Plato Exam - Pol Sci 1030

what is the setting of euthyphro

outside of court of Athens in 399 BCE Euthyphro records the conversation between Socrates and Euthyphroas they discuss piety and morality before Socrates's trial.

Main goal of Euthyphro

socrates asks Euthyphro to teach him what piety it. He is looking for a list of examples. He demands a universal definiton, underlying essense that makes all pios actions pious

Euthyphro’s 5 defintion and socratic rebuttals

1. piety is prosecuting the wrongdoer, regardless of who they are

2. piety is dear to the gods

3. piety is what all the gods love unanimously

4. piety is a specific branch of justice concerning with caring for or serving the gods

5. piety is knowing how to pray and sacrifice

piety is prosecuting the wrongdoer, regardless of who they are

• Euthyphro's Reasoning: Zeus bound his father Cronos for eating his children, so Euthyphro is following divine precedent by prosecuting his father.

• Socrates’ Refutation: This is merely an example of a pious action, not a general definition. What single standard makes this and other actions pious?

piety is what is dear to the gods

• Euthyphro's Reasoning: What pleases the gods is pious; what offends them is impious.

• Socrates’ Refutation: According to Greek mythology, the gods constantly quarrel with one another. Therefore, something might be loved by one god (e.g., Hera) and hated by another (e.g., Zeus), making an action both pious and impious at the same time.

piety is what all the gods love unanimously

• Euthyphro's Modification: If all the gods agree to love something, it is pious.

• Socrates’ Refutation: This leads directly to the Euthyphro Dilemma.

euthyphro dilemma

"Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?"

1. Option A (Objectivism/Essentialism): The gods love something because it is inherently pious.

   • Problem: This implies that piety has its own independent standard of goodness that exists outside of the gods, meaning divine approval does not define what is right.

2. Option B (Divine Command Theory): Something is pious simply because the gods choose to love it.

   • Problem: This makes morality arbitrary. If the gods decided to love murder, murder would become pious.

Euthyphro agrees with Option A, which forces him to admit that his definition describes an attribute (a quality the gods respond to) rather than the essence of what piety actually is.

Piety is a specific branch of justice concerned with caring for or serving the gods.

Socrates’ Refutation: "Caring" for something usually means improving it (like a dog trainer cares for a dog). Humans cannot improve or benefit the gods. When Euthyphro changes "caring" to "serving" (like slaves serve masters), Socrates asks what great product or goal humans help the gods produce, which Euthyphro cannot answer.

piety is knowing how to pray and sacrifice

• Socrates’ Refutation: Sacrifice is giving to the gods, and prayer is asking from them. If the gods don't benefit from our gifts, our sacrifices simply "gratify" them—which loops the argument back to Definition 2 (piety is what is pleasing/loved by the gods).

meletus

primary accuser who brought formal charges against Socrates, claiming he corrupted the youth of Athens and impiety towards the gods.

euthyphro

athenian priest, self proclaimed expert in religion who encounters Socrates while prosecuting his father for murder, leading to a discussion on the nature of piety.

why did euthyphro convict his father

Euthyphro convicts his father for manslaughter because a laborer accidentally killed one of their household slaves, prompting his father to kill the laborer in a fit of rage, which Euthyphro believes was justified punishment.

E believed it was impious so he convicteh him

"Then according to your argument, my good Euthyphro, different gods consider different things to be just, beautiful, ugly, good, and bad... The same things then are loved by the gods and hated by the gods, and standard actions would be both god-loved and god-hated."

• Context: Euthyphro's second definition claimed that piety is "what is dear to the gods."

• Significance: Socrates uses traditional Homeric/Hesiodic mythology against Euthyphro. Because the Greek gods frequently fight over morals and decisions, an action loved by Zeus might be hated by Hera. Under this definition, an action would be both pious and impious at the exact same time—a logical contradiction.

"Tell me then, what is this form itself, so that I may look upon it and using it as a model... say that any action, performed by you or anyone else, which is like it, is pious, and any which is not like it, is impious."

• Context: Euthyphro's first definition of piety was simply listing his own action: prosecuting a wrongdoer.

• Significance: This is the foundational move of Socratic philosophy. Socrates establishes that a true definition cannot be a list of examples or actions. It must state the universal essence (eidos or form) that all pious actions share and that makes them pious.

"Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?"

• Euthyphro refined his definition to state that piety is what all the gods unanimously love. Socrates responds with this famous cross-examination question.

• Significance: This is the central philosophical thesis of the dialogue:

  • If actions are loved because they are pious, then piety exists independently of divine will, meaning morality has its own standards separate from the gods.

  • If actions are pious simply because the gods love them, then morality is arbitrary and depends entirely on the gods' whim

"It drives me to think, Euthyphro, that when you were asked what piety is, you did not wish to state its nature to me, but to tell me an affect or quality of it—that the pious has the quality of being loved by all the gods, but you have not yet told me what the pious is."

• Context: Euthyphro admits that the gods love pious actions because those actions are inherently pious (Option A of the dilemma).

• Significance: Socrates points out that saying "the gods love it" only describes a passive trait (an affect or attribute) of a pious action—it describes what happens to the action. It still fails to explain what the action actually is in its core essence.

