- This video is brought to you by Keeps.
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What's up, guys?
Michael here to talk about how
a simple golden ring can change a man's life forever.
Wow. (dramatic music)
I'm not talking about marriage.
I'm talking about "The Lord of the Rings,"
and today in particular,
we're gonna take a philosophical gander
at our friends in the Shire.
But before we get into it,
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That's keeps.com/wisecrack. Now, back to the show.
Okay, I'm sure you've all seen this movie a lot of times,
so, I'm gonna start right at the beginning
with something that I think sets things up well.
(dramatic movie music playing)
Not a lot of movies where you see someone
kind of defeat the bad guy.
- [Lady Galadriel] But the hearts of men
are easily corrupted.
- Okay, so I like what it said there, that the hearts of men
are easily corrupted, and the ring of power
has a will of it's own. Now, I think the idea here
that a ring, such as the ring in the film, can reveal
the true nature of a character, of a person.
And this is a huge idea that's explored
in Plato's "Republic". In particular,
book two of The Republic. Where Socrates is talking
to a couple of dudes about the nature of justice.
Now, the guy Socrates is talking to, or Plato's brothers,
bring up the myth of "The Ring of Gyges".
And this ring is similar to the ring we get in the movie,
right. The idea is that ya get it, you go invisible,
and you can do whatever you want. Now, in The Republic,
these two argued that the ring is proof that no one really
has a desire for justice. 'Cause in the myth,
this guy gets the ring, was a decent farmer.
But he puts it on, and he kills the king,
and he sleeps with his wife, and becomes a really bad dude.
(screaming)
(dramatic music playing)
Let's jump ahead to see what happens
when Gandalf tries to get help from his old mentor Saruman.
It's crazy to me that anyone ever thought Saruman was like
a good guy, he, he's clearly a very bad guy,
you can just see it when you look at him.
(door slamming)
(dramatic music playing)
Also it's funny that Gandalf thinks here,
that he's not gonna close one of the doors.
That he'll find one that he can't close. It's like, come on.
- You do not seriously think that a hobbit
could contend with the will of Saruman.
- There are none who can.
- Gandalf's reaction is like when you realize that like,
your grandparent that you love is actually kind of a racist.
I don't know.
- Friend, when did Saruman the wise
abandon reason for madness?
- And here, there's a distinction between reason,
and madness. And I think madness we can think of,
as a type of un-reason. Which is more a passion or appetite
that's driving human behavior.
Okay, so in The Republic, Plato maps out
a tripartite account of the soul. Which means three parts.
And the three parts are, reason, spirit and appetite.
So reason, also called logic, or logos,
represents a philosophical ruler in The Republic,
and this person values justice and virtue above all else.
Its the justice focused rational faculty.
Now, justice occurs when spirit works in accordance
with reason, and not in the service of appetite.
Now in justice occurs when spirit
is in service of appetite. When its pure desire
driving what the individual does.
Now here, Gandalf is saying to Saruman that he's abandoned
the faculty of reason, or logic, and instead is letting that
desire for power, That spirit that's focused on appetite,
drive what he's doing. Now in The Republic,
Plato describes reason as being the smallest part
of these three elements.
But it's the most important, because it unifies everything
else and drives it towards justice. 'Cause without reason,
without logic, without that desire towards justice,
people will just do whatever the (beep) they want,
for the sake of their own desire.
I think we can see that throughout this movie,
that sort of distinction between,
are people driven by the part of their soul
that desires justice and reason, or by
the part of their soul that wants honor and fame,
or by the part of their soul that just wants raw power,
and to feel good and do whatever they want.
Oh, it's the first time we see our fellowship,
- They must decide now, how to end it.
- The time of the elves is over,
my people are leaving these shores.
Who will you look to when we've gone?
- It is in men where we must place our hope.
- It's really weird that Gandalf believes in men so much,
but good for us, I guess.
- The race of men is failing. The blood of Númenor
is all but spent. It's pride and dignity
- Elrond hates us though, Elrond hates humans.
- It's because of men that the Ring survives.
I was there Gandalf, I was there the day
the strength of men failed.
- Okay, so here, Elrond says that
the strength of men failed, when Isildur did not destroy
the ring. Which would benefit all of middle earth.
And instead, kept it for himself to give himself power.
So, back to Plato's account of the soul. This would be an
example of logic being superseded by desire.
Isildur's appetite for power
was stronger than his desire for justice.
And Elrond thinks this indicates a weakness
in the souls of humans overall, but for Plato, it would
be that Isildur hadn't really cultivated a love of justice
and reason. Right, he would say that he lacks a properly
philosophical spirit, and because of this,
he would not be a good leader.
Now this comes up in The Republic, where Socrates
brings up this paradox of who would be an ideal ruler,
an ideal king. As the type of person
who actively wants to rule, wants to be a king,
Socrates says, is the opposite of the person
who should rule.
And then the person who should rule,
is often someone who would not want to do that.
So, Plato's ideal ruler is a philosopher,
because he would be focused wholly on justice
and nothing else.
