“Tell me, do you think there is the following kind of good, which we are pleased to possess not because we desire its consequences, but which we welcome for its own sake, such as pleasant experiences and pleasures that are harmless and give rise to nothing else subsequently besides the pleasure of having them?” “Well you aren’t doing what you want,” he said. “I would prefer truly,” I said, “if it were in my power.” We may be similar.With these words I thought myself released from talking, but it seems it was only a prelude, since Glaukon, who is always most brave about everything, did not accept Thrasymachos’ withdrawal but said, “Socrates, do you want to seem to have persuaded us, or truly persuade us, that justice is better than injustice in every respect?” The pattern is not random as one would expect to see if they were individuals. They seem to make individual choices when asked about things like spin or position or momentum, but behave as a group when they generate wave-like patterns on detector screens even when sent through double slits to that screen one after the other. Here I am thinking of entangled quantum "particles" or agents as a guide. It would be something we participate in with others. The idea of an individual may be illusory and subjectivity may spread across a community. It is a common mistake.īy "subjective", I don't mean something solipsistic that only pertains to myself as an individual. He believes that a subjective reality can be completely objectified in some way. It does not include the subjective criteria of what we think of ourselves. Glaucon's view of justice is an objective criteria: what others think of us. It doesn't provide someone with complete invisibility so he or she could be unjust without risk of being caught. Are we in fact enslaving ourselves to our appetites by abusing our online anonymity? By using anonymity "with moderation" do we remain in control of ourselves? Your thoughts on this are much appreciated.Īnonymity provides a way to protect oneself from harm. Now take Socrates' words and reflect on what he said in the light of this. This anonymity is most sensed on the web nowadays. Now a mask doesn't quite give you invisibility but it sure does give you anonymity. While I considered Socrates' remark to be quite reasonable and spot on, I remembered a saying by Oscar Wilde about how a man is least himself when he talks in his own person, and that if you give him a mask he will tell you the truth. Socrates argues that justice does not derive from this social construct: the man who abused the power of the ring has in fact enslaved himself to his appetites, while the man who chose not to use it remains rationally in control of himself and is therefore happy. 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." And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust.įor all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust they would both come at last to the same point. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a god among men. "Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. Now Glaucon, Plato's brother, states his opinion on the matter in the Republic and says: Using it, he was able to seduce the queen, and with her help he murdered the king, and became king of Lydia himself. This ring gave him the ability to become invisible. The ring of Gyges was a story mentioned in Plato's Republic that tells the story of a shepherd who discovered a magical ring in a cave. I guess all of you can relate with this subject.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |