Euthyphro is a reading that concerns a discussion between Euthyphro and Socrates. Both Euthyphro and Socrates are involved with the law, Euthyphro is a prosecutor and Socrates is a defendant for his respective case. Euthyphro is respected among many in the state, most importantly he is respected by those that are in power. He is a wise man, just like Socrates, except Socrates has more of open-minded view on issues which is why he is in court. Socrates believes in the Gods that the ancient Greek society worshiped, but he was a man that questioned things in an aim to find the ultimate truth. Euthyphro on the other hand did not question the way things worked, he just accepted them as they were.
As the discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro prevailed, Socrates believed that if he understood Euthyphro's wisdom then he had a greater chance in being victorious in his court case. More specifically Socrates was being targeted as unholy, and he wanted to understand from Euthyphro what the difference was between holy and unholy. Everytime Euthyphro would give Socrates an explanation of what the difference was, Socrates would always find a way to question his explanation. This is because Socrates wanted to comprehend what qualifies something as holy or unholy, not simply what is or isn't holy. Eventually, the best explanation that was said was that something is holy only because gets holy. Just like something can not be seen unless it gets seen first; ideas can not be true just because somebody said they are true. A quote that best represents this is when Socrates explains, "I mean that if something is coming to be so or is being affected , then it's not the case that it gets to be so because it's coming to be so, but that it's coming to be so because it gets to be so; nor that it gets affected because its being affected, but that it's being affected because it gets affected," (pg 21). This quote represents the meaning of the Euthyphro reading because it clearly cultivates Socrates's point of view that concepts can't just be holy or unholy.
Also Socrates made a great point that Euthyphro's views seemed to shift as the conversation between the two developed. Euthyphro was no longer dead set on his beliefs, but was switching back and forth of how to answer the questions that Socrates posed. For example Euthyphro said that prosecuting a criminal for murder or sacrilegious was holy, later changing his defition of being holy to having gratification to the Gods in order to pray to receive something from them too.
3 comments:
I read this text in an entirely different light.
Euthyphro had some beliefs that were different than Athenian society’s norm, and because of that, he felt “special”. Socrates seemed to know that Euthyphro lacked proper reasoning. He then role played with Euthyphro (pretending to be the “student”learning from the “master” as to what’s what in holy matters) . Instead of Socrates asking questions to learn something, I felt that he did this to teach Euthyphro. You don’t truly learn a lesson until you can provide support and reasons for why something is so, and that’s the lesson I think Socrates was displaying.
I agree with Paige. For the entire dialogue, Socrates spoke to Euthyphro respectfully, assuming that Euthyphro was his superior in wisdom, but the way I see it, Socrates was actually the superior. Socrates repeatedly questioned and dissected all of Euthyphro’s beliefs and theories, leaving Euthyphro speechless. I feel like Euthyphro had trouble accepting that Socrates was right in their discussion of how something is defined as holy or unholy, and his lack of a solid response to any of Socrates’ claims only made Socrates claims hold more water. Socrates clearly was the dominant one in the discussion.
Dear Paige and James, I must disagree with you wholly on this subject. I perceived that once Socrates realized that Euthyphro has no real justification for his actions, he patronized Euthyphro in every way. He began to ask him questions that only cornered Euthyphro each time. It was a sort-of mind game played on Euthyphro only to prove that Euthyphro can prove nothing. Socrates adopts a mocking and patronizing tone addressing Euthyphro, treating him with an ironic derision. Essentially, I'm purporting that perhaps initially Socrates was looking for an answer of what pious and impious, however, as a perceptive man he immediately understood that Euthyphro has no answer to his questions.
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