Socrates can be justly named the father of Western philosophy and as a consequence of the science itself. Even given that we have no factual evidence, except literary sources, of his existence at all, he still is regarded as one of the greatest if not the greatest philosopher in the history of Western thought. He is given such credits not without a reason. Despite his claim that he only knows that he knows nothing when reading his dialogs written by Plato, his most notable disciple, I got stunned and impressed with his wisdom and insight.
In Euthyphro, the story begins with Socrates meeting Euthyphro in court. Socrates is accused of spoiling young minds and not respecting the gods while Euthyphro is the prosecutor who charges his father for an unjust murder. They start a dialogue, and as Euthyphro is boasting about his great wisdom and piety, Socrates wants to find what this piety, that Euthyphro is talking about, is. As the discussion proceeds, Euthyphro gets more and more discouraged about his inability to define piety properly. Socrates pushes him further and further, and when Euthyphro finds that he's got nothing to say, he flees on the excuse of some urgent business.
Although the whole discourse between Socrates and Euthyphro is rather informative and entertaining, I can mark out two moments which I find the most important and which I liked the most. The first is when Socrates shows to Euthyphro that the gods in which the latter believes are not much different from us, humans. After Euthyphro’s response that piety is what the gods love, Socrates explains that gods have different tastes and, therefore, what some gods love, others despise. In this light, the same things become both pious and not pious. This transition has very important consequences. It concludes that, in essence, there is nothing supernatural in our ethics and morals. If the gods are the same as people, there is indeed no difference between their and our feelings. And consequently, our morals originate not from gods but man.
The second situation which I would like to focus on is when Socrates shows Euthyphro that the love of the gods cannot define piety. He argues that there should be something essential in the piety for what it is loved by the gods. As Socrates spells it “then the god-loved is not the same as pious, Euthyphro, nor the pious the same as the god-loved, as you say it is, but one differs from the other” (10). Euthyphro's inability to answer this question is also vital to the whole story. It signifies that Socrates asked about piety, not without a reason. Using his mild and insightful approach, he tries to explore Euthyphro's understanding of this term but, in the end, we come to a conclusion that Euthyphro does not have a deep understanding of this concept. In my opinion, Socrates from the very beginning understood that piety cannot be regarded as a genuine virtue on par with prudence or integrity. However, the most important conclusion that can be made from the story I think is that we should not rely on any supernatural entities in our life, especially moral part of it but care for ourselves and take full responsibility for our actions. Moreover, in my opinion, this is why Socrates was this skeptical about Euthyphro’s belief and devotion to gods. Socrates was a highly developed individual and came to an understanding that what humans should be bothered about are not the gods but their own lives. And that the laws according to which societies function are not the gifts of the gods but come from human hands.
Then, the conclusions drawn from the dialog between Socrates and Euthyphro can be summed up. First of all, Socrates shows that the gods which Euthyphro treasures so much are not much different from people. They too differ in their opinions about justice, they have the same feelings and the same problems meaning that their laws are not different from ours. And, secondly, he implies that hence the laws and ethics of people and gods are the same, we should not stand beside supernatural entities when deciding the rules which will guide our lives but take full responsibility for them and live righteous lives in our human realm.
References
Socrates. “Euthyphro”.
