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Euthyphro's Argument Analysis

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Socrates and Euthyphro meet at the Agora, and begin discussing what brings them to the king-archons court. Euthyphro begins telling Socrates, that he is bringing a case against his father who murdered a servant. Socrates is astounded that Euthyphro is bringing an indictment against his father, and asks for wisdom concerning a statement of piety so that he may fight his own accusations impiety. Euthyphro first proposes that “What is dear to the gods is pious, what is not is impious.” Socrates examines the argument and concludes that the gods “like what each of them considers beautiful, good, and just, and hate the opposites of these.” Furthermore what is loved by one god is hated by another, thus disproving the argument made by Euthyphro because …show more content…

To refute this, Socrates asks Euthyphro “Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods.” This brings to mind the concept of causality proposed by Immanuel Kant, so the question arises, who loves who, do the gods love the people because they are pious or do the people love the gods because they are the gods, and it is pious to love the gods. Causality tells us that event A causes event B, which is an effect, it should also be mentioned that event B cannot come before event A. Socrates further complicates the matter by stating, “nor is something carried because it is something carried, but it is something carried because it is being carried” in this case the carried thing is changed because it is carried

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In Aristophanes’ Clouds it wasn’t just for Strepsiades to beat his father because although Strepsiades was a bad citizen, that doesn’t give it a right to beat his own father. In Plato’s Euthyphro, I think Socrates felt the same way that it isn’t really ‘just’ that Euthyphro should prosecute his own father because he was in great shocked that Euthyphro is doing such bold move and this is a big crime in Greek society. This is why Socrates kept questioning Euthyphro reason for prosecution with holy and unholy and impious and pious.

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Socrates’ position towards the authorities was inconsistent in The Euthyphro and The Crito. He questioned the authority in The Euthyphro but defended and obeyed it in The Crito. In The Euthyphro, Socrates had a dialog with Euthyphro who claimed to be an expert on the subjects such as holiness, Gods, piety, justice, etc. Socrates began his philosophical debate by asking Euthyphro to define piety and impiety.

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In the Euthyphro debate we witness Socrates encountering Euthyphro outside of the Athenian court. Socrates has been brought to court for being charged of impiety while Euthyphro has decided to come to court to prosecute his own father. Socrates decides to make a game of this, stating that Euthyphro must be a master in all things religion if he has decided to prosecute his own father. Euthyphro agrees that he does know about all things holy and Socrates decides to listen, hoping that it may help him in his trial against Mellitus. While Euthyphro lends Socrates a few of his perspectives on what holy truly is Socrates has two main proposals against what he has to say.

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He does as such for a few reasons. In any case, he doesn't trust that one's obligation toward a perfect being ought to be viewed as something that is partitioned and particular from his obligation toward his kindred men. In actuality, he holds that the main genuine method for rendering administration to God comprises in doing what one can to advance the good and otherworldly improvement of people. Second, Socrates respects the reason and capacity of religion as something that is unique in relation to the view communicated by Euthyphro. Rather than religion being utilized as a sort of hardware or gadget for getting what one needs, as was valid for Euthyphro's situation, Socrates trusts the basic role of genuine religion is to carry one's own life into amicability with the will of God.

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In this paper I will discuss and evaluate the definitions of piety in Plato’s Euthyphro. Plato wrote this dialogue shortly after Socrates death. The Euthyphro is one of Plato’s early philosophy dialogs in which it talks about Socrates and Euthyphro’s conversations dealing with the definitions of piety and gods opinion. This dialogue begins when Socrates runs into Euthyphro outside the authorities and the courts. Socrates is there because he has been charged with impiety, and Euthyphro is there to accuse his father for the death of a man named Meletus who was a farm hard.

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Euthyphro tries to explain him that he was doing the same as Zeus did to his father and therefore being pious. But Socrates argues that it is just an example and not an explanation. He tries again and says what gods like is pious and what they dislike is not. But Socrates points out the fallacy in that argument that one god might not agree with another to which he replies in his third attempt what all gods like is pious and what they all hate is impious. Here, in this example we can see that how he searches for a concrete and complete definition for being pious.

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HUM2225 Dr. Hotchkiss September 30, 2016 Moral Insight Plato’s Euthyphro is based on a lesson between Socrates and Euthyphro outside of the Athenian court about the definition of pious or impious. Euthyphro was surprised to see Socrates there and even more curious to find out why he was there. Socrates explained that the court was persecuting him for impiety because Meletus was spreading rumors about him corrupting the Athenian youth. Euthyphro explains to Socrates that he was there to prosecute his father for murdering a farm worker named Dionysus.

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Socrates notes that evils which attacks the soul, cowardice and the like, clearly do not destroy it. Injustice, for instance, never kills souls by itself, though the unjust man may be killed in body by others. We must forsake the study of the soul in the prison of the body and use philosophy to truly study it. Socrates returns to the theme of justice to determine how the unjust and the just will be in relation to the gods. They will love the just and hate the unjust.

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Marcus Schimmelfennig – Euthyphro Essay – Philosophy 150 The argument Euthyphro and Socrates go about talking about is a murder case Euthyphro is about to be a part of. Euthyphro is prosecuting a man who is being prosecuted for murdering a murderer. It begins as such, the man murdered was caught in a murder and the second murderer tied him up and threw him in a ditch, but forgot about him so the first murderer died of hunger and the cold weather. The second murderer was Euthyphro’s very own father so, with this in mind, he is having trouble determining if he should prosecute his father to be guilty or not guilty for the action he committed was indefinitely an illegal act, but, I this time period of the case, the murderer would have been facing a death sentence in the end anyways if he would have been caught by an authority.

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Socrates was a philosopher who continually questioned the ancient Greek world. During his time a majority of people believed in false presumptions made from ”the gods”Eventually in 399 B.C. Socrates was sentenced to death for “going against the gods”. ”The

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When thinking of Greek gods and goddesses, most would assume they are perfect in all ways. This however, is not the case, the text explains, “The Greeks created gods in the image of humans; that is, their gods had many human qualities even though they were gods. The gods constantly fought among themselves, behaved irrationally and unfairly, and were often jealous of each other”(“Gods, Goddesses and Heroes”). This demonstrates how they are faulty, similarly to humans and for this reason many conflicts are created with one another. It also demonstrates, “The Greek gods were highly emotional and behaved inconsistently and sometimes immorally.

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The second, Socrates asks Euthyphro, have you known what a piety is if your attitude is confident that you indict your father for a crime. (Plato (1997), p.77.). Socrates tries to look for one standard definition of piety. Let, have a look at what piety means to Euthyphro. He comes up with the several suggestions about piety: “to prosecute a wrongdoer is pious and not to prosecute is impious”; “what all the gods hate is impious, and what they all love is pious”; “where there is piety there is also justice” (Plato (1997), p.88.).

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In Apology, Socrates faces possible execution as he stands trial in front of his fellow Athenian men. This jury of men must decide whether Socrates has acted impiously against the gods and if he has corrupted the youth of Athens. Socrates claims in his defense that he wants to live a private life, away from public affairs and teachings in Athens. He instead wants to focus on self-examination and learning truths from those in Athens through inquiry. Socrates argues that "a [man] who really fights for justice must lead a private, not a public, life if [he] is to survive for even a short time" (32a).

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When Socrates was in search to understand what piety is, he went to Euthyphro who was a knowledgeable priest. Socrates asked him if something is pious because the gods love it or if the god's love things because they are pious. Using this method of circular reasoning proved that Euthyphro did not understand what

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For Socrates, gods do not speak to people unswervingly, instead they use oracles and signs (Mackenzie,

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