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The Euthyphro Dialogue, Summary
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This short summary is my own, pre-exam summarization of the quandary and analyzations of the subsequent dilemma featured in The Euthyphro Dialogue.
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EuthyphroSetting the scene:
- Socrates is going to see his accuser on the charge of impiety, corrupting the youth with his
teachings – with which he is accused of creating a sort of idolatry and ‘creating false
gods’. On the way he meets Euthyphro who claims to boast a set of prophetic powers,
with which Socrates treats with heavy irony throughout their interactions.
- Euthyphro speaks of the prosecution of his father, who is on trial for murdering a young
slave. Euthyphro himself is the accuser which has caused controversy as it is considered
morally controversial for a son to be bringing a criminal charge against his own father.
- It is this controversy which segues the conversation into the crux of the philosophical
debate between himself and Socrates.
Definition 1
- Socrates presses Euthyphro on the matter of piety and his personal definition of it.
- Euthyphro first claims that piety is simply about justice, bringing justice against those
who do wrong – as in the case of his father.
‘The pious is to do what I am doing now, to prosecute the wrongdoer, be it about murder or
temple robbery or anything else, whether the wrongdoer is your father or your mother or
anyone else; not to prosecute is impious,’
- Euthyphro makes a comparison between himself and Zeus who castrated his father.
Plainly though, this is not a definition. It confuses the extension of the concept ‘piety’ with its
intension. It gives an example of something that Euthyphro believes is an example of piety
but an example is not a definition. A definition must be explanatory.
In Socrates’ terms, they must provide the one ‘form’ or ‘model ’which makes all pious actions
– pious. A characterisation which may be universally applied.
Definition 2
‘What is dear to [loved by] the gods is pious, what is not is impious,’
- Socrates reminds Euthyphro of the differences in what each god loves and hates, at least
in moral and aesthetic matters.
- The elenchus (logical refutation) then is that on Euthyphro’s definition, action x would be
both pious and impious.
- So this definition generates a clear contradiction, meaning that it must then be false.
- Socrates is concessive in this regard and for the sake of argument, imagines that the gods
agree on what they love. He believes he can refute Euthyphro anyway.
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