Dr. Ari Santas’
Euthyphro Exercise
Background:Socrates and Euthyphro meet at the steps of the city court. Socrates has been indicted on two charges: 1) impiety (unholiness); 2) corruption of the youth. Euthyphro is prosecuting his father for murder. Socrates, like everyone else, is shocked and wonders how Euthyphro can be so sure of himself. Euthyphro say he knows he’s right and acting piously (in a holy manner) because he has accurate knowledge of these things. Socrates asks him in that case to teach him about piety (holiness). The rest of the dialogue is an investigation of “What is piety (holiness)”?
The dialogue is famous for at least three things: 1) illustrating Socrates’ preoccupations with definitions; 2) discussing the relation between morality and religion; and 3) introducing the style of questioning known as Socratic Method.
As they attempt to define piety/holiness, they come to a number of definitions, ultimately rejecting each of them. One can outline Euthyphro’s attempts into four formulations:
1) piety/holiness is doing what I’m doing now: prosecuting a wrongdoer
2) piety/holiness is what the gods love; impiety is what the gods hate
3) piety/holiness is what all the gods love; impiety is what all the gods hate
4) piety/holiness is a part of moral rightness/justice--the part that attends to the gods
Phase 1: [in groups, dividing the labor (#1 can be done together, and the groups can do #’s 2-4)]
Discuss the assigned definition, explaining what is meant by it, what critical questions Socrates asks of Euthyphro, and what they find wrong with the attempt.
Phase 2: [combing groups]
Share your findings and answer the following questions:
- What does the discussion tell us about piety/holiness?
- What does the discussion tell us about good definitions?
- What does it tell us about Socratic Method and why it might have gotten him in trouble?