"I am afraid, Socrates, that I do not know how to say what I think. For whatever proposition we put forward always goes around in a circle somehow, and will not stay where we put it."

• Context: After Socrates dismantling four different attempts to define piety, Euthyphro begins to feel overwhelmed and lost.

• Significance: This captures the state of aporia (philosophical helplessness/puzzlement). Euthyphro realizes his unexamined assumptions do not hold up under logical scrutiny, though rather than admitting ignorance, he ultimately makes an excuse and runs away.

the setting of the apology

399 BCE trial in Athens where Socrates defended himself against charges of impiety and corrupting the youth.

“The unexamined life is not worth living”

means the difference between merely existing and living human lifewith purpose, intentionality, and self-reflection. Socrates emphasizes the importance of critical self-examination and philosophical inquiry in achieving a meaningful life.

why is socrates on trial

for impiety and corrupting the youth by teaching the young men to question authority

what did the oracle of delphi say about socrates

that he was the wisest man in Athens, as he recognized his own ignorance.

The Soul and Virtue from the apology

• Virtue is Knowledge: Socrates argued that no one knowingly does evil; people do bad things because they mistakenly believe those actions will bring them good or happiness.

• Examining Beliefs Cleanses the Soul: When you examine your life, you scrutinize your concepts of justice, success, money, and love. If your beliefs are false (e.g., believing wealth brings happiness), your actions will lead to misery.

• Self-Knowledge as Remedy: By exposing your own ignorance, you correct false values, which directly improves the health of your soul.

The Meaning: Existence vs. Truly Living

• The Animal Standard: Animals act entirely on instinct, routine, and immediate desires without reflecting on why they do what they do.

• The Human Standard: Humans possess reason (logos). To live purely on autopilot—adopting the beliefs, morals, and routines of the society around you without questioning them—is to forfeit the very capacity that makes you human.

• The Verdict: A life guided entirely by unexamined habit, peer pressure, or tradition is reduced to passive existence. It is not "worth living" because it fails to fulfill its higher purpose.

Why It Was Dangerous to Athens in the apology for socrates tecahing

Athens was a direct democracy driven by public reputation, tradition, and political rhetoric. Socrates walked through the marketplace tearing apart the unexamined assumptions of politicians, poets, and craftsmen. By telling the jury that an unexamined life wasn't worth living, he was implicitly telling the judges and citizens of Athens that their lives were currently worthless because they lived on unexamined dogmas.

The Argument Against Old Prejudices & The Oracle at Delphi

• The Charge: Rumors claimed Socrates was a paid Sophist who made "the weaker argument defeat the stronger" and studied natural science to undermine traditional religion.

• Socrates' Defense: Socrates denies ever taking money or pretending to teach natural science. He explains that his reputation stems entirely from a mission given to him by the gods.

• The Delphic Oracle: When the Oracle at Delphi proclaimed that no man was wiser than Socrates, Socrates was baffled because he knew he possessed no special knowledge. To test the oracle, he interviewed politicians, poets, and craftsmen who were reputed to be wise.

• Core Conclusion (Socratic Ignorance): Socrates discovered that these "experts" thought they knew things they actually did not, whereas Socrates recognized his own ignorance. Human wisdom consists in recognizing that one's knowledge is limited.

The Defense Against Formal Charges (Cross-Examination of Meletus)

• Charge 1: Corrupting the Youth

  • Socrates' Argument: Meletus claims everyone in Athens improves the youth except Socrates. Using the Horse-Trainer Analogy, Socrates points out that in every domain, only specialized experts improve things, while the general public harms them if they try. It is logically absurd to claim the whole city improves young people while one man alone corrupts them.

  • Intentionality Paradox: Socrates argues that corrupting one's neighbors makes them harmful, which risks harm to oneself. No rational person intentionally creates neighbors who will harm them. Therefore, if he influences the youth poorly, it is unintentional, requiring private instruction—not a public criminal trial.

• Charge 2: Impiety (Atheism / Foreign Gods)

  • Socrates' Argument: Meletus claims Socrates is a complete atheist who believes the sun is stone and the moon is earth. However, the written indictment accuses Socrates of introducing "demonic/spiritual activities" (daimonia).

  • The Contradiction: Spirits (daimons) are either gods or the offspring of gods. One cannot believe in spiritual activities without believing in spirits, just as one cannot believe in mule-breeding without believing in horses and donkeys. Therefore, the indictment contradicts itself.

The Priority of Virtue Over Death

• Socrates' Argument: A good person should never weigh the risk of death against the imperative to do what is right. Fearing death is another form of false wisdom, as it assumes death is an evil when no human actually knows what follows it.

• Refusal to Compromise: Even if offered acquittal on the condition that he stop practicing philosophy, Socrates states he must obey the god rather than men. He will not abandon his mission to urge Athenians to care for their souls rather than wealth or status.

Arguments on Death and Afterlife

• To His Condemners: Executing critics will not escape accountability. More accusers will rise up to question their unexamined lives.

• To His Supporters: Death is not an evil, but a transition that falls into one of two possibilities:

  1. A Dreamless Sleep: Complete cessation of consciousness, which is peaceful and painless.

  2. A Journey to the Underworld: An opportunity to meet, question, and converse with ancient heroes, poets, and wise figures like Homer and Hesiod without fear of being put to death for asking questions.