Charlotte Bronte's Allegory Of The Ring Of Gyre

Plato is widely considered the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy. He is from ancient Greece and is one of the most renown classical Greek philosophers. He was an idealist/ rationalist – “what could be?” Plato is also the founder of the Academy of Athens, which is believed to be the first institution of higher learning in the western world. His philosophy was interested in three areas: platonic epistemology, metaphysics, ethics. One thing that I think about when I read Plato, is the idea that one can have knowledge and not have wisdom. What I mean by that is knowledge is an awareness or an understanding of someone or something and wisdom is an actual practical application of it, wisdom is knowledge being applied. After …show more content…
Gyre’s ring is a thought experiment. When reading, Gyre’s ring the story makes me put myself in the situation and pose the same ethical/moral questions. What would I do in Gyre’s shoes? In the Allegory of the Ring you have a Shepherd, Gyre, who comes into possession of a ring and before the acquisition of this magical ring, Gyre is a just man by ethics and virtue. One day Gyre stumbles upon this ring on a human body, so the ring then leads him act in accordance to his inherent greed, lust, and desires and eventually making him unjust person. The ring has a specific property that makes it rather unique, that property being its power of invisibility once the ring is reversed. Once the ring is turned around, inward the one wearing it will become invisible and vice versa once the ring is turned back, outward the one wearing it would be visible again. Once Gyre had the ring he committed devious acts, such as seduction, deception, regicide, etc... Those actions were further to advance his self-interests, as he knew he was unstoppable because of his power of invisibility. The philosophical question posed is why be just, when one could get away committing injustice without recourse? The argument raised is one is diverted to justice by the force of the law. This allegory leads to the supposition that imagine there were two “magical rings” that granted invisibility, one was given to the just man and the other to the unjust man; no man can withstand the desires that drive them; especially knowing they could and would get away with anyway actions due to the occult ring. This idea that no man would remain just if given the chance to be a god among mere men. So, at the end of the day the unjust and just are no different because eventually the just will become unjust if the opportunity presented itself and one could commit injustice without being caught. I going to be completely honest, due to human nature and my many