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The teachings of plato
The teachings of plato
The teachings of plato
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Euthyphro – Plato
Jasmine K. Townsell
PHI 208: Ethics and Moral Reasoning
Prof. Rachel Howell
January 12, 2014
The Great Debate
The principle of holiness came up in Socrates and Euthyphro debate as the two discussed whether or not holiness was something that the gods indeed loved or if holiness was something that the gods loved because it was in fact holy. The concept of holiness between the two is prominent because they needed to know exactly how the gods broke down and acknowledged the holiness. This was a major factor because it basically set standards and laws for people that really chose to worship. It basically breaks down if an act is holy or if the act was something that was adopted by a particular god and made holy. In this paper I will explain how the concept of holiness cultivates in the discussion and why it takes a prominent position between the two.
As the debate went on Socrates began to question and ask Euthyphro for his definition of piety to better help understand his reasoning. Euthyphro proceeded to answer Socrates with three separate definitions...
Before getting into the principles of Socrates, it is important to have some context on these two stories to understand how each of these exemplify philosophical understanding. “Euthyphro” is a dialogue between Socrates and
In the Euthyphro, Plato describes the proceedings of a largely circular argument between Socrates and Euthyphro, a self-declared prophet and pious man, over the nature of piety and even of the gods themselves. The issues raised in this dialogue have been reinterpreted and extended to remain relevant even with a modern theological framework, so much so that the central issue is now known simply as ?the Euthyphro dilemma.? This is based on Socrates? two-way choice which he offers in the dialogue:
Consequently, In Plato's Euthyphro, our acquaintance with Socrates is immensely beneficial to society, as we obtain awareness on such an innovative method of achieving intuition. The Socratic approach is now a fundamental approach implemented in daily conversation in society Furthermore, not only is Socrates is able to verify that the true seekers are the wise; he also validates the notion that the answers to many questions are merely questions. Simply because, life is so debate that certain subjects begin to intertwine. To sum up, Plato's Euthyphro is extremely indicative of this Socratic irony, for the reason being that: Socrates's portrays a sense of intellectual humility.
When discussing specific knowledge, it is often hard to pin down an exact definition of what it is you are discussing. Often a concept or word will get thrown around so often that it will begin to be taken for granted and when pressed, a person may struggle to pin down specifically what it is they mean. Realizing this, Socrates often went out and attempted to fix these kinds of problems and find out what people actually knew, compared to what they just thought they knew. In the dialogues Euthyphro and Meno, Socrates attempts to pin down definitions for piety and virtue, respectively. In doing so, we are shown that the thinkers in question struggle to define these terms, and attempt to do so in vague terms that may vary heavily under different circumstances. What Socrates is attempting to find is one definitive definition of piety and virtue, what is called his One Form Requirement. Rather than defining something by classifying different parts that make it up, Socrates maintains the belief that piety and virtue both can be simplified into one specific form that describes exactly what makes all F actions F.
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
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is making his way into the courthouse; however, prior to entering he had a discussion with a young priest of Athens, Euthyphro. This dialogue relates religion and justice to one another and the manner in which they correlate. Euthyphro feels as though justice necessitates religion and Socrates feels the opposite, religion necessitates justice. Euthyphro claims that religion is everything, justice, habits, traditions, customs, cultures, etc. all are derived from religion. Socrates went on to question what exactly would be the definition of pious. Euthyphro offered Socrates three definitions of pious and in all three Socrates was able to successfully find fault...
Edwards believed that progressive sanctification was made by a vital union as new spiritual principles worked. Believer 's holiness increases in accordance with the guidance of the ‘instructing’ method of the Holy Spirit, working in harmony with the faculties of the believer 's soul. Holiness, which is formed by the progressive sanctification of the believer, is the image of the moral attributes of God and is a derived holiness. Edwards, in particular, divides the content of holiness into three categories: knowledge, holiness, and joy. Edwards ' insight into the content of holiness gives a concrete answer to the question of what sanctification a believer has as a result of progressive sanctification. On the other hand, a believer in the process of progressive sanctification appears to be eschatological tension and actively pursue
Keeping true to Socratic/Platonic methodology, questions are raised in the Euthyphro by conversation; specifically “What is holiness?” After some useless deliberation, the discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro ends inconclusively. Euthyphro varying definitions of piety include “What I do is pious to the gods,” and, “What is pleasing to the gods is pious.” Socrates proves these definitions to be insufficient, which leads us to the Apology.
