Key Arguments

• By granting 'both to the just and the unjust power to do what they will' and observing where desire leads, Glaucon expects convergence in behavior.
• The ring confers invisibility—'when he turned the collet inwards he became invisible'—allowing crimes without consequences; Gyges uses it to 'seduced the queen' and 'slew him, and took the kingdom.'
• No one is so 'of such an iron nature' as to remain just under perfect impunity; therefore observed justice depends on fear of detection and punishment.
• General belief supports this: 'for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust.'

Source Quotes

Such is the received account, Socrates, of the nature and origin of justice. Now that those who practise justice do so involuntarily and because they have not the power to be unjust will best appear if we imagine something of this kind: having given both to the just and the unjust power to do what they will, let us watch and see whither desire will lead them; then we shall discover in the very act the just and unjust man to be proceeding along the same road, following their interest, which all natures deem to be their good, and are only diverted into the path of justice by the force of law. The liberty which we are supposing may be most completely given to them in the form of such a power as is said to have been possessed by Gyges, the ancestor of Croesus the Lydian.

Now the shepherds met together, according to custom, that they might send their monthly report about the flocks to the king; into their assembly he came having the ring on his finger, and as he was sitting among them he chanced to turn the collet of the ring inside his hand, when instantly he became invisible to the rest of the company and they began to speak of him as if he were no longer present. He was astonished at this, and again touching the ring he turned the collet outwards and reappeared; he made several trials of the ring, and always with the same result—when he turned the collet inwards he became invisible, when outwards he reappeared. Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the messengers who were sent to the court; whereas soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom.

He was astonished at this, and again touching the ring he turned the collet outwards and reappeared; he made several trials of the ring, and always with the same result—when he turned the collet inwards he became invisible, when outwards he reappeared. Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the messengers who were sent to the court; whereas soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom. 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.

Whereupon he contrived to be chosen one of the messengers who were sent to the court; whereas soon as he arrived he seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom. 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. 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.

Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. 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. For 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.

Key Concepts

• having given both to the just and the unjust power to do what they will, let us watch and see whither desire will lead them
• when he turned the collet inwards he became invisible, when outwards he reappeared.
• seduced the queen, and with her help conspired against the king and slew him, and took the kingdom.
• no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice.
• for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust.

Context

Glaucon’s second plank: a psychological test case designed to strip away external sanctions and reveal justice as compliance from necessity rather than choice.

Perspectives

Plato

Uses the thought experiment to force the shift to an internalist account: only by identifying justice with the well-ordered soul can one explain why a truly just person would refrain even under invisibility.

Socrates

Will counter that a soul ruled by reason would not choose tyranny over itself; unjust acts harm the agent’s psychic order regardless of external impunity.