Socrates And Euthyphro: A Way Of Life

Introduction

Philosophy is a way of life that originated during the Classic Greece period under the Athenian empire when Socrates was born, in 469 BC. In the passage I am going to focus on, Euthyphro is not living in consistency and his world-views are contradictory. Euthyphro is a priest and he believes he is an expert on rituals. He claims that he has a lot more knowledge on values and rituals than other people and he is trying to show the Athenian people that he is right for trying to indict his father. The Athenian people have always believed that younger generations should respect their elders and they see Euthyphro as acting radically because they think he is wrong for indicting his father. Philosophy helps one to understand the underlying

Socrates questions Euthyphro about piety to try to show him that his world-view is not harmonious by asking him questions that end up showing that Euthyphro is wrong. In actuality, Socrate is not trying to shame Euthyphro but trying to work with him to raise his conscienceness of his flawed perspective. During the dialogue Socrates asks Euthyphro what is piety, and he answers at first that it is pious to do “what he is doing now”, which is prosecuting the wrong doer (5d). Then, he goes on to say that “what is dear to the gods is pious” (7a). Socrates finds fault in this definition because different gods love different things so an action one could possibly do could very well be impious and pious at the same time, which is not possible. Euthyphro then changes his definition a third time saying, “that the pious is what all the gods love and the opposite, what all the gods hate, is the impious” (9e). Socrates then asks him, “Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?” (10a). Socrates can see that Euthyphro does not have a clear definition of piety but rather he only give the quality of

He never doubted his beliefs and he tried to encourage Euthyphro to question his character so that he would know what piety is too. Socrates wanted Euthyphro to see his need for katharsis, which is purification, so that he can understand fully what piety is, just like Socrates does. Socrates when total opposite of the normal believes the Classic Greeks had. In the end of the story, Socrates even accepts his charges and drinks the poison that ends his life. He basically died for what he believed in and that is as pious as one could