Being and Seeming in Books I and II of Plato’s Republic and in the “Tale of Abu Kir and Abu Sir” of the Thousand Nights and a Night

Abstract

Being and seeming have to do with the way perception affects justice in both the works compared. One approaches the matter from a theoretical basis, and the other is in itself a demonstration of how justice interacts with being and seeming, the issues of reputation and reality. With both works there is an understanding that there is a “real” reality underlying the everyday reality. Both show the power of perception in shaping destiny, and the unhappy fate of the just man who seems to be unjust,compared with the unjust man who seems to be just. Both use supernatural intervention to vindicate the just man, although in the “Tale of Abu Kir and Abu Sir” the witness factor of the folk also belatedly comes to his defense. The works compared have come to identical conclusions independently of each other.