Euthyphro
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~9,050 words · 43 passages
Cite this work
- APAPlato. (n.d.). Euthyphro. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plato/euthyphro
- MLAPlato. Euthyphro. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plato/euthyphro.
- ChicagoPlato. Euthyphro. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/plato/euthyphro.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
On his way to the trial that will condemn him, Socrates asks a man who is prosecuting his own father what piety is. None of the five answers survives.
Context and history
The first of the four dialogues of Socrates' trial, and the source of a question theology has never finished chewing on: is the holy holy because the gods love it, or do the gods love it because it is holy? Posed here around 380 BC, it is still called the Euthyphro dilemma.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
SOCRATES: But what differences are there which cannot be thus decided, and which therefore make us angry and set us at enmity with one another? I dare say the answer does not occur to you at the moment, and therefore I will suggest that these enmities arise when the matters of difference are the just and unjust, good and evil, honourable and dishonourable. Are not these the points about which men differ, and about which when we are unable satisfactorily to decide our differences, you and I and all of us quarrel, when we do quarrel? (Compare Alcib.) EUTHYPHRO: Yes, Socrates, the nature of the differences about which we quarrel is such as you describe. SOCRATES: And the quarrels of the gods, noble Euthyphro, when they occur, are of a like nature? EUTHYPHRO: Certainly they are. SOCRATES: They have differences of opinion, as you say, about good and evil, just and unjust, honourable and dishonourable: there would have been no quarrels among them, if there had been no such differences--would there now? EUTHYPHRO: You are quite right. SOCRATES: Does not every man love that which he deems noble and just and good, and hate the opposite of them? EUTHYPHRO: Very true. SOCRATES: But, as you say, people regard the same things, some as just and others as unjust,--about these they dispute; and so there arise wars and fightings among them. EUTHYPHRO: Very true. SOCRATES: Then the same things are hated by the gods and loved by the gods, and are both hateful and dear to them? EUTHYPHRO: True. SOCRATES: And upon this view the same things, Euthyphro, will be pious and also impious? EUTHYPHRO: So I should suppose.…