Glaucon

In Plato’s Repubic, Glaucon’s story about the ring that makes the wearer invisible presents some disturbing thoughts. Glaucon’s argument is that no one would act justly if there were no consequences or rewards. This would mean that justice is only an instrumental good rather than an intrinsic one. When asked the question about what we would do if we were invisible most of us were willing to do the wrong thing, but I believe that Glaucon’s idea of justice is wrong. If our justice system fell apart, chaos would surely ensue due to a lack of structure, but in a matter of time we would once again lay down a system that encourages justice because it is what the majority believes is valuable. In class we discussed the example of cheating as intrinsically wrong. Even if we were to never get caught, and there were no consequences for any actors in this scenario, most of us would still consider it wrong. To this we can mostly agree to add murder, stealing, lying, and plagiarizing. All of these actions are wrong in themselves, despite the reasons behind them. Though there may be a good reason to murder or steal, the action in itself is still wrong. We are born with a sense of what is right and wrong and therefore I believe that most of us would remain just even if we suffered no consequences from acting otherwise. Each of us has a moral compass that naturally points us towards what is right (though we do not always follow its direction). Because of these ideas of right and wrong that are within us, I believe that we would make just decisions for the sake of being just. We would not choose not to shoot someone because we were scared of being caught or to be praised as merciful- we would not shoot because we know murder is wrong. But maybe I’m being too optimistic.