Euthyphro – Plato Holiness is a central theme in the Socratic dialogue with Euthyphro. Socrates has taken up the ironic role of a student in the narrative as he attempts to gain knowledge of what holiness entails, from Euthyphro. Socrates meets with Euthyphro as they meet at a court in Athens. He seeks to gain knowledge on holiness, such that, he can use the insights in his trial against Meletus. Earlier, Meletus had charged him for impiety in a court. This justifies the importance that has been placed on the idea. In the ensuing dialogue, Euthyphro serves different definitions of holiness to Socrates. However, each of these is questioned, casting ambiguity over his supposed knowledge. In his first attempt, Euthyphro defines holiness as persecution …show more content…
However, Socrates argues that what is holy and what has been approved of the gods cannot be the same. He highlights the ambiguous argument that what is holy is determined by the gods, yet what is holy directs what the gods will approve. Simple reasoning dictates that the two cannot be perceived as the same. In another attempt, Euthyphro posits that holiness correlates to justice, in a religious sense. The teacher has defined it as justice focused on protecting the will and teachings of the gods. In that sense, he states that justice involves ‘looking after the gods’ (Plato. & Jowett, 2013). Socrates refutes this definition since he views that the gods do not need to be assisted by mortals. In his final attempt, Euthyphro defines holiness as an exchange between the gods and human beings. The gods receive sacrifices from us, while we they grant our prayers in exchange. In response, Socrates posits that this perspective implies correlates to the prior argument on the gods’ approval. He states that if holiness is gratifying to the gods, it is ambiguous as seen in the argument concerning what the gods approve, and the influences behind them (Plato. & Gallop,
During the dialogue, Euthyphro defines, “Piety means prosecuting the unjust individual who has committed murder or sacrilege, or any other such crime, as I am doing now, whether he is your father or mother or whoever he is.” Given this Euthyphro overarching principles can be summarized as divine law requires to prosecute the offender no matter who she or he is. Also, the ideology should be what befits humans as well. Socrates is fine with how Euthyphro accounts the factual evidence of his father’s misguided acts. What Socrates takes problem is how Euthyphro uses greek mythology to highlight that taking action against your parents is the correct direction of action. Due to the fact that mythology isn’t confirmed to be true in any sense, socrates feels as though this is extremely inappropriate. Euthyphro actions should be based on divine law with results in him being impious. Socrates ultimate principles can be summarized as respect for parents should be the ultimate law combined with whatever does not befit the gods shouldn’t befit everyone else. Insert another
Consequently, In Plato's Euthyphro, our acquaintance with Socrates is immensely beneficial to society, as we obtain awareness on such an innovative method of achieving intuition. The Socratic approach is now a fundamental approach implemented in daily conversation in society Furthermore, not only is Socrates is able to verify that the true seekers are the wise; he also validates the notion that the answers to many questions are merely questions. Simply because, life is so debate that certain subjects begin to intertwine. To sum up, Plato's Euthyphro is extremely indicative of this Socratic irony, for the reason being that: Socrates's portrays a sense of intellectual humility.
Socrates insistence on finding the truly wise people pitches him against Euthyphro and Meletus. Euthyphro is religious by all means necessary. He even makes prophecies and has a firm claim on the fact that he is wise. He brings a murder charge against his father. On the other hand, Meletus is the man responsible fro bringing charges against Socrates with an aim of having him executed. Meletus, having been cross-examined by Socrates, is put to utmost shame for his lack of a firm grip on facts that are required of him (Desjardins 33). When questioning Euthyphro, Socrates makes an effort to truly find out from this religious man what holiness is. After engaging him for a while, Euthyphro is frustrated and leaves the conversation an angry man. This way of throwing doubt on someone’s beliefs is what Socrates’ signature way of argument became.
Everyday people make choices, whether they are good or bad. These choices are usually known as good or bad, already. What makes them good or bad? Are they good because morally we think they are, or is it something more? In the words of Socrates, “Is it pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods? (10a)” From reading Euthyphro, I found that there is not a clear answer, but rather it is more of an opinionated answer. To come up with an answer, one must really dive into their thoughts, and reason out why they think a certain way, just like Socrates did with Euthyphro. While I read, I could not help but think that not all gods agree on everything, and not all religions do, either. How are we to know which is right? For example, people are strictly forbidden to get tattoos in Islam, but in Hinduism they are allowed. How would we know which the gods loves? If we agreed that all gods loved the same things, like Euthyphro and Socrates do, we still have a problem on whether or not we agree or disagree with what the gods love or hate. The use of Euthyphro and my own thinking made me decide that the pious is pious for no other reason than it being
He establishes that “the pious is what all the gods love”. Socrates immediately asks a clarifying question, asking whether the gods love pious acts because they are pious or if it because since the gods love these actions it makes them pious. Euthyphro choses to say that the gods love pious acts because they are pious, which was a mistake in his thought process. Euthyphro committed the begging the question fallacy. Socrates shows that although Euthyphro is deemed an expert in this field, he does know understand piety at all. He has brought the conversation to the beginning by saying that pious acts are pious because they are pious, which is not an explanation. It is redundant in thinking, which is what Socrates wanted to avoid. At the end when Socrates tries to further push Euthyphro’s thinking, Euthyphro merely gives up and avoids Socrates altogether. Plato again illustrates the importance of applying rational thought when one ventures to find the truth. Euthyphro did not ask himself insightful and challenging questions to further push his idea towards the truth. Had he use rational standards, he would developed his idea in a much clearer
My understanding of justice is using right vs wrong to determine a course of action along with taking into account any consequences that might follow a decision. In dialogue between two philosophers, it is argued what makes an act holy and what makes an act unholy. Euthyphro has decided to prosecute his own father for murder in a time when religion forbade persecution of one’s own father. Euthyphro justifies his actions based on the claim that “It is ridiculous, Socrates, that you think it matters whether the man who was killed was a stranger or a relative, and do not see that the only thing to consider is whether the action of the slayer was justified or not, and that if it was justified one ought to let him alone, and if not, one ought to proceed against him, even if he share one's hearth [4c] and eat at one's table” (4c). Euthyphro is explaining to Socrates why it is holy to persecute injustices and unholy to ignore an injustice. Socrates has more to say, but he first helps Euthyphro build his argument. In doing so, Socrates attempts to show him though his own reasoning why he should humbly acknowledge his own ignorance in his
The story that is found in Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro proposes a dilemma that has since been a very controversial subject. When Socrates encounters Euthyphyo, he is on his way to trail to face charges against his own father. His father had been accused o...
