Are Stoics just weak and naive?

The ring of Gyges

Imagine you have a ring that gives you superpowers. Whenever you put it on, you turn invisible. You can steal whatever you want or hurt those you hate. You can do whatever you desire without consequence.

If you had such a ring, what would you do? And more importantly, what should you do?

Would you live like you live now? Or would you ignore all the rules and get whatever you desired?

In Plato’s Republic, Glaucon puts forward this philosophical thought experiment: the ring of Gyges.

Glaucon worries that we follow the rules of society just because we are weak. We only want laws because they protect us from others, and we only follow laws because we are not powerful or rich enough to get away with breaking them.

Many Greeks thought this way. As Glaucon says:

For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. If you could imagine anyone obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot.

Plato’s Republic 360d Jowett Translation

In other words many Greeks would think that people who try to be just and good are either weak or naive.

The Stoic focuses on the internal, they would argue, because they are either too weak to change their external life, or too naive to actually use their power. The slave practices Stoicism because it’s too painful to admit the good life comes from fulfilling your desires. And Marcus Aurelius practices Stoicism because he is a fool who is following rules that don’t apply to him. He should use his power as Emperor of Rome to get what he wants.

But Socrates disagrees. He spends the rest of the Republic arguing for a fundamentally Stoic position: It is in your self-interest to be just, rather than unjust, regardless of if you are a king or have a magic ring.

Socrates’ argument is simple. Being a just person is about balance. When we indulge too much in desire, we throw off that balance.

This is bad for us, but not because we will be punished in this life or in heaven. It is bad for us because a happy life is to have a healthy soul.

Stoics focus on the internal because they believe that happiness comes from being a good person, not because they don’t have the power to be hedonists, or naively refuse to use that power.

If you indulge in your desires, steal from or harm others, just because you have power, you become worse off. You live a worse life than the person who doesn’t. Justice isn’t only good for the weak.

The Ring of Gyges has many lessons, but here is a key one: We are Stoic, good people, for selfish reasons.

Stoicism doesn’t mean you are weak or naive. It just means you have understood the fortunate fact that what is good for others is also good for you.