Socrates Dialogue About Piety

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Euthyphro: Hello, my dear Socrates. I’m glad to meet you here. I spent the whole evening thinking about our conversation from yesterday, and I think I have a better and more accurate definition of piety. Socrates: That is very good, my dear Euthyphro, please tell me about your new definition of piety. E: I believe what it is for an act to be pious is for the act to obey god’s will, and do what is good for the society. S: To obey god’s will, to do what is meaningful to the society is to be pious, is that right? E: It is indeed. S: Then tell me, Euthyphro, how do you define society? Is it one other person, or is it the society as a whole? E: I would say this society is the society as a whole. Moreover, the society is made up of a group of people …show more content…

However, a single person cannot be the society, and the society is made up of many individuals. S: So if someone hurts a member of the society, will he be doing something which is harmful to the society? E: Quite so. Hurting a member of the society will do harm to the society. S: Are there people in the society who are being harmful to the society? E: I think there are. S: If a member of the society has done something which is harmful to the society, what should we do about it? E: That person must be sanctioned, Socrates. S: But we just said before, that a person, as a member of the society, which hurting that person is just as same as hurting the society. E: That is not the same, Socrates. This person has harmed the benefit of the whole society, and he has lost his qualification to be a member of the society. S: So, do you mean that the society is made up of people who do not harm the society? E: Well, Socrates, I have to admit that there are people in the society who do good things to the society, but there are also people in the society who do harm to the society. Therefore, what is good for the society is to benefit the society as a whole. That is to say, we need to ensure the benefit for the majority of the whole society, which it is necessary to sanction those who do harm to the whole …show more content…

E: Of course. S: Should we sanction the thief? E: Certainly, we must sanction the thief. It will protect the benefit of the society as a whole. S: Tell me then, if one kills the thief, does his action maintain the benefit of the whole society? Is this an action of pious? E: No, Socrates, absolutely no. Although the thief has harmed the society and committed a crime, it would still be wrong for a person to kill the thief. The thief should be handed over to the court and let the court judge him. S: Why should the thief be handed over to the court and let the court judge him? Is it not the thief doing harm to the society? Is it not a pious thing to kill the thief and preserve the benefit of the society? E: No, Socrates. Even though he thief did harm the benefit of the society, to hand him over to the court should still be the pious thing to do. The thief should have the right to a fair and impartial trial, thus this is the right way to protect the benefit of the society. Conversely, to kill the thief would be an act of impious, which would be against the benefit of the

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