Lilit Israelyan Essays - Philosophy, Ancient Greek Philosophy

Lilit Israelyan Prof. Tevanyan RS 361 15 September 17 Euthyphro The book revolves around the discussion about the true meaning of piety or the manner of living that human beings should adopt to fulfill their responsibility to God and humanity. The literar y work is built around a philosophical dilemma. The work is in the f or m of a dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro. Both the characters meet at the Athenian court. Euthyphro and Socrates are the main characters of the dialogue that are discussing the ethical dilemma. Socrates is charged with the crime to corrupt the youth and Euthyphro has indicted his father to mistakenly kill a laborer who killed another person. T he answer to the question "what is piety?" is of utmost importance for Socrates as he will be charged with impiety in the court. In order to solve his dilemma , he asked the question to Euthyphro . The dilemma is that the good is loved by the God because it is good or it is good because God s ays it is good . Euthyphro gave a number of quick answers to the question but upon inquiry , it was revealed that none of the answer s w ere satisfactory and each had some flaws. One of the answer s given by Euthyphro was that anything that is dear to God is pious. Here the issue arises that is anything dear to one God or all of the Gods is pious? Then the next statement was that piety is anything that is dear to all of the Gods. In this case , if murder is considered as a crime that is condemned by all the Gods then the motive and the circumstances may change the statement again. Then Socrates also asked him if the people who are pious are also just. Euthyphro answered yes. The statement was again flawed as there are many pious people who are not just. After all the answers Socrates identified that none of the answer s w ere completely satisfactory and could not fully solve the dilemma. After the whole discussion was complete Socrates again asked Euthyphro that he still does not understand what piety is. The dialogue between the main characters of the book closes at the end without any concrete answer to the question. Socrates asked Euthyphro to further explore the answer to the dilemma. Euthyphro ' s theories and arguments were capable to explain the quality of piety but the very nature of pious was still questionable. One cannot find the exact answer to the dilemma from the dialogue as it ends without any specific conclusion. The dialogue aims to identify that the true purpose of philosophy is not to give the right answers for the dilemmas but to question the already given answers and statements generally believed by the world. Socrates was accused of spreading the false concepts and ideas among the youth that corrupts them. The dialogue presented two contrasting views about the religion. One opinion was held by Euthyphro. He believed in the supernatural power of God and stories about their activities. The other belief was that of Socrates who questioned the stories and other religious concepts. He did not literally believe the tales about their activities. The dialo g ue aims to raise questions about the true nature of piety. Socrates believed that religion and moral values were completely linked and it is not dependent on the op in ions of humanity. Socrates disapproved the beliefs of sophists like Euthyphro who considered that morality was linked with the wishes of the people who developed them in the past. It is generally accepted that every individual has the right to think as he or she pleases but the problem arises when someone tries to forcefully persuade others to accept his concepts or doctrines. Based on this supposition Socrates cannot be accused of any crime as he does not claim that his ideas are perfect and everyone should strictly believe them. He just acts as an inquirer and forces people to think about their life and its complexities. The dialogue also i dentifies that the definition of piety is not that simple as claimed by