Christian Renaud's Blog

Gyges, Cephalus, Skinner and Buffett

There are three particular sections of Plato's Republic that have always stuck with me: the Allegory of the caves, Gyges ring, and Cephalus' honesty with Socrates. I was thinking about this recently and began to draw some parallels with other thinkers and recent events.

For starters, Gyges ring is, at it's heart, a morality tale. Socrates via Plato refutes the assertion that human beings behave as they do because a) they enjoy the pleasure of the action, or b) because they fear being discovered and punished for doing other than they are supposed to. Gyges takes the ring off the sleeping figure beneath the ground, becomes invisible, and then murders the king, rapes the queen and takes over the kingdom, albeit to his future doom. His lack of fear of punishments = unbounded pleasures. Skinner dove into this a bit with rewards and punishments as well.

Also in the Republic, Socrates asks an aging Cephalus what benefit he had gained in life from being wealthy. Cephalus responds that it had saved him much time and effort in not having to be duplicitous with people, deceiving them, and so on. This interesting point is evident daily when interacting with some Silicon Valley millionaires and their lack of artifice and guile. This helps explain some of the philosophical and behavioral differences between the veteran employees and newcomers of my employer. The veterans, whom are often financially-comfortable, are more straightforward and politically incorrect, for the same reasons that Cephalus was not duplicitous. Look at Warren Buffet. He is not seeking external validation, a promotion, and a raise. He can afford to speak frankly, like Cephalus.

If I don't need to curry your favor for that promotion/raise/recognition in order to make more money, then what motivation do I have to speak other than directly and frankly? What fear of retribution or punishment would I have? I see Gyges and Cephalus as two sides of the same coin. If you have no fear of punishments, then you can behave as you like and speak frankly and openly to those around you, without ulterior motives and the need to 'get ahead'.

This may be one attribute of GenMySpace/GenTxt. They are open and transparent to society in ways that are unprecedented except for some Hollywood stars. This generation will go 'on record' with opinions that many Boomers would wince to say anonymously. Is it that the kids are financially insulated, or don't yet realize the punishments that may be meted out based on their comments, and are naturally Cephalus-ized (Cephalized?)?

I'll save the parallels between the Allegory of the Caves and our current political/media environment for a future post.

Quote of the day

"Government is a disease masquerading as a cure."- L. Neil Smith

And the master said.....

"Let the Producers be many,   the consumers few."

- K'ung-fu-tzu (aka Confucius to us Westerners)

Sounds like Web 2.0 and the 'creator culture' to me.  Lots of blogs produced with few consumers.

Quote of the Day

“When I am in a Socratic mood and planning my Republic, I make drastic changes in the education of the sons of well-to-do-citizens.  When they are sixteen or seventeen they begin to learn a craft and to do healthy manual labor, with plenty of poetry, songs, dancing, drill and gymnastics in their spare time.  They can thus let off their steam on something useful.  It is only when they are really thirsty for knowledge, longing to hear about things, that I would let them go to University.  It would be a favour, a coveted privilege, only to be given to those who had either proved their worth in factory or field or whose qualities and zeal were pre-eminient.”

- Winston S. Churchill