the ring of gyges

In Book II of Plato’s Republic, Glaucon, Plato’s older brother, asks Socrates for something nobody in the conversation has yet managed: a defence of justice that does not lean on its rewards. To make the challenge vivid he tells the story of a shepherd who finds a ring that makes him invisible. His claim is blunt: hand that ring to the most just person alive and they would end up doing what the worst person does. Four scenes test whether he is right about you, and whether you think he is right about everyone else.