- He's chosen exile.
- Okay, so obviously they're talking about Aragorn.
When Elrond says "He's chosen exile.", this is interesting,
and I think it applies to what I just talked about.
With the account of philosopher kings in The Republic,
and how people that want to be leaders
should not be leaders, people who don't want to be leaders
are often the best suited.
And here, we're seeing Aragorn as someone
who has actively turned his back on royalty, on leadership,
but because he's cultivated a sense of justice and virtue
over and against a desire for his own power.
- Gondor has no king.
Gondor needs no king.
- I can't help here but think of Plato's Republic,
where the role of the king, the philosopher king in
The Republic, is that sense of reason and logic.
And I think when he says that Gondor, and by proxy
obviously Boromier himself, you know, needs no king,
it makes sense. 'Cause he's saying
it might not have that sense of reason and justice,
and is driven by desire.
And that's basically what we see when Boromier's arguing
that he should have the ring to protect his people.
We got ourselves a Gollum.
- There's something--
- Frodo doesn't know they're about to become great friends.
- Gollum has been following us for three days.
Many that lived deserve death.
And some that died deserve life.
Can you give it to them Frodo?
- I think its interesting because what's going on here,
is that Gandalf is acknowledging that
the goodness of ones soul isn't some inherent fact. Right?
The desire for justice orients one's soul in a way
that makes you a more just, and kind,
and happy, and virtuous person. Orienting one's self
towards desire and injustice corrupts,
and destroys your soul. And that's what happened with
Sméagol on the way to becoming Gollum. Being oriented
towards straight up desire leads him away from justice.
Makes him just a miserable little (beep).
And of course, we all know this scene. He's just like
"Take the ring, I don't want it.
I don't want this responsibility."
- In place of a dark lord--
- And she just goes sicko mode. Just total sicko mode.
Its very scary.
(dramatic music plays)
Looks evil as hell.
But, we got here and,
(dramatic music plays)
- I passed the test.
- Why does she say she's passed the test?
Well, right here, she had this moment where she was tempted
by the power of the Ring. But because her character,
her principles were virtuous, she was able to not give in.
Even though by not accepting the Ring it basically means
that the elves have to leave Middle Earth.
She knows that that's going to affect her negatively.
But she refuses to let the Ring corrupt her soul.
- You are a ring bearer--
- In this scene where she says "You are a ring bearer",
it makes me think, there's a famous episode
of the show "How I Met Your Mother",
where the character Barney says he's gotten a ring bear,
and his friends all say "Did you say bearer or bear?"
'Cause of where he was gonna bring a bear to a wedding.
And I think, we can put the clip in if I'm right here.
- We really do have a ring bear.
- What? (audience laughing)
(audience laughing)
- Okay, jumping ahead of it, (sighs) we all know.
This is a scene we all knew was coming,
where Boromier just couldn't, - and you will beg for death,
- Couldn't hang on anymore.
- Fool! It is not yours save by unhappy chance.
- (muttering) Scary, he's so much bigger.
- It should be mine! Give it to me!
(cringing)
- Give it!
- NO!
- Give me the Ring.
- No!
- Dang, invisible mode. And know too,
that Frodo does use the Ring,
but he uses it to get out of hairy situations.
Okay, so after just almost getting robbed
and murdered by Boromier, Frodo runs up to Aragorn.
- I would have gone with you to the end.
- This is important 'cause again, he's tempted directly
with the power of the ring. But he shows
that he is virtuous in character.
His soul is being driven by reason and logic,
which is oriented towards justice, so he's able
to do the right thing, and its not even that hard for him.
Compare that to Boromier who is someone who's soul
is more driven by his appetites and his desires for power.
Not driven by a rational faculty that's focused on justice.
Its almost like Aragorn, in Plato's terms,
would make a good king. We'll see.
Okay, so unless you thought I'd end this video
without getting Boromier's final moments
- My captain.
- We get a little bit of redemption.
- My king. - Aragorn again showing,
he's just a real mess.
It's not that in his falling to the temptation of the ring,
that it means that his soul is just outright bad.
He screwed up. But we see him dying with a sense of honor.
'Cause he recognizes that temptation towards injustice.
He recognizes that his soul is oriented towards desire
and power, more than it was justice, which gets back to
that point once again, that would be Plato's point.
That injustice can corrupt the soul.
Justice can sort of inform and enliven and enrich the soul,
it's not just that ya make one bad decision
and you're screwed forever. Although, he is dead forever.
That's, ya know, he's a human. And he's dead.
So he's dead now. But he went down like a G,
so, what are ya gonna say? Okay, so there ya have it.
By watching a great movie, The Fellowship of the Ring,
we can learn a lot about the nature of the soul,
and the nature of justice, in Plato specifically.
I was talking a lot about stuff that's in book two of
The Republic, so, read Plato's Republic
if you haven't already.
As always thank you so much for watching. And thanks
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Do check out our Patreon page if you haven't in awhile,
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including a lot of extra philosophical resources
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Um, and as always thank you so much for watching. Later.
(upbeat music playing)