SOGN

In Plato’s The Trial and Death of Socrates, Socrates, a well –known man of Athens is judged by trial for two impious acts, corrupting the youth and introducing new gods. While in court he is rejoined by an old friend Euthyphro, he asks him about his case and finds Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father. Socrates finds that to him this does not seem like a pious act and he asks Euthyphro to teach his what piety is to help his own trial. As Euthyphro attempts to define piety, Socrates rejects his definition and asks him to redefine piety. Eventually, after four attempts to define piety Euthyphro gives up and Socrates is left unsatisfied on the debate of what piety really is. These four attempts to define piety are because they represent major fallacies in writing/speaking where one tends to weaken their argument by failing to address the point.

In Euthyphro’s first attempt to define piety he uses examples of pious and impious actions. In his first example, Euthyphro states that the prosecution of his father is in fact a pious action. He says “what I am doing now, to prosecute the wrongdoer “is pious and “not to prosecute is impious” (5d-e). Euthyphro says this because his father is a murderer and regardless of his relation to him it would be impious not to punish a wrongful act. In his example he regards that whether it is “murder or temple robbery” (5d) the “law is so” (5e). Here Euthyphro explains that there is law for a reason and that regardless of who is committing the crime they should be punished for not following the law. In a furtherance of this explanation, Euthyphro compares himself to the Greek god Zeus, “Zeus...bound his father because he unjustly swallowed his sons…and that he in turn castrated his father” (5e-6a). B...

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...this kind of care as servitude to the gods. Which poses Socrates to raise the question of “what…excellent aim that the gods achieve, using us as their servants?” (14e). He responds by saying that the gods achieve many things including prayer and sacrifice. However, Socrates is able to come to a conclusion that since people are not gods that they are not able to know that god necessarily benefit from these gifts they receive. Here Socrates is faced with the problem of circularity because “pious is…pleasing to the gods, but not beneficial or dear to them” (15b) where he is still unsure of the true definition of piety.

These four attempts made by Euthyphro and rejections by Socrates help readers understand logical fallacies and help improve their ability to develop an argument that doesn’t rely on examples, circular or confusing metaphors, or ambiguous relationships.