What is the Ring of guigus about?

Answer 1

I assume you're referring to the 'Ring of Gyges', a story mentioned in Plato's book "The Republic". In that book the story is used to make a philosophical point.

The story goes that one day a fellow finds a magic ring that can make him invisible. With his new-found power he finds himself to be pretty much unstoppable: he can take anything he wants and no solder can find him, much less stop him. And in the story, he kills the king of his land, forces the queen to marry him, and essentially takes over.

There are lots of ways to look at this story. Some argue that with powers such as these he was no longer bound by normal human social conventions (any more than men are bound by agreements ants make) and thus it is inappropriate to consider right and wrong. Plato focused on a different aspect instead... he made the controversial suggestion that all that power made the invisible man the most miserable person on Earth.

Exactly why Plato thinks so takes most of the rest of the book to explain (generally he thinks that unlimited power creates unlimited desire). But the story is still an interesting springboard to any number of discussions.

Hope that helps!