Euthyphro Dilemma: Socrates' Introspection on Piety and Ethics

This essay provides an introspection into Plato's Euthyphro, focusing on the dialogues between Socrates and Euthyphro regarding the definition of piety. The essay explores the core arguments and dilemmas presented, including Euthyphro's various definitions of piety and Socrates' counter-argument...Read More

Running head: EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: AN INTROSPECTION
EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: AN INTROSPECTION
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: AN INTROSPECTION
Euthyphro, authored by Plato, is a series of dialogues and dilemmas, platformed over
dialectics that was conversed during the previous week of Socretes’ trial, questioning the philosophy
behind piety and justice (Miller). The series of questions were asked by Socretes to Euthypro (the
prophet), at the court of the Magistrate of Greece, namely Archon Basileus, where he was about to be
executed on the charge of impiety.
The definition of piety or rather holiness by Euthyphro has been subject to arguments,
criticism and controversy. He had given three definitions of piety to Socrates, which were countered
by Socrates with cross-questions and arguments, therefore, bringing out his inner dilemma related to
morality, ethics and theology.
The first definition that was uttered by Euthyphro regarding piety was that Euthyphro’s
conduct that he considered was correct, which was executing his father who was captured with the
charge of murder. He justifies his argument by saying that Since Euthyphro’s father had committed
an impious act of homicide which polluted his whole family, it was his moral and ethical duty to
execute his father and purge his misdeed. The second definition which Euthyphro gave was that piety
or piousness was a concept that was pleasing to gods. However, despite of appreciating Euthyphro
for the mentioned definition, he counters his definition by saying that gods sometimes dispute among
themselves in regarding what was pleasant for them and what not, which deduced the idea that an
act, which is disputed between gods, might be considered both pious and impious, which sounded a
little ambiguous and logically unreasonable (Misselbrook). According to Euthyphro, even the gods
might not disagree about an action being pious or impious if the action is not rationalised. Socrates
argues by uttering the dilemma in him, which was the magnitude of justification that existed in an
action which was debatable to gods, therefore, there would arise a dilemma between pious and
impious action. The third definition of piety noted by Euthyphro was that what all gods loved were

EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: AN INTROSPECTION
pious deeds and what all gods hated were impious deeds (Johnson). The third definition and the
counter definition is considered to be the most important and controversial in the context of the
history of philosophy of the western world. The argument of Socrates against the third definition of
Euthyphro was that weather the act or being of piety was loved by gods since it was a being of piety
or weather the act was pious since it was loved by gods. The respective argument put forward by
Euthyphro is popularly termed as Euthyphro dilemma, as it brings out the juxtaposition of
conventions, morality and ethics in the mind of Socrates. The reason he provides for the ambiguity
in his question was that, a thing or an act, that was beloved by any external being, becomes beloved
by the external factors initiated by the external being and not by the inherent characteristics.
Therefore, deducing the idea that any being or act that is beloved by the gods cannot be termed as
pious (Quinn).
As the dialogues proceed, Socrates proposes an arbitrary definition of piety, terming that
piety could be termed as a species of a particular genus named Justice. He argues with his own
definition by stating that, it is generally believed that all actions that are pious are just, but actually,
all just actions might not be pious (Holbo). Euthyphro’s final definition regarding piousness was that
“piety might be called an art or a skill of sacrifice and prayer”, connecting piety with knowledge of
worship- the methods to pray to god in need, perform various sacrifices to please them and
demanding favour in return from them. However, Socrates, in argument of the mentioned concept,
deduces that the gift between a man and a deity would not be tangible, rather abstract concepts, such
as bravery, virtues and valour (Benson).
Socrates objects the third definition of piety by Euthyphro, that is popularly termed as
Euthyphro dilemma which gives a glimpse of ideals of monotheism (Al-Attar), because he declares
that it is considered to be an attribute or trait of “piety” if approval of god is considered unanimous.
He rejected the idea that approval of divinity is a basic characteristics of piety. The ethos of piety is

EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: AN INTROSPECTION
not defined or approved by the approval of the divinity, therefore approval of the divinity cannot be
termed as a definition of piety universally considered.
Yes, Socrates’ questioning of Euthyphro provide us with evidence of his divine mission to
Athens. In the name of hollow morals, ethics and pious code of conduct, the Grecian society was
engulfed by corrupted statesmen leading to a decaying democracy. The most customary reason of
Socrates’ divine mission of Athens, due to which he was charged of impiety, was to transform
Athens and Athenians into rational beings (Misselbrook). Yes, I think Socrates questioning of the
citizens of Athens benefitted them. The only aim of Socrates’ quest of morals and ethics was making
the citizens highly politically, socially and philosophically aware and instil them with intellect which
would give rise to a better form of democracy. Such was the reason why he challenged the
conventional notion of Grecian ethics and morality. Being a keen student of philosophy, I find that
though Socrates was not an atheist, yet he challenged the Divine Command Theory in a dialectical
approach, decrypting a universal thought into an objective thought by stating the position of pious
deeds and impious ones, questioning the Grecian theocratic blindness and fundamentalism
(Wainwright). As he stated “whatever is beloved by gods are not pious”, it is evident that he stood
against the irrationality of religious behaviour exhibited during that time in the society.

EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA: AN INTROSPECTION
References :
Al-Attar, Mariam. "Metaphysics of divine command theory." The Routledge Companion to Islamic
Philosophy (2015): 315.
Benson, Hugh H. "What Should Euthyphro Do?." History of Philosophy Quarterly 30.2 (2013): 115-
146.
Holbo, John. Reason and Persuasion: Three Dialogues By Plato: Euthyphro, Meno, Republic Book I.
John Holbo, 2016.
Johnson, David. "11 The rational religion of Xenophon’s Socrates." Resemblance and Reality in
Greek Thought: Essays in Honor of Peter M. Smith (2016): 176.
Miller, Christian. "The Euthyphro dilemma." The Blackwell international encyclopedia of ethics.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing (2013).
Misselbrook, David. "The Euthyphro dilemma." Br J Gen Pract 63.610 (2013): 263-263.
Quinn, Philip L. "Divine command theory." The Blackwell guide to ethical theory (2013): 81-102.
Wainwright, William J. "The Euthyphro Problem." Religion and Morality. Routledge, 2017. 85-95.