Plato's Euthyphro is a complex work that was carefully writ

A detailed Summary of Plato's Euthyphro is a complex work that was carefully writ

Plato's Euthyphro is a complex work that was carefully written and carefully crafted to present and consider a series of arguments, as well as to force its reader to consider broader issues that are not explicitly brought to their attention in the dialogue of the text. These broader issues are brought to the attention of the reader through specific arguments made by Socrates against definitions given by Euthyphro in that, the thought process necessary to follow the dialogue brings to light questions that are entirely relevant and yet left unanswered. One such issue is the role God plays in mans knowledge of the pious. Plato never states outright, but instead allows the reader to reach on their own the conclusion that: man as an individual does not need God to determine what is holy, rather it is when mankind comes together in society that God becomes necessary as a standard against which man can judge one another. To be able to elicit such a response from the reader, Plato has to guide the logic process until such time as it is possible for the reader to continue the process on to its conclusion.

Plato begins the reader on this path at the point when Socrates is able to convince Euthyphro to agree with his statement that "

It is logical then that society needs the ability to know what the gods find pious and impious through some sort of tradition which claims to reveal the gods thoughts, such as a bible or an oracle. This leaves open the problems that come with interpretation, which is a problem any time someone receives information secondhand. While it is necessary for man to have such traditions, especially when living in society, the disagreement over what the true word of God actually is, is enough to cause problems almost as big as if there were no gods at all.

While it is true that men as individuals do not need the gods to judge for them what is pious, men tend to live in society, which by its very nature places limits on the abilities of the individual. Society is many individuals who sacrifice a small part of their freedoms in order to gain the benefits of group effort. If every man in society were to decide for himself what was pious, there would necessarily be many different ideas of pious. Socrates points out that those things, which for him determine piety, are also those things which cause men to have disagreements. So it follows that a society with many different ideas of piety would have many disagreements. The way in which society has dealt with this problem is to turn to the gods to act as a standard against which men can be judged. Gods are believed to be somehow better than mankind, and beyond human reproach. Men alone would not be able to agree for very long on such a vague concept, because they are able to disagree. When the question of piety is left to the gods to decide, it is not the place of man to question what the gods say. This allows the society to construct rules and to have a criterion upon which to judge all men equally. It is not necessary for men as individuals to have gods to tell them what is pious and what is not, but it is necessary for men living together in society to have that standard to compare everyone to. Plato gives evidence that this is the case through the charges against Socrates. Socrates has decided to determine for himself what the pious is and what characteristics make up the pious, and as a result he is being prosecuted by the city because he is part of society and is expected to abide by societies idea of what the pious is, which is represented by the gods.

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Approximate Word count = 1655
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History