According to Merrian-Webster dictionary, piety is defined as devotion to God. However, in the time before dictionaries, Plato challenges Euthyphro to give the word his own definition. The story of Euthyphro, which is a short dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro himself, Socrates attempts to understand the concept of holiness. It all starts when Socrates was reporting to answer to the charges, of impiety (unholiness) and corrupting the youths, that had been brought against him. Euthyphro, on the other hand, was prosecuting his father for a murder case. Socrates was, therefore, concerned with the level of belief that Euthyphro had in himself, regarding holiness, to the extent of prosecuting his own father. During their conversation, Euthyphro comes up with several definitions of piety. To begin with, it is important to consider a few points regarding the causal and semantic because-statements. Causal statements are …show more content…
Considering this third definition, it further implies that an action is only impious if it is hated by all the gods. In case the gods disagree about something, then it is neither pious or impious. Socrates complicates the matter further for Euthyphro, by asking if the pious is loved by the gods because it is pious or something is pious by the state of being god-loved. In other terms, Socrates asks Euthyphro whether an action is holy because it is loved by the gods (this would imply that the cause of an action being pious is its loving by the gods), or being pious is the cause of the gods loving an action. This is the so-called Euthyphro