In Euthyphro, why does Socrates want to know what Piety is? Why was Socrates happy to run into Euthyphro, and where and when he did? Was Euthyphro helpful to Socrates? Yes, no, why?
Socrates has been persecuted by Meletus for corrupting the youth, inventing new gods, and denying the existence of old ones, therefore, Socrates wants Euthyphro (a supposed great theologian) to explain what piety is so he can defend himself in the court so Euthyphro claims to know the nature of piety and impiety so well. The first definition that Euthyphro gives Socrates is much more of a collection of examples than a definition, mostly basing his reason for persecuting his own father for murder on the conflict between Cronos and Zeus. However, Socrates desired a more precise answer: the general idea which makes all pious things be pious. After a series of questioning and proposed definitions, at the end of Plato’s Euthyphro, Socrates is unsatisfied as he was hoping that Euthyphro would instruct him like piety and impiety so that he might have cleared himself of Meletus and his indictment.
In the Euthyphro, Euthyphro gives a second definition of Piety, “What is loved by the Gods is pious, what is hated by the gods is impious”. Socrates shows that this definition is faulty. How does he do this? What does Socrates reduce this definition to?
Socrates shows that the definition is faulty through the form of piety in which he questions Euthyphro’s all-knowingness of piety and impiety. More specifically, Socrates begins by deriving – from Euthyphro’s second definition – that the thing or person which is dear to the gods is pious, and that thing or person which is hateful to the gods is impious, these two being the extreme opposites of one another, which Euthyphro confirms. Secondly, Socrates questions if the gods were admitted to have enmities, hatreds, and differences, which again, Euthyphro confirms. This leads Socrates to pose examples in which measurable standards cannot be disputed, and with that, he compares that the nature of differences which cannot be decided lead to quarrels like that of the gods…Euthyphro confirms. Finally, Socrates confirms Euthyphro’s beliefs that the gods have differences of opinion and that the same things that are hated and loved by the gods are both hateful and dear to them. Socrates reduces this definition to what is loved by the gods and is also hated by them.
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In the Euthyphro, Socrates says “Consider this: (A) Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or (B) is it pious because it is being loved by the gods? How does this ‘dilemma’ address the moral relativism of the Sophists that Plato wants to remove from Athens?
Horn A renders that morality is not dependent on god and can exist without god because morality precedes god, making god merely a transcriber of the rules of morality. If good transcends god then good can exist without god and piety is independent of the gods, objective and universal. For example, the state of being loved follows the act of being loved, and not the act of the state as it does not become because it is becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes. Horn B makes morality seem arbitrary, and dependent on god and renders god as the definition of good. If god were to stop existing, morality would too, and if god never existed in the first place, good and bad would have been a fabrication of the human mind. Ultimately, this means that god can make anything good making it clear there is no deep reason for what is good. Euthyphro reflects the sophistic idea of piety, one based on moral relativism of the gods (at the whims of god’s will) which can undermine the very point of ethics, ultimately entailing the relativism of the Sophists that Plato wanted to remove from Athens.
- https://www.tacticalfaith.com/moral-arguments-iv-the-sophist-icated-euthyphro-dilemma/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMOD7ofD9Ck
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJLso-bT0Mw
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