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Explain Plato's Rebuttal Of The Divine Command Theory

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Plato’s rebuttal of the Divine Command Theory

What is the Divine Command Theory? The Divine Command Theory is described as “certain actions are right because they are what God wills us to do”. There are many people in this world who believe their ethical and moral decisions are made because of the religion they follow. Although most religion have their own interpretations of the Word of God one of the basic beliefs is the God wills us to do good things and stay away from evil things. However for many centuries many philosophers, one in particular, Plato, has questioned the Divine Command Theory.

Plato’s Euthyphro dilemma, Plato one of our great philosophers questioned the Divine Command Theory. The background of this questioning actually came about when Socrates, another philosopher, was at a courthouse awaiting his hearing and Euthyphro also awaiting a hearing at the courthouse began a discussion on what is piety arouse? Piety can be defined in several ways however the basic understanding in the conversation between Socrates and Euthyphro, is piety means holiness, a mixture of humility and religious devotion.

Euthyphro was at the courthouse because he was prosecuting someone for murder, his father. Socrates was awaiting trial for being accused of corrupting the young people and mostly not believing in the gods the city believed in. …show more content…

Euthyphro was prosecuting his father for doing something wrong which would be impiety, not holy, but Socrates states that is one example of piety however not a broader conclusive definition. Knowing when to pray and what to pray for on a specific occasion however Euthyphro stated holiness is what is loved by god’s and unholiness is what is hated by gods. Socrates continued his challenge by stating that gods do disagree about what is just and not just and some things are hated by gods and not hated by

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For the individuals who are searching for a tasteful meaning of devotion, the discourse is a failure, for no conclusion has been come to concerning the exact idea of that goodness. It has now and again been kept up that the genuine motivation behind logic isn't to answer addresses yet rather scrutinize the appropriate responses that have been given. Anyways, this is precisely what Socrates has been doing in this back and forth. Euthyphro has displayed a few speedy and prepared responses to the inquiry "What is devotion?" however upon magnification, each of these questions has appeared to be unsuitable.

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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.”

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Socrates dissatisfied with this definition begins to push Euthyphro to think on his argument of pious and impious rather than an example. Taken back from what Socrates has just told him that he attempts to define pious but instead proposes the possibilities of pious, not a definition. Socrates explained to Euthyphro that the correct definition would help him argue against Meletus’ charges of impiety. He attempts to answer Socrates’ question once more by stating that pious is a form of

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