Euthyphro And Socrates Piety

A coincidental encounter outside the courts of Athens leads two men who are involved in legal matters to discuss the nature of piety. Socrates has been charged with impiety of corrupting the youth and Euthyphro is supposedly performing an act of piety by prosecuting his own father of murder. Socrates believes that the general public has a poor understanding of the meaning of piety and decides to ask what piety means to Euthyphro. In what follows, I will discuss the exchange of dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro and analyze the philosophical issues that they come across.

Euthyphro has a reputation of being a wise and divine man and Socrates wants to reveal his true image. When Euthyphro is asked what piety means he responds by claiming that it is what he is doing now, prosecuting his father. Socrates objects his answer by proclaiming that it is not a true definition and that an example is not equivalent to a definition. Euthyphro then backs up his initial response by saying that piety is what

pleases the gods and impiety is what displeases them.
The philosophical issues addressed in Plato’s Euthyphro shed light on to the meaning of piety. Piety is said to be giving gods and people their due and respect. But how is piety correlated with justice and morality? It is said that the gods follow reason so they are rationalists. They make things reasonable by commanding them to humans. Then is morality a function that the gods track and have predetermined for humans? The only answer that fits would be that the nature of morality and religion and the nature of knowledge in the sense of being just are all equivalent to the nature of piety.
The family members of Euthyphro find his act of prosecuting his own father impious. Euthyphro brings attention to the fact that it is wrong to “think that it makes any difference whether the victim is a stranger of a relative. One should only watch whether the killer acted justly or not; if he acted justly, let him go, but if not, one should prosecute, if, that is to say, the killer shares your hearth and table.” He is focused on the nature of being a divine man by living a life that fulfills one’s duty both to the gods and the humanity.
From what has been said, Socrates believes that Euthyphro knows what impiety is and is surprised that Euthyphro does not fear punishment from the gods in the case that he is acting wrongly. He is in need of an answer from Euthyphro so that he knows whether the charge he is being charged against is legitimate. He proceeds to ask if piety is equivalent to being just. Euthyphro says yes but quickly realizes that not all just persons are pious. Socrates asks what form of piety is just and he answers the part where one is just to the gods and also men. Socrates then questions the actual form and rules that one cannot understand anything unless you know its form.
It is important for not only Socrates but also anyone facing a problem of moral conduct to have a solid understanding of piety.

Socrates is in a state of frustration because Euthyphro is unable to directly answer any of his questions and Socrates is in dire need of a clear response. The majority of their dialogue contains Socrates objecting to each of Euthyphro’s responses. Socrates’ uses his own method, called the Socratic method, to aspire knowledge and justify truth. Socrates held a reputation as a professional arguer. He would take a proposed definition such as a principle or definition and point out something true and get others to admit it. Basically, his attempt was to lead to a statement that one is unwilling to accept. He was able to show that these things together force you to accept something unwanted. While Socrates uses complicated objections, Euthyphro becomes unsettled and nervous and gives into Socrates’ objections by agreeing to everything he

says.
Euthyphro is a teacher who teaches on the subject of morality but from the nature of this dialogue, the roles have been switched, and Socrates has become the teacher. It seems as if Euthyphro is second guessing and doubting his own claims because he himself does not understand the nature of piety, therefore, he agrees to Socrates’ objections because they sound like the correct answer. But in reality, through the works of Socrates’ method, he is just trying to lead Euthyphro through his own reasoning and sort out his own thoughts and opinions.