'The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy'

[hobbit punk]

I agree with what someone said about Plato's ring and Tolkien's ring being different. It is true that in LOTR the ring is itself evil and has the power to corrupt those it comes in contact with. In Plato's Republic, the ring only serves to help the shepard live out the things he would have liked to do but were only possible with the aid of his magic ring. In other words, he would not face public ridicule and punishment if they did not know it was him. Another example of this is the truly awful movie Hollow Man. In it, the Kevin Bacon character is made invisible through some experiment and goes on to commit some very immoral acts. It is not the formula itself that made him invisible which corrupts him, it is his own nature coming into play. The feeling like he can get away with anything. He then goes on to rape a girl, kill an innocent animal, kill a man and attempt to kill his former team mates. It is the lure, the temptation of being invisible that makes the person feel like they can get away with anything. It gives them what they think is the ultimate power. In LOTR, the ring does have a mind of its own. So it is an outside force that corrupts and puts these thoughts into the mind of people who come into contact with it. The ring can make you believe sometimes that by using it, you will be doing the right or moral thing. Such was the case with Boromir. The ring corrupted him, but it did subtley, making Boromir believe that if he took it, he could use it to save his people. This was, however, not the reality. In Plato, the ring just makes you invisible. It is not an outside force, so when you use it, you are acting entirely out of your own influence, your own thoughts, wants and desires. In the case of the shepard, these were evil desires. In LoTR, the characters on the good side who come into contact with the ring, only do so in order to benefit others in some way. Boromir wants to defend his people, Frodo wants to undertake the mission to destroy it in order to save the free peoples of ME, Sam takes it when he believes Frodo to be dead because he also understands the importance of the mission. In conclusion, I feel that the rings seen in Lotr and Plato's Republic are very different.

[ October 19, 2003: Message edited by: hobbit punk ]