Plato's Republic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Plato's Republic - Essay Example In this sense, justice is instrumental to both ethical and political philosophy—the practical sciences—and guides them both. However, the inevitable question comes about from Thrasymachus, who asks â€Å"what if one can get away with being unjust?† Socrates answer essentially comes in the following: â€Å"those who practice justice do it unwillingly, because they lack the power to do injustice.† To rephrase, because justice is a virtue, it is a characteristic of one’s psyche, or a way of perceiving the world, and it simply comes naturally when one reacts to certain situations. Accordingly, if all members of a given society possessed the virtue of justice, the society would be just, which, as will be argued here, necessary for the formation of a functional society. But the problem remains: what if a man can act unjustly and not suffer any consequences? Indeed, if given the change, people would act upon such an opportunity, disobeying common moral principles. Glaucon resorts to a fantastical thought experiment wherein two magic rings are produced and given to man. His story describes the rings of magic that make men indivisible whenever they are placed on his finger. Glaucon, in the process of helping Socrates build his Ideal State, proposes that each and every human being would conduct himself in a similar manner given this amazing power. They would, according to him, both break into houses unseen and help themselves to whatever they fancied. Freed of legal and social responsibility (the invisibility of the Ring of Gyges represents immunity from justice), any man could not, and so would not, feel any need for the virtue of justice. Glaucon’s position then becomes one of pessimism: the just man is only just insofar as he possesses a fear of the consequences of his actions in terms of potential punishments, whether these punishments are inflicted upon

The threat of cybercrime is rising sharply, experts have warned at the Essay

The threat of cybercrime is rising sharply, experts have warned at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Online theft costs $1 tril - Essay Example The final section is the conclusion and recommendations, in which the issues are wrapped up and the recommendations are put forth. The recommendations are basically that more countries need to be a part of the treaty, the countries that are a part of the treaty need to have their law harmonized, and businesses need to take security measures more seriously. Introduction The advent of the Internet has brought a variety of threats, and the biggest threat is that of cybercrime. Cybercrime can be anything from hacking to copyright infringement to possession of child pornography. The European Council has attempted to address the threats by implementing a treaty that was signed by some 22 countries and ratified by 23 more. Known as the Convention on Cybercrime, this treaty sought to harmonize domestic laws for the member states, while making prosecution of cybercriminals ostensibly easier, as the offenses became extraditable and the nations agreed to work together to help one another fight these crimes. While this treaty has done some good, in that it has served as a model for other countries that were not signatories to the treaty, it has its flaws as well. One of the major flaws is that it does not encompass countries that have the most problems with cybercrime. Another flaw is that the countries that have signed the treaty or ratified it have not implemented the provisions in a uniform fashion, or at all. What this means is that cybercrime is still a problem. How much of a problem it is will be examined by looking into the UK, and assessing the damage that cybercrime has done to its economy. As the UK is a developed country that should be able to combat cybercrime better than most countries, it is a good bellwether as to how serious cybercrime still is. And the numbers are not good. 1.0 The Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime – What it is, what it does, and its limitations 1.1 What it is The Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (hereinafter â₠¬Å"treaty†) was a treaty that was signed in 2001 that essentially internationalized cybercrime law.1 The treaty was necessitated by the fact that computer crime was not pursued vigorously by many countries, and this treaty attempted to address this problem by harmonizing criminal law regarding cyber crimes and commits the signatories to use their domestic laws to more vigorously pursue these crimes. 2 The provisions of the treaty were enacted in 2004, with 22 countries signing the treaty and another 23 countries ratifying it.3 While it was prepared by the Council of Europe, it was prepared with the participation of the United States, Japan, Canada and South Africa.4 It has also served as a model law for countries that are not signatories to the treaty, as these countries are using the provisions of the treaty as a guidelines for their own legislation.5 Title I of the Act essentially forces the member states to use their domestic laws to make certain actions criminal. It requir ed the parties to the convention to use their domestic laws to criminalize an individual accessing a computer without having the right to do so. It also stated that a member may require that the individual accesses the computer by breaching security with the intent to steal data or another dishonest intent.6 Hence, the treaty left it open to the signing countries – if they wanted to make their laws state that any kind of unauthorized access is