Today’s thought experiment comes from Marcus Tullius Cicero, who considers in his book On Duties, circumstances “when utility seems to conflict with honorableness.”  From our very own Dr. Newton’s translation, Cicero writes:

“[I]f a good man sets out from Alexandria to Rhodes conveying a great amount of grain at a moment when scarcity and famine in Rhodes have made grain very dear, and if he likewise knew that many other merchants had set out from Alexandria and had seen their ships laden with grain en route to Rhodes, should he tell this to the Rhodians, or remain silent and sell as much as possible?  We are imagining a wise and good man; the sort of man whose deliberation and consultation we are seeking would not conceal the matter from the Rhodians if it he judged it disgraceful, but doubts as to whether or not it is disgraceful.”

Diogenes and his student Antipater were of differing opinions.  Diogenes might have declared that “[i]t is one thing to conceal, another to remain silent”; but “[f]or Antipater, everything must be disclosed so that the buyer is in no way ignorant of what the seller knows.”

If you were the grain merchant, would you tell the Rhodians of all of the other ships full of grain coming to their shores?  Or would you stay silent, and just try to sell as much of your own grain as possible?  Why?

Have a wonderful day.