Plato Euthyphro Rational Thinking

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Rational Thinking Socratic questioning challenges authority and assumptions of the individuals who claim that they completely understand topics such as justice, truth, and piety. Plato demonstrates in Euthyphro that in order to acquire truth, one must search for a deeper understanding of topics through questioning. When one questions ideas however, one must use rational thinking in order to get clearer explanations. Plato shows his readers that rational thought and standards must be applied when seeking truth when Socrates criticizes Euthyphro’s explanation of justice on the grounds that they fail to abide to the norms of rationality. Euthyphro’s second definition of piety is “the pious is what the gods love”. Socrates takes this idea and …show more content…

He establishes that “the pious is what all the gods love”. Socrates immediately asks a clarifying question, asking whether the gods love pious acts because they are pious or if it because since the gods love these actions it makes them pious. Euthyphro choses to say that the gods love pious acts because they are pious, which was a mistake in his thought process. Euthyphro committed the begging the question fallacy. Socrates shows that although Euthyphro is deemed an expert in this field, he does know understand piety at all. He has brought the conversation to the beginning by saying that pious acts are pious because they are pious, which is not an explanation. It is redundant in thinking, which is what Socrates wanted to avoid. At the end when Socrates tries to further push Euthyphro’s thinking, Euthyphro merely gives up and avoids Socrates altogether. Plato again illustrates the importance of applying rational thought when one ventures to find the truth. Euthyphro did not ask himself insightful and challenging questions to further push his idea towards the truth. Had he use rational standards, he would developed his idea in a much clearer

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