Harold ZieglerFilbertKnowledge, Reality, and SelfSeptember 17, 2014The Ring of Gyges is a magical artifact that would grant its owner the power to become invisible at will. What this is basically a metaphor is the question of whether or not people would still be moral if there was no fear of being caught or punished. This is related to The Corporation in that, at least in my opinion, giant corporations would not be moral or follow the rules if there was no fear of punishment because they all have their own 'corporate agendas' and, typically, are so driven to be successful and make money at any cost.When Thrasymachus claims that "justice is the advantage of ...view middle of the document...
In terms of the documentary, this relates to a corporation's morals and ethics. If a corporation goes under the table and disobeys certain rules, that can give them an advantage and help them maximize profits, albeit illegally and immorally.'When the law is not to my advantage I ought not to obey it if I am too powerful to be stopped or too clever to be caught.' This quote, in relation to large corporations, is basically describing the thought that leads to corporations being corrupt. Corporations that think they are too powerful or smart to get caught in corrupt, yet advantageous, actions will, naturally, act immorally in order to maximize their profits.The idea of blurring the lines between 'seeming' and 'being' is very fascinating to me. In terms of Socrates, he is always on a constant quest to debunk those who 'seem' wise, but aren't truly wise. In terms of corporations, I think a way to apply this concept of 'seeming' vs. 'being' is in regards to corruption and shady business practices. A corporation may seem perfectly clean on the surface but could be very corrupt at its core. An example of this would be Walter's car wash in Breaking Bad.The difference between the 'law of nature' and 'conventional morality' is quite distinct. The law of nature attempts to use reason in order to determine rules of moral behavior while conventional morality is merely humans following the moral and cultural norms. Corporations could be applied to the law of nature in that they must decide, very distinctly, what is acceptable and unacceptable in terms of business ethics.
