Euthyphro_and_Socrates

Euthyphro and Socrates Socrates’ Opposition of Euthyphro’s First and Third Suggestion Euthyphro’s first and third suggestion on the form of piety poses a problem for Socrates. A form is something that distinguishes one thing from another; piousness just like anything else has a form. In Socrates’ debate with Euthyphro, he looks for the form of piety, something that can separate pious from impious actions. Socrates is a Natural Law Theorist, laws regarding what is and what is ought to be; he wants some feature of piety that will allow him to pick out pious acts, that is not shared by impious acts, and that makes the action in question pious. Euthyphro has difficulty defining what is pious and what is not because, as it becomes clear from the whole discussion with Socrates, he does not have a clear idea of what it is himself, although he claims to do so. In his first suggestion on the nature of piety, he presents the case of a certain group of individuals, particularly lawmen, to which he also belongs. For them, Euthyphro claims, it would be pious, or holy, to prosecute “wrongdoers or those guilty of any other offense…be they pious, gods, piety, something, socrates, form, euthyphro’s, because, socrates’, euthyphro, actions, things, impious, first, while, love, just, holy, example, argument, suggestion, nature, clear, about, one, know, humans, clearly, case, being, wrong, way, vs, unjust, unholy, thus, third, theory, sort, since, show, right, question, piousness, people, out, law, ice, explanation, everything