Phil 170 - Soctrates

Monica Lis-Planells

09-09-17

PHIL 170

Mr. Matt

Socrates paper

Introduction

        In the Euthyphro, Socrates asks Euthyphro what is the meaning of piety and moreover, what are the criteria to see what acts are considered pious.  In this essay I will demonstrate that together the subjective and the objective arguments hold more validity than by themselves.

Analysis

        “Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?” (Plato, 11).  The question Socrates poses on to Euthyphro is a very complicated one because it is not a simple yes or no answer.  There are parts hidden within this question that need to be cleared up before it is answered.  

        For one, what are the main reasons why Socrates even asks this in the first place?  Socrates is accused of being impious and is soon heading to trial where he meets Euthyphro who is accusing his father of murder (Plato, 4).  Socrates is astonished at how wise Euthyphro is and can over see what is right in a difficult situation (Plato, 5).  He then uses this opportunity to ask what pious means or to get a basis of its guidelines, its eidos.  To have that knowledge, Socrates can then use it for himself while he is on trial to have a better argument as to why he is not impious.  Also, to teach others to be pious since Socrates believes that to live a well life, an eudaimonia, you have to reach the best state of your soul and in order to do that you have to live virtuously (Plato, 32-33).  

        To live virtuously, you had to live within the 5 pillars: temperance, piety, courage, wisdom, and justice.  Socrates believed that these pillars were all intertwined together, that one cannot be there without the other.  So to be wise you need to be courageous, to make the right decision, and so forth; they are the core skills to live well (Plato, 32-33).  Socrates also believed that no one ever does wrong knowingly (Plato, 28-29).  He wants to find what pious means through this type of dialogue to teach others to think for themselves and if he knows its eidos he can better help others reach their own best state of their soul (Plato, 5, 28-31).

Critical Evaluation

        Looking at the question itself, there are two options to believe: “is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious,” and “is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?” (Plato, 11).  Each part demonstrates a different belief of what pious means and what are the criteria.  Another way to view this question is either morality exists independently of the gods or their morality is arbitrary.  Viewing the question like this makes it less complicated and a bit easier to reach an answer.  The only problem is that it is hard to determine or explain a good answer when the higher power has multiple personalities, for example, the gods.  A better way is to change this question to a modern time belief, for example Catholicism which only has one God.  So, is it good because God approves of it or does God approve of it because it is good?  Now it is easier to see the subjective versus the objective arguments in this question.

          The subjective approach is an interesting one whether or not the subject in the question is one or more deities.  For something to be good it would have to rely on the attitudes of the gods.  It would be relative to what they deem good and, knowing the gods, they would never agree on just one thing.  Not only that but the gods might agree on killing someone then would have agree as well.  This is where this argument ultimately falls, nothing can be true if it is based solely on someone’s attitude towards a situation.  This does not give an underline guideline for what piety is, even if you relate it to one God.  With one God as the subject it is easier to relay on His attitude toward situations but then it would make it seem that morality is based on something higher than God.  

        Now for the objective claim, which is also highly interesting way to see things.  Again there is the problem of too many attitudes to consider so it is better to relate this with one God and then bring it back to many gods.  Does Gods approval make something good?  In essence, yes. God created all things good, the only reason why there is evil because God created us with free will and gave us the chance to choose wrong or right.  With this idea it makes it seem that we do not need God in order to choose right or wrong, but we stumble across another problem.  If we do not need a higher powers approval of what is good then how do we know what is truly good?  Or, if God says killing is right but we know it is wrong then who is the morally just?  The higher power or us mere mortals?  This perception causes us to believe that a situations morality comes from something higher than God since He is not the source of that morality.  In this case of many gods, it is the same, it is saying we do not need the gods intuition to decide if something is pious or not and it is not from the gods it is higher than the gods.

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