Summary of Plato’s Euthyphro

Summary of Plato's Euthyphro

Socrates encounters Euthyphro outside the court of King-Archon in Athens and is asked why he is there. Socrates proceeds to tell Euthyphro that he has been called to court on charges of impiety by Meletus. Euthyphro asks Socrates how Meletus came to his accusation. Socrates tell Euthyphro that Meletus accuses him of corrupting the youth of Athens by being a maker of gods and that he invents new gods while denying the existence of the old ones. Euthyphro tells Socrates that he understands what he is saying and tries to reiterate. Euthyphro says that Meletus believes that Socrates is a heretic and is attacking him for saying that the divine sign keeps coming to him. Euthyphro then says, the people of the court are easily persuaded what to believe when the case revolves around ethics and religion, as is the same in his case.

Socrates asks Euthyphro whether he is the defendant or the prosecutor in his case. Euthyphro replies, that he has come to prosecute his own father, for having unintentionally killed a murderous hired hand. The servant was bound and thrown into a ditch by the command of Euthyphro's father, who sent a messenger to ask the priest what should be done with him. Before the messenger came back, the criminal had died from hunger and exposure. Euthyphro continues on to say that his father and family are angry at him for bring about this prosecution. They say, "It is impious for a son to prosecute his own father for murder."(Bonjour, Laurence & Baker, Ann. Philosophical Problems: An Annotated Anthology. New York: Pearson, 2005). Euthyphro continues, that just goes to show how little they know what the gods think about piety and impiety. Socrates flatters Euthyphro, suggesting that Euthyphro must be a great expert in religious matters if he is willing to prosecute his own father on so questionable a charge. Euthyphro concurs that he does indeed know all there is to be known about what is holy. Socrates urges Euthyphro to instruct him and to teach him what holiness is, since Euthyphro's teachings might help Socrates in his trial against Meletus. Socrates now asks, what then is piety and impiety?

Euthyphro replies: That piety is doing as I do, prosecuting your father on a charge of murder; doing as the gods do; as Zeus did to his father, and as his father did to his father. Socrates is not satisfied with this answer and asks for a more precise answer. He does not want examples of what is pious and impious, rather a general explanation of what makes all pious things to be pious. Socrates asks Euthyphro for a second time: What is piety? He tells Socrates that piety, then, is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them. Socrates accepts this answer, with the requirement, that Euthyphro will be able to back his conclusion with truthful premises. Socrates then challenges Euthyphro's meaning of piety, by asking him if he finds true, that the gods have differences of opinion, especially about good and evil. Euthyphro agrees with Socrates, that the gods must have differences of opinions in regard to what is pious and impious.

Euthyphro answers, there would be no difference of opinion among the gods as to the propriety of punishing a murderer. Socrates then pushes Euthyphro a little further and says that the gods would agree with one another only if they knew the man to be a murderer. But, if all the circumstances of the case are considered, are you able to show that your father was guilty of murder, or that all the gods are agreed in approving of our prosecution of him? Socrates proposes to amend the definition of piety, and say that, what all the gods love is pious, and what they all hate is impious. Euthyphro agrees to this new definition.

Socrates begins to examine this new definition. He shows that in other cases, the act precedes the state; e.g. something being led and something leading, and something being loved and something loving. Therefore, "is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious