The Ancient World (HUM 124 - UNC Asheville)/Texts/Euthyphro

Socrates and Euthyphro's views on Piety

In Euthyphro, Euthyphro defines Piety first as ‘the thing he is doing currently (prosecuting his own father), which he then justifies by saying that Zeus did something similar. Because this is not a real definition of piety, Socrates presses him more, and he is eventually given the answer: ‘what is dear to the Gods is pious, what is not is impious.’ Socrates makes the case that, since (as earlier established in the story) the Gods are all at odds with each other, infighting, surely all of the Gods cannot hold any single thing dear, because they all have differing opinions, which, logically, would make nothing pious, and that’s unacceptable. In the end, because Euthyphro refuses to change his definition of piety, despite the logical implications of his definition, he leaves Socrates without a solid answer of what piety is.

However, although Euthyphro is never able to enlighten Socrates, I believe that this passage tells much about Socrates’ own beliefs about what piety is. In one instance, he asks Euthyphro (through many elaborate questions) whether everything just is pious, or whether everything pious is just. It’s obvious to the reader that Socrates is leaning towards piety being an aspect of justice, and that piety belongs only in areas of the law that specifically concern the Gods, and that it does not really make sense to claim to be pious because you are (for example) prosecuting your own father for indirectly killing a murderer.

In conclusion, although very little was to be learned from Euthyphro himself due to his inability to accept that his views may not have been as solid as he originally thought, Socrates illustrated his views on the matter of piety quite well.