Assignment

Documentary: "The Corporation [ 1 - 23 ] Playlist", watch chapters 1-5, 7, 10-13, 17.

1) The Sophist Thrasymachus argues that "justice is really the good of another, the advantage of the stronger and the ruler, and harmful to the one who obeys and serves" (pg 988). What does this mean? Why then does it follow that a "just man always gets less than an unjust man?" (pg 988). In what ways might these ideas be at work in The Corporation?

2) What is the point of the story of the "Ring of Gyges" from your reading (pg 1000-1001)? What might the ring be a metaphor for? What examples of such ‘invisibility' did you find in The Corporation?

3) Whereas Socrates wanted to be able to distinguish between those who appear/seem wise and those are wise, the Sophists advocate the blurring of the distinction between ‘seeming' ‘wise' and ‘being' ‘wise' as well as ‘seeming' ‘just' and ‘being' ‘just'. Why? In what ways do you see this idea at work in The Corporation?

4) How might oratory (persuasion which produces conviction without knowledge) help bring the corporation "the greatest goods" as Gorgias suggested?

5) According to Callicles, what is the difference between the ‘law of nature' and ‘conventional morality' (827-828)? In what ways might corporations here depicted by operating according to the ‘law of nature'?

6) Both Thrasymachus and Callicles would argue that ‘if 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 or pay serious consequences.' In other words, whether or not you follow the rules should simply be a 'business decision'. In what ways do you see this logic followed through in The Corporation?