I am looking for a parable that tells about a tyrant and an honest poor man
- kideceudan
- New Trial Member
- Posts: 0
- Joined: January 2nd, 2021, 12:05 pm
I am looking for a parable that tells about a tyrant and an honest poor man
I don’t remember where I read it, for some reason I think that it was from Socrates. I hope this is not my fantasy and would like to find the original one.
-
- Moderator
- Posts: 6105
- Joined: September 11th, 2016, 2:11 pm
Re: I am looking for a parable that tells about a tyrant and an honest poor man
?The Emperor's New Clothes
-
- Moderator
- Posts: 6105
- Joined: September 11th, 2016, 2:11 pm
Re: I am looking for a parable that tells about a tyrant and an honest poor man
- Theoryst
- New Trial Member
- Posts: 5
- Joined: January 6th, 2021, 5:59 am
Re: I am looking for a parable that tells about a tyrant and an honest poor man
There's a parallel story, posing a similar philosophical challenge, in Ecclesiastes (9:15-16), the story of a poor but wise man who saves a city, but is never rewarded, and is soon forgotten (possibly a reference to 2 Samuel 20). The challenge is the same, why then do good?
Socrates does provide an answer at the end of the Republic --the unjust tyrant is a prisoner of his own vices (think Trump), and thus ultimately unhappier than the poor good man, who is ennobled by his virtues, whatever his circumstances. The answer in Ecclesiastes is more existential --that we must choose to do good without expectation of either earthly or heavenly reward.
2023/2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023