Book 8 seminar paper

Lidia Debesay

Dr. Thomas

Book 8 seminar paper

April 14, 2016

The shepherd who got away

The Rrepublic by Plato is a thick book full of imagery, wisdom, and knowledge. One can read the book and interpret it as a book about the structure or formation of the government. Another person can read it and view the book as a guide to nurturing the soul of an individual being. Some may even find it completely different from these two options. Great books like this one tend to speak to different people on different levels. Though the book can be read and interpreted in many ways, this paper will focus on injustice as individual and the ruler of the city. Moreover, it shows how a man can commit unjust action by hiding from his punishments and how a city is affected by having the unjust rulers.

In book two of the republic, Glaucon argues that it is better “… doing injustice without paying the penalty…” (359a). He discusses the ring of Gyges to strengthen his argument about the nature of a man. It is the nature of a man to appear just in public while being unjust on the inside. He also says that if a man does not have to be penalized for his unjust actions, he would choose to be unjust being. The story of the Shepard who went down to the underground only to discover the corpse of a giant and the gold ring in his hand. The Shepard quickly runs off with the ring back out the underground to return to his daily business. The shepherd only takes the ring because no one was looking and Glaucon makes his point to say that it is our nature to act unjustly in private if we cannot be held accountable. The next scene is when the shepherd discovers the power of the ring during the monthly meeting. When he turned the collet of the ring to himself “… he became invisible to those sitting by him, and they discussed him as though he were away” (360a). Interestingly enough, when he turned the collet of the ring outwardly, he became visible. Upon discovering this power, he immediately starts thinking all the stuff he can do and get away with.

Moreover, for that reason alone he became the messenger to the king only to seduce the king’s wife and kill the king and take over the kingdom. This is an action of injustice came from not being hold accountable for such action. One cannot be held accountable if his bad deeds are done in the dark and appear perfectly just in the light. Glaucon continues to make this interesting. Suppose that there were two rings: one that was given to the unjust and one to the just being. Glaucon boldly states that “… one would act no differently from the other, but both would go do the same way” (360c). For instance, when a man does something bad, he is going to start to look for ways to get out of it. Better yet, he will do his bad deeds when no one else is around, so he would not taint his reputation.

I want to draw your attention to the idea of going down that is seen both in book two about the story of the ring of Gyges, and the cave allegory in book six. In book two, the Shepard did not commit any unjust action until he went down the underground. Similarly, in the allegory of the cave, the unjust individuals/rulers seem to be found in the cave. On the contrary, the outside of the cave is where the good is at. This is where things come to light and people are just and are reaching towards knowledge, wisdom, and justice. Inside the cave, you will find injustice, corrupted education taught by the rulers to control the slaves, and this is where all the degenerated rules are found.

    Moreover, in book eight of the republic, Socrates extensively explains the different depraved government system.  He explains how it starts with Aristocratic gives birth to Timocracy, and Timocracy births Oligarchy, where Oligarchy leads to Democracy, and finally the worst of them all Tyranny.  Aristocratic, the spirit led son. He who grows up with the love of money and end up becoming the honor- loving the man. Though he is the son of a spirited man, his mother, bad mother, has a lot of influence on him and that leads him to who he is now. Next, Timocracy is the honor-driven man. This is where the love for wealth, honor and honor takes over the ruling. So, Socrates is not only drawing the degeneration of the government system, but he also emphasizes that the cities are ruled by unfit people. He says “… when wealth and the wealthy are honored in a city, virtue and the good men are less honorable” (551a).  This is where he divides the city into two parts: one part is for the rich and the other part for the poor people.  So, they can never be one city because they are both against each other. They cannot fight a war because they are unable to unite as one. For that reason, there is no specialization; the city lacks harmony. People in these two cities do not have roles because they welcome anybody. For instance, this is the city “… where you see beggars, somewhere in the neighborhood thieves, cutpurses, temple robbers, and craftsmen of all such evils are hidden” (552d).

Moreover, Oligarchy is the appetite-driven man. He is the son of Timocracy which is the combination of spirit and appetite. Sadly, he lets his appetite rule. He becomes a slave to the love and making of money.  He is very careful about his wealth and he is much more concerned about building his wealth empire than his spirit. After that is Democracy, unnecessary desires (mixed). As the rulers degenerate, the love for money has been growing rapidly. By the time it gets to democracy, the ruler starts to lend his money in high-interest rate in order to grow his money rapidly. Sadly, he does this at the cost of the poor people. While most of the people are poor, only a few people thrive in the city. Because of that reason, the people want freedom and decide to vote someone to office in favor of the mass vote.  As a result, “too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much slavery, both for the private man and city” (564a). Though the city is free and citizen can live their life as they please, there seems to lead to disharmony.  The last yet worst ruling is Tyranny which is the unlawful desires. The tyrant kills the good people so they don’t “infect” the rest. By infect meaning bring awareness to how distraught the government is.  For instance, when Hitler gained power and burned the books and kills the educated people simply because he understands that knowledge (education) is the most powerful weapon. He was scared of them so he killed them all and this is what Socrates effectively explains. Also, the government does not want the citizen to know that he is doing so he constantly makes wars in order to throw distraction.  He enslaves everyone, so he can easily control them. For instance, “you speak of the tyrant as a parricide and a harsh nurse of old age... the people in fleeing the smoke of enslavement to free men would have fallen into the fire of being under the mastery of slaves; in the place of that great and unreasonable freedom they have put on the dress of the harshest and bitterest enslavement to slaves” (569b- 569c).

As a conclusion, I find it interesting how the story of Gyges shows the soul of the unjust man who appears just in public. Whereas, the in the allegory of the cave, it shows the unjust cities rules by unjust men. Also, the idea of going down seems to be associated with injustice, whereas the outside is justice. Interestingly enough, the imagery of darkness is associated with inside the cave or in the underground (in book two) and based on that we can conclude that is where people commit their bad deeds and where the unjust rulers like to keep as slaves. On the contrary, outside of the cave and out of the underground there seems to be the normal life, perhaps justice. We all know the truth always comes to light.