Euthyphro - Plato

Euthyphro - Plato

Introduction

Euthyphro is one of the earliest dialogues written by Plato in 399 B.C. the dialogues happened between Socrates and Euthyphro outside the court house where Euthyphro comes to persecute Socrates' father who was charged for murder. The dialogue illustrates the views of Socrates on the issue of defining holiness or piety properly. Socrates was not convinced with Euthyphro's idea that persecuting his father was a pious act that is why he asks Euthyphro to define piety. With this begins a thorough discussion about impiety and piety.

Discussion

Concept of Holiness and its Prominence in the Conversation

Euthyphro is an excellent example of Socratic definitional dialogues. The concept that has to be defined in this dialogue is of piety or holiness. Concept of piety is prominent in this dialogue as according to Euthyphro, persecuting offenders is a pious act while not doing so is an impious act. However, Socrates believed that there many other acts that said to pious than persecuting offenders and how persecuting an offender sets a standard of piousness (Hardwig, 2007). Socrates whether his own knowledge regarding holiness is piety or is there a need to know whether Euthyphro is clear about the idea of piety or not? Owing to this fact, he asks for an explicit definition of piety which can readily explain the concept of holiness without any confusion (Cohen, n.d.).

Main argument of the dialogue is the one that Socrates against definition of piety given by Euthyphro as piety is what all God love. The chief concept of holiness occurred in the conversation after the concept of mutual acceptance among the Gods. Socrates insisted for an explanation to prove that Gods cannot have much equivalency amongst them. Euthyphro further referred that the holiness is a form of justice. This concept specifically stated the words ...