Where would you go if this was all you left?
This week's thought experiment isn't so much a dilemma as it is just an instructive thing to wonder about.
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Herbert slipped the ring of Gyges on to his finger and was immediately startled by what he saw: nothing. He had become invisible.
For the first few hours, he wandered around testing his new invisibility. Once, he accidentally coughed and found that in the ears of the world, he was silent too. But he had physical bulk, and would leave an impression on a soft cushion or create an unexplained obstacle for those seeking to walk through him.
Once he became used to what it was like to live invisibly, Herbert started to think about what he could do next. To his shame, the ideas that popped into his head first were not entirely savoury. He could, for instance, loiter in the women's showers or changing rooms. He could quite easily steal. He could also trip up the obnoxious suits who shouted into their mobile phones.
But he wanted to resist such base temptations and so tried to think of what good deeds he could do. The opportunities here, however, were less obvious. And for how long could he resist the temptation to take advantage of his invisibility in less edifying ways? All it would take would be one moment of weakness and there he'd be: peeking at naked women or stealing money. Did he have the strength to resist?
Source: Book two of The Republic by Plato, 360 BCE.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 223.
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What do you think? It's likely you've already considered this scenario by watching one of the handful of sci-fi movies made about this subject, but in the context of philosophy now, what can this thought experiment really teach us? I'll be back on Friday to offer up a few of the insights that I take from this.
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Herbert slipped the ring of Gyges on to his finger and was immediately startled by what he saw: nothing. He had become invisible.
For the first few hours, he wandered around testing his new invisibility. Once, he accidentally coughed and found that in the ears of the world, he was silent too. But he had physical bulk, and would leave an impression on a soft cushion or create an unexplained obstacle for those seeking to walk through him.
Once he became used to what it was like to live invisibly, Herbert started to think about what he could do next. To his shame, the ideas that popped into his head first were not entirely savoury. He could, for instance, loiter in the women's showers or changing rooms. He could quite easily steal. He could also trip up the obnoxious suits who shouted into their mobile phones.
But he wanted to resist such base temptations and so tried to think of what good deeds he could do. The opportunities here, however, were less obvious. And for how long could he resist the temptation to take advantage of his invisibility in less edifying ways? All it would take would be one moment of weakness and there he'd be: peeking at naked women or stealing money. Did he have the strength to resist?
Source: Book two of The Republic by Plato, 360 BCE.
Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 223.
---------------------------------------------------
What do you think? It's likely you've already considered this scenario by watching one of the handful of sci-fi movies made about this subject, but in the context of philosophy now, what can this thought experiment really teach us? I'll be back on Friday to offer up a few of the insights that I take from this.
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