Euthyphro Pious Analysis

750 Words2 Pages

Short Essay
Euthyphro's theme is ‘What is pious/impious?’
The dialogue began with the meeting of Euthyphro and Socrates before they went into the court in Athens. They all have their legal affairs to be presence in the court. Socrates was sued because he was accused by the misconduct of blasphemy, and in this way to confuse the youth. Euthyphro came to court because he accused his father of murdering slaves. Although Euthyphro was criticized by everyone, the ultimate judgement of his lawsuit was unwavering yet. Therefore, he must be convinced that his behavior is not blasphemy. Socrates said that he had been accused of impiousness, so he asked Euthyphro to help him find out what was pious and impious. Euthyphro said that piety is like he is going to do, reporting guilty of murder and other crimes, even if it was conducted by his parents, who are his direct relatives. Socrates pointed out his consent of such act is devout. However, this is merely an example of piety. There should be a general concept to clarify a pious act. …show more content…

What is a chair? We can say a chair is black and 5 feet high while all the black objects are not chairs. These descriptions of the chair are accidental properties of a chair. Instead of defining a chair by listing its extrinsic values, necessary properties are more descriptive to clarify and define what is a chair, which we can say it is a piece of furniture designed to accommodate one sitting or reclining person. Same as Euthyphro’s action, it was only an example of piety, but it cannot be a general concept of pious act. And Socrates did not want Euthyphro to give two or three examples of piety, but explaining the general idea instead which makes all pious things to be pious. So, Socrates went on to ask Euthyphro to provide a conceptual answer of what is

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