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.
Moreover, Euthyphro is particularly restricted to Meletus and on numerous focuses is in entire concurrence with
One of Socrates’ friends, Chaerephon, asked if there was anyone wiser than Socrates, to which the oracle replied, “no one” (21a, 85). Socrates, knowing he was not very wise, sought to investigate the claim (21b, 85). Already, the reader can begin to understand how an examined life, is a good life. Socrates is unwilling to accept something as truth, just because it is said by a person in a position of power and respect. He chooses to investigate the claim, to find an understanding of how it can be that someone believes he is the wisest person.
Euthyphro wants to take his father to the authorities to charge him with murder. Socrates is fascinated that Euthyphro would accuse his own father of murder and then want to
Is Euthyphro pious in prosecuting his father? According to the Euthyphro, the main characters like Socrates and Euthyphro have their own notions about piety. The way the main characters understand piety is different from each other. The first, Euthyphro examines himself and brings evidence against his father.
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.
Euthyphro In the Story Euthyphro is faced with many questions by the curious Socrates. One of the questions that with no doubt had a great significance was whether holy or piety is loved by the gods because it is holy or if it is holy because it is loved by the gods. This causes a roundabout conversation and at this point in the conversation Euthyphro realizes just this. Euthyphro decides to say that holy is loved by the gods because it is holy instead of its holy because it is loved by the gods.
In order to examine the problems this claim is followed by, first we must assess exactly what the statement means. The specific problems that arise from claiming it to be true and different depending on whether you say it because you believe that God commanding the actions make them good, or whether God would only command actions which are good absent from his will. These two different option form the basis for Plato’s Euthyphro Dilemma in which Socrates asks Euthyphro that very question: ‘Is what is holy holy because the gods approve of it, or do they approve it because it is holy?’ , with the former being known as the Divine Command Theory.
Socrates swells Euthyphro’s ego with a sarcastic comment. Euthyphro implies that he is an expert in the field of holiness. Socrates obviously amused by Euthyphro self-proclaimed expertise that he pretends to be unfamiliarity with the topic at hand and asks Euthyphro to teach him what is pious.
Through his intellectual project of studying the wisdom of the politician, poet, and craftsman, he found himself the most wise, for though he may not have gifts in their respective trades, he does not claim to know something that he does in fact not know, hence deeming him the wiser in each scenario. Furthermore, in his ordeal with Euthyphro, his poised questioning positioned him as holding the most wisdom, for his claims of knowing the classifications of actions both pious and impious prove that a concrete definition of these terms ceases to exist, and it takes one far more wise than Euthyphro, who believes the words of humans that bear upon the gods, to consider this. Conversely, via The Epic of Gilgamesh, one may conclude that knowing of a human’s mortality brings about wisdom, though Gilgamesh’s quest in gaining this knowledge differed greatly from that of Socrates. Though achieved in different methods, these two tales provide insight to the essential question of what it means to be
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.
The dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro starts off on the Porch of the King Archon and it is revealed that they are both involved in court cases. Socrates is being accused of having corrupted the youth and Euthyphro is trying his father for the murder of a serf. Socrates has sought out his dear friend’s help because he yearns to better understand the nature of piety. Despite the many ways that Euthyphro could have chosen to respond, he explains it as “doing as [he is] doing” (18).
The Euthyphro is one of Plato’s classic dialogues. It is a well-verbalized piece which deals with the question of ethics, consisting of a conversation between Socrates and one other person who claims to be an expert in a certain field of ethics. It is additionally riddled with Socratic irony in which Socrates poses as the incognizant student hoping to learn from a supposed expert, when in fact he shows Euthyphro to be the nescient one who kens nothing about the subject being holiness. Plato's main goal is to edify us, and he believes firmly that cognizance only comes when we are able to justify and account for our true credences. Thus, edifying is not simply a matter of giving the right answers.
After going back and forth on how Euthyphro did not answer the question, Socrates states, “... Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?” (Page 10) I had to reread this quote many times before getting an understanding of what Socrates was trying to say which was simply asking the question as to what came first. For example, did the Gods come first and create what was pious and what was not? Or was pious created first and the Gods came to love it? With Socrates questioning Euthyphro’s answer, it allowed me to think about how effective and incredible his thinking was.
By doing this Aristophane showcases Socrates’ ability to establish a sense of aporia, which is a state of puzzlement or being puzzled. This is a consistent characteristic of Socrates because this is achieved in Euthyphro when he questions the
