives the owner the power to become invisible at will. Through the ring of the ring, the Republicans consider whether an intelligent person will be moral if he should not fear being arrested and punished for doing injustice.

Video Ring of Gyges

Legenda

Gangga Lydia is the king of history, the founder of the Mermnad king Lydia. The ancient works - most famous of The Histories of Herodotus - give different accounts of the state of his rise to power. However, all agree to assert that he was originally subordinate to King Candaules of Lydia, that he killed Candaules and seized the throne, and that he had seduced Queen Candaules before killing him, marrying him afterwards, or both.

In Glaucon's myth (which is obviously not based on historical fact), Gyges's unnamed ancestor is a shepherd in the service of Lydia's ruler. After the earthquake, a cave was revealed on the side of the mountain where he fed his flock. Entering the cave, he discovered that it was actually a tomb with a bronze horse containing a corpse, larger than a man, who wore a gold ring, which he sac. He found that the ring gave him the power to become invisible by adjusting it. He then arranged to be elected as one of the messengers who reported to the king about the status of the cattle. Upon arriving at the palace, he uses his invisible new powers to seduce the queen, and with his help he kills the king, and becomes Lydia's own king.

Maps Ring of Gyges

The role of legend in the Republic

In Republic , the story of the Gyges ring is illustrated by the character of Glaucon who is the brother of Plato. Glaucon asks if anyone can be so virtuous that he can resist the temptation to be able to take any action unnoticed or discovered. Glaucon suggests that morality is only a social construct, the source being the desire to maintain one's reputation for virtue and justice. Therefore, if the sanction is removed, one's moral character will evaporate.

Glaucon berpendapat:

Suppose now that there are two magic rings, and who wear only one of them and the other unjust; no one can be imagined to have such an iron nature that he will stand fast in justice. No one will keep his hand away from what is not his own when he can safely take what he likes from the market, or go to homes and lie with whomever he likes, or kill or free from the prison he will be , and in all things like gods among humans.

Then just action will be an unjust action; they both end up coming at the same point. And this we may actually affirm to be great proof that a human being is just, not willing or because he thinks that justice is something that is good for him individually, but out of necessity, because wherever one thinks he can safely become unfair, there he is not fair.

Because everyone believes in their hearts that injustice is far more beneficial to the individual than justice, and he who thinks as I thought, will say they are right. If you can imagine a person getting this power invisible, and never making a mistake or touching anything else, he will be regarded by the person who sees it as a most wretched idiot, though they will praise him one another, and keep one's appearance another from fear that they may also suffer injustice.

Though the answer to Glaucon's challenge was postponed, Socrates finally argued that justice did not originate from this social construction: the person who abused the power of the Gyges Ring actually enslaved himself to his appetite, while the man who chose not to use him remained in control rationally and thereby delighted. (Republic 10: 612b)

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Cultural influence

• H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man has a basis for retelling the Ring of Gyges story.
• Alberich's Ring at Richard Wagner's opera Der Ring des Nibelungen ( The Ring of the Nibelung )
• The One Ring of J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings gives invisibility to the wearer but damages the owner. Although there is speculation that Tolkien was influenced by Plato's story, the search for "Gyges" and "Plato" in his letters and biographies provide no evidence for this. Unlike Plato's ring, Tolkien exerts an active evil force that undermines the morality of the wearer.
• Cicero retells Gyges's story at De Officiis to illustrate his thesis that a wise or good individual base decision on fears of moral degradation as opposed to punishment or negative consequences. Cicero follows a discussion of the role of mind experiment in philosophy. The hypothetical situation in question is a complete immunity from the punishment given to Gyges by his ring.
• Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz includes a modified subplot in his novel Arabian Nights and Days .

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See also

• Allegorical Interpretation of Plato
• Effect of disinhibition online

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References

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External links

• Glaucon Challenge Glaukon's Speech from book 2, translated by Cathal Woods (2010).
• Plato, Republic Book 2, translated by Benjamin Jowett (1892).
• Ring of Gyges Analysis by Bernard Suzanne (1996).

Source of the article : Wikipedia