Comparing Glaucon And Socrates

In the Ring of Gyges, Glaucon and Socrates argue over what justice really is. They talk about the classes of goods. The first class being some things are good no matter the consequences, such as joy (The Ring of Gyges, Plato). The second class would be things like health and knowledge, things that are desirable for their results, and the third class are things like a job, or exercise, things that are only good for their consequences (The Ring of Gyges, Plato). Glaucon places justice in the second class because he believes people seek justice only for praise and reputation. To prove his point, he tells Socrates the legend of The Ring of Gyges.

Gyges was a shepherd serving the king of Lydia. While out with the other shepherds, an earthquake
Socrates tells the story of prisoners in a cave who were chained up from head to toe and couldn’t even turn their heads. Behind them was a fire and between the fire and them were showmen with puppets casting shadows. The shadows were everything to the prisoners, it was their reality. One day one of the prisoners was able to release himself from the chains and discovered where the shadows came from. Astounded by this reality, he continued walking towards another light shining, and discovered another world outside the cave. Feeling pity for the other prisoners, he went back to tell them about the world outside the cave. Instead of asking about this other world, the prisoners were enraged and threatened to kill the unchained prisoner. This story serves as a metaphor for the state of ignorance, its saying most people live in the world of shadows (Allegory of Cave, Plato). Plato believes knowledge is always better than ignorance. I agree with him. Its always better to know something than to not know anything, for example, if I was diagnosed with a mortal illness, I would want to know. I would hate to spend my last years or months of life doing things that make me unhappy. Knowing that I was going to die would make me appreciate things more. I would quit working, and go on a vacation. Even when the situation isn’t as bad as this one, its always better to know. After taking a test I’m always really anxious about knowing how I did on it. Even if I failed the test, I prefer knowing than wondering and feeling anxious about it all the