Morality In The Euthyphro, By Plato

For thousands of people, what is holy and what is moral comes from religious texts that act as a guide for individuals for how they ought to live their lives. This idea of holiness and morality for many is deeply rooted in the understanding that it originates with God; it is a necessary condition for it to be binding. However, what if what is holy and moral didn’t originate from God’s goodness, rather it comes from other mediums and is itself good thus being approved by God? This idea of existence and thought is a question that can be outlined in Plato’s, The Euthyphro. In the Euthyphro, Plato sets the stage for what will turn out to be one of the most pondered questions in philosophy. Plato first begins by setting the stage – Socrates and

He is certain that prosecuting his father is the just and moral course of action because he believed it was commanded as such by the divine who are supposedly innately good. Unable to see the soundness in Euthyphro’s claim, Socrates proposes a question that has become known as possibly one of the oldest ethical questions in the history of philosophy. Socrates proposes the following question to Euthyphro, “Is what is holy (or moral) approved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is approved by the

In a way, it might even be seen as a sort of relativist perspective because the gods could develop their own beliefs and commands and change them accordingly and they must always be right. This is what makes Socrates’ claim so essential, it calls into question the Divine Command Theory and questions the real origin of morality. Human civilizations have been going to the gods for their guidance since the beginning of time, but Socrates’ brings insight that stumps the “smart” Euthyphro. In a certain way, this one question can poke a hole in an individual’s view and traditions of religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is the spring board for disciplines and studies into religious apologetics, because this question that might seem innocuous at first proves to be incredibly powerful. Pojman asserts that this question highlights the question whether or not morality and religion are intertwined. Moreover, Socrates’ comments and critiques of Euthyphro’s claims provide readers a powerful model for what true dialectic thus promoting the development of a strong intellectual spine and the true core of