09 Nov ancient ethics
The "Ring of Gyges" story presents a scenario for us to consider: if you had the power to get away with doing what is typically considered wrong without any negative consequences to yourself, would you? Would a person be virtuous if they could get away with being vicious? Should they? Glaucon thought such power would make anyone do whatever they wanted, but other classical thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle defended the worth of personal virtue in all circumstances. For this discussion, talk about WHY you might argue that we should still be moral/virtuous even if we could get away with being bad. For some extra relevance to the topic, consider how Aristotle (or in general, the classical virtue approach) would respond to why we should be moral.