In Euthyphro, Scorates question Euthyphro about what he believes is the meaning of the piety. Scorates believe that he know the definition of piety and try to tell Socrates about it. This let Socrates to question the definition that Euthyphro gives. Scorates use this method to make Euthyphro to rethink what he believe was justice, and try to find the read answer. Socrates uses this method for anything he is investigating, and what to found the mean of. Socratic Method can make a person question what he or she believes is the definition of a subject. Euthyphro believe that he knew everything about piety, but after talking to Socrates question what he knew. Euthyphro first thought that prosecuting any who is guilty was the definition if pias,
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is making his way into the courthouse; however, prior to entering he had a discussion with a young priest of Athens, Euthyphro. This dialogue relates religion and justice to one another and the manner in which they correlate. Euthyphro feels as though justice necessitates religion and Socrates feels the opposite, religion necessitates justice. Euthyphro claims that religion is everything, justice, habits, traditions, customs, cultures, etc. all are derived from religion. Socrates went on to question what exactly would be the definition of pious. Euthyphro offered Socrates three definitions of pious and in all three Socrates was able to successfully find fault...
In The Euthyphro, Socrates uses his Socratic Method to disprove the Divine Command theory to his friend, Euthyphro. According to the textbook, the Socratic Method is a method that Socrates would use to get to the foundation of his students beliefs. He would ask continual questions about a student’s belief or assumption until a contradiction was raised. By doing so, Socrates would force his students to question their own beliefs and truly discern why they believed them. Socrates applied this method to Euthyphro when Socrates and Euthyphro had a conversation in regards to the definition of holiness. During this conversation, Euthyphro states that holiness is what is agreeable to the gods. However, Socrates disputes this idea by stating that gods quarrel just as humans quarrel in regards to issues such as right and wrong, holy and unholy, and justice and injustice. With this reasoning, Socrates argues that what one god may view as right or moral, another god may view as wrong or immoral. Thus, an action may be acceptable and moral to one god and unacceptable and immoral to another, and what is considered to
The man eventually starved to death in the ditch and this troubled Euthyphro, he believed the murder was impious no matter the circumstances and believed it was his duty to prosecute his father for the killing. When discussing the incident, Plato questions if Euthyphro knowledge of religion on determining if things are pious or impious, who responds with; “Prosecuting a wrongdoer is pious, whether it is your friend, or your parents, or a stranger” (pp. 308). This spouts Socrates suggestion of a philosophical flaw to this divine command theory, which is now known as the Euthyphro question, while Euthyphro was an extremist and very pious, it left little room for convincing a touchy topic. Socrates tried to get across the question of an action is wrong or impious because God forbids it or does God forbid it because it is wrong or
This is a reasonable answer on all fronts. Not to say that Euthyphro was not a holy man, but he certainly could not define his own existence- which is the exact sentiment which Socrates was trying to provoke. There is a clear difference between the definition of Socrates and the definitions of Euthyphro.
Euthyphro was arguing that by doing what the gods believe is holy and pious you are making them better, in other words you are taking care of them and it is like a kind of service that you are doing towards the gods. Euthyphro said, “The kind of care, Socrates, that slaves take of their masters” which meant that you are taking care of them in the sense that you are making them better and not actually caring for them (17, 13d). In other words, you are helping improve them and this is a service that the gods appreciate and want you to do. He believed that this service is improving the gods and that they like this service. The gods believe that being holy is a service towards them, therefore there should be a reason on why the gods use us and want to reward our holiness. He believes that the gods choose what is holy for a reason and should be approved by
It may have struck others as a debate about what they may have believed, but Socrates may have considered it the key to unlocking the answer. Socrates seemed to be teaching Euthyphro ways to gain the understanding that he seek by asking questions that would have him questioning himself. Considered a philosopher, this in my opinion, was a perfect example of metaphysics where both Socrates and Euthyphro believed in the supernatural. Expressing their beliefs in gods while trying to understand what is considered holy opened the door for deeper reflection into what Euthyphro believed to be
The interesting dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro demonstrates this Socratic method of questioning in order to gain a succinct definition of a particular idea, such as piety. Though the two men do not come to a conclusion about the topic in the conversation seen in Euthyphro, they do discover that piety is a form of justice, which is more of a definition than their previous one. Their conversation also helps the reader to decipher what makes a good definition. Whenever Euthyphro attempts to define piety, Socrates seems to have some argument against the idea. Each definition offered, therefore, becomes more succinct and comes closer to the actual concept of piety, rather than just giving an example or characteristic of it. To be able to distinguish between a good definition and a bad one is the first step to defining what Socrates so desperately wished to define: w...