Euthyphro Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Euthyphro - Essay Example In terms of religion, epistemology, ethics it is of crucial importance to define what piety is. We have further prove that it is the most relevant definition, because in accordance with the well-known philosopher Kierkegaard, the most precious role Christian religious play in our life is forgiveness. Thus, for humans it is very important to reach the highest degree of love, which can be given to humans by gods instead of prayer and a sacrifice. There is a constant arguing between Socrates and Euthyphro. At first, Socrates rejects an example of piety provided by Euthyphro (5d). The second definition of piety given by Euthyphro is also criticized by Socrates. Socrates in this dialogue is positioned as a patient polemist. Therefore, Socrates step by step claims that pious is pious, because it has certain reasons for that. Socrates makes an attempt to define piety himself. For this philosopher piety â€Å"is a species of the genius ‘justice’† (12d). Moreover, Socrates suggests finding a moral goodness in pious actions. At the same time he offers to differentiate between just and pious actions. On the one hand, it may sound weird and may seem to simplistic, when Euthyphro suggests the final and the best definition of piety. He introduces mutually beneficial relationships between gods and humans: people are providing gifts to gods and gods favor them in turn. The most beneficial notion made by Euthyphro is that gifts given to gods do not have a commercial basis. Gifts given to gods are honor, esteem and favor (15a). Consequently, this short dialogue written by Plato is a chain of ethical and logical concerns, which result in the final definition of piety. For the modern readers, it is very interesting to follow the idea of ancient philosophers and see a possible way of making judgments about complicated issues. The issue of piety is rather complicated, because it is hard to differentiate