A Critique of Plato's Soul

History of Philosophy 350.001

Fall 2008

A Critique of Plato’s Euthyphro

Micha Woods

The purpose of this research is to examine the Euthyphro dialogue by Plato. I will first explicate the definitions offered by Euthyphro and address the refutations by Socrates. I will also present better classifications for piety and impious.

When Socrates runs into Euthyphro at court and understands that he is prosecuting his own father for murder, Socrates is not convinced that he is acting pious. So, Socrates asks Euthyphro to teach him of piety and impiety, so he can see if Euthyphro is indeed doing a pious act. Before analyzing the definition brought fourth by Euthyphro and shut down by Socrates we must first understand the background of these men and how that influenced their ideas. Socrates and Euthyphro are both at court for preliminary hearings before trial.

As previously stated, Euthyphro is prosecuting his own father for murder. However, his father did not actually kill another man. In fact, he captured a man and while Euthyphro’s father was awaiting the arrival of the authorities, the man died because Euthyphro’s father did not give him proper care. Socrates was astonished to hear that someone would take their own father to court for such a thing and consequently believes that Euthyphro has a clear understanding of pious and impious. After all turning against your father is similar to one turning against their own religion, which is why the argument becomes centralized over piety. After hearing this, Socrates believes that it will be beneficial towards him to hear Euthyphro’s beliefs on piety, because he too is being charged of impiety along with corrupting the youth through Sophist teachings. He also faces older charges of being a cosmologist.

Socrates inductive reasoning can be seen in majority of the dialogue. It is evident that Socrates is looking for a definition that will be universally accepted as true. Since Socrates...