The whole thing with Plato, despite him having his own philosophy, is that he was our main conduit into who Socrates was. In many ways, Socrates was the reason for his philosophy, so we often quote Plato when we are quoting Socrates.
"Euthyphro" is a short dialog between Socrates and a man named Euthyphro. Euthyphro is about to prosecute his father for murdering his slave who also murdered someone else. Socrates is about to be prosecuted himself for the corruption of his people by way of teaching his philosophy. (The latter ultimately leads to his death sentence.)
After some small talk, Socrates asks Euthyphro as to the definition of piety and impiety. This leads to a very lengthy and quite involved conversation where no matter what Euthyphro answers, Socrates finds errors in his reasoning. He does this very politely.
An example of this would be that Euthyphro says that Piety represents what all the gods love. But then Socrates points out that their gods don't seem to agree with one another, so how can that be the definition if it is impossible for all the gods to agree with one particular thing. It keeps going from there in something of a roller coaster of rhetoric.
Some parts of the dialog are actually confusing to read. Socrates sometimes struggles to make his point clear, since sometimes rhetoric can get a little tangled. Logic and reasoning is a tough thing to deal with sometimes, and we have all had those moments where we might prefer to just give up than deal with it. We do so at our own peril, though. It could lead us to chose what we want to think rather than actually discover what is there. This is why I am annoyed philosophy is not really taught in schools anymore outside of an elective.
Crazy enough, Socrates never gets his definition, but the journey to find it was amazing. It shows how some pre-conceived notions are perhaps just that, and we may be clinging to a falsehood by accident... or also possibly through laziness.
I recommend "Euthyphro" to those who are interested in the philosophy of Socrates. It's not for everyone, I guess, but then that was kind of the point of his work. It was all about taking an interest in things rather than just substituting them for your own convenient and quick ideals. Great stuff!
This blog was written on September 11, 2026.
Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, why not leave a comment below? I'd love to hear what you think. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ
Check out my books! Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment