Plato's Euthyphro

Plato's Euthyphro is one of his earliest known dialogues. Before Socrates has his court trial for allegations on worshiping gods not approved by the state, he encounters Euthyphro a young man who is believed to know plenty about religion. Euthyphro is proceeding with a number of charges against his father, mainly that of manslaughter. Socrates stated that Euthyphro wasn't clear on what is holy and what was unholy in aspect of what Euthyphro was doing, Socrates did not understand the philosophy behind Euthyphro's actions but wished to learn from him. During their talk, some definitions of piety were described by Euthyphro, they were also

argued by Socrates.

Euthyphro claims to understand fully the divine law of piety and impiety. However, through the dialogue he offers four definitions of piety, some that contradict the other. Socrates continued to find flaws in each of his definitions and kept trying for a complete answer. "piety means prosecuting the unjust individual who has committed murder or sacrilege, or any other such crime." (p. 11) was the first definition. Euthyphro states that piety is then the action of not keeping justice in the city, one man who acts wrongly should be prosecuted and justice should be enforced. Socrates then presents the question suggesting that Euthyphro gave an example of a act that is pious and not of piety itself. Socrates argues that there are other pious actions other than prosecuting a person's father for the sake of justice. Socrates wishes to know, "the characteristic of piety which makes all pious acts pious," (p. 11)

Euthyphro then began to state "what is pleasing to the gods is pious, and what is not

pleasing to them is impious," (p. 12) as an attempt for another definition of piety. Socrates then asks Euthyphro for a continuation of the definition describing a situation where just as men have differences in opinion, as do gods. What makes the definition incomplete is that the gods are in

disagreement with each other over argument of good and evil. Therefor, what one god thinks is pious may not be pious to another. Socrates tells Euthyphro that there's a chance all the gods may

agree with the fact that Euthyphro's father murdering another is evil, it doesn't mean that what is pleasing to gods is the definition of pious.