The story that is found in Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro proposes a dilemma that has since been a very controversial subject. When Socrates encounters Euthyphyo, he is on his way to trail to face charges against his own father. His father had been accused o...
Euthyphro: Hello, my dear Socrates. I’m glad to meet you here. I spent the whole evening thinking about our conversation from yesterday, and I think I have a better and more accurate definition of piety.
Euthyphro was arguing that by doing what the gods believe is holy and pious you are making them better, in other words you are taking care of them and it is like a kind of service that you are doing towards the gods. Euthyphro said, “The kind of care, Socrates, that slaves take of their masters” which meant that you are taking care of them in the sense that you are making them better and not actually caring for them (17, 13d). In other words, you are helping improve them and this is a service that the gods appreciate and want you to do. He believed that this service is improving the gods and that they like this service. The gods believe that being holy is a service towards them, therefore there should be a reason on why the gods use us and want to reward our holiness. He believes that the gods choose what is holy for a reason and should be approved by
In The Euthyphro, Socrates uses his Socratic Method to disprove the Divine Command theory to his friend, Euthyphro. According to the textbook, the Socratic Method is a method that Socrates would use to get to the foundation of his students beliefs. He would ask continual questions about a student’s belief or assumption until a contradiction was raised. By doing so, Socrates would force his students to question their own beliefs and truly discern why they believed them. Socrates applied this method to Euthyphro when Socrates and Euthyphro had a conversation in regards to the definition of holiness. During this conversation, Euthyphro states that holiness is what is agreeable to the gods. However, Socrates disputes this idea by stating that gods quarrel just as humans quarrel in regards to issues such as right and wrong, holy and unholy, and justice and injustice. With this reasoning, Socrates argues that what one god may view as right or moral, another god may view as wrong or immoral. Thus, an action may be acceptable and moral to one god and unacceptable and immoral to another, and what is considered to
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV) We should follow and love God with everything we say, feel and do. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul teaches of entire sanctification, and how Christ followers’ should live throughout life. The holiness code gives laws for believers to follow. This teaching should be as important for people today as it was for those in the times of the Bible. We should encourage others, and share this teaching through the churches. Churches these days seem to sugar coat the teachings of Paul, and in most instances, it seems that holiness and entire sanctification are not as crucial in Christ followers lives.
The interesting dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro demonstrates this Socratic method of questioning in order to gain a succinct definition of a particular idea, such as piety. Though the two men do not come to a conclusion about the topic in the conversation seen in Euthyphro, they do discover that piety is a form of justice, which is more of a definition than their previous one. Their conversation also helps the reader to decipher what makes a good definition. Whenever Euthyphro attempts to define piety, Socrates seems to have some argument against the idea. Each definition offered, therefore, becomes more succinct and comes closer to the actual concept of piety, rather than just giving an example or characteristic of it. To be able to distinguish between a good definition and a bad one is the first step to defining what Socrates so desperately wished to define: w...
For example, almost all the Christians who work at their workplace have to face spiritual worldliness. It is common to socialize with other coworkers. However, when they meet each other outside of their workplace, they tend to go to a bar or somewhere they can drink alcohol. Christians might be tempted to drink alcohol, because they have strong desires of flesh. However, if they set apart from the worldliness, they may banish their desires of the flesh and follow the Word of God. Furthermore, holiness helps Christians to warn or flee from disobedient Christians (2. Thess. 3:6, 14-15; 1 Cor. 5:9-13). In other words, holiness helps the Christian to see himself, whether he is obeying God or not, and helps him to distinguish whether his bretheren obeys the Word of God or not.