What Role Does Euthyphro Play In Plato's Life

Euthyphro

Plato is recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of ancient Greece. He is known as a profound thinker who came from an aristocratic family. Plato was a student of Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writing questioned justice, equality, and philosophy. Plato founded the Academy in Athens. This was one of the first institutions of higher learning in the Western world. Two significant events played a major role in Plato’s life. The first event was meeting the Greek philosopher Socrates who later became his teacher. Socrates 's methods of dialogue and debate fascinated Plato. The second significant event was the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, in which Plato was a part of for a short period of time. Plato

Socrates has been summoned by Meletus for corrupting the youth, “He says he knows how our young men are corrupted and who corrupts them” (Plato’s 5 Dialogues, Euthyphro pg. 3, 2c). Then Socrates also explains that he is accused of teaching the youth not to believe in the gods of the city, but to believe in a new divinity. Euthyphro tells Socrates that he has come to prosecute his father for murdering a murderer. Socrates encourages Euthyphro to teach him the meaning of holiness. Euthyphro tries to explain his reasoning behind holiness. However as Socrates questions him on his reasoning, Euthyphro becomes frustrated and instead of defending his reasoning, becomes very short with Socrates, and ends up leaving. The book Euthyphro can be seen as an irony. Socrates impersonates an ignorant student hoping to learn from an “expert”, when in reality, Euthyphro is the ignorant one who knows nothing about holiness. Instead of Euthyphro teaching Socrates, Socrates ends up teaching

This is true because each person or god has their own perception of what is pious and impious. In each city there is a different god, since all gods do not agree and do not have the same perception of what is pious and impious, there is no exact definition of piety, “different gods consider different things to be just, beautiful, ugly, good, and bad, for they would not be at odds with one another unless they differed about these subjects” (Plato’s 5 Dialogues, Euthyphro pg.9, 7e). Plato wrote the book Euthyphro, in order to raise awareness that there is a new way of thinking. Most people thought all gods thought the same. However we can clearly see that all gods do not agree on everything and that there is no one way of