Euthyphro: Difference between revisions

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'''''Euthyphro''''' is one of [[Plato]]'s known early dialogues.

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Shortly before the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[philosopher]] [[Socrates]] is due to appear in court, he encounters a young man, [[Euthyphro]], who has gained the reputation of being a [[religious]] expert. Euthyphro has come to lay a series of charges against his father, that of [[murder]], as his father had allowed one of his workers to die without proper care and attention. The worker had killed a slave belonging to the family estate on the island of [[Naxos]], and while Euthyphro's father waited to hear from the authorities how to proceed the man died bound and gagged in a ditch. Socrates expresses his astonishment at the confidence of a young man able to take his own father to court on such a serious charge. In what may be perceived as a [[tongue in cheek]] fashion, Socrates states that Euthyphro obviously has a clear understanding of what is [[pious]] and impious. Since Socrates himself is facing a charge of impiety, by worshipping [[deity|gods]] not approved by the state, and is unclear what holiness is, he hopes to learn from Euthyphro.

Euthyphro claims that what lies behind the charge brought against Socrates by [[Meletus]] and the other accusers is Socrates's claim that he is subjected to a [[daimon]] or divine sign which warns him of various courses of action. Euthyphro is right; such a claim would be regarded with suspicion by many Athenians. So too would Socrates's views on some of the stories about the Greek gods, which the two men briefly discuss before plunging into the argument. Socrates expresses reservations about those accounts which show up the gods' cruelty. He mentions the castration of