What follows is my own summation of Plato's Dialogue, Euthyphro.
[Socrates] Hello Euthyphro. What are you up to today?
[Euthyphro] My father killed a man. I’m prosecuting him because it's the pious thing to do.
You must have exact
knowledge of piety to be sure enough to prosecute your father.
Yes indeed, I certainly do.
Tell me then, Euthyphro, what is the pious and what is the impious?
Def. #1. What is pious is what I am
doing now, namely, prosecuting my father.
But this won’t do. I want
not examples of piety but the form of piety. What makes something pious? What
do pious things have in common by virtue of which they are pious?
Def. #2. What is loved by the gods
is pious and what is not is impious.
But don’t the gods quarrel about what is just or unjust, good or bad?
Yes, I suppose.
Then some things will be both pious
and impious. This definition won’t do.
Def. #3. The pious is what all the
gods love and the impious what they all hate.
Is the pious loved by the gods because it’s pious or is it pious because it’s loved by the gods?
It is
loved by the gods because it’s pious.
Then what is loved by the gods is not the same as the pious.
Def. #4. The pious is a part of
justice. It’s the part pertaining to care for the gods.
But we cannot possibly benefit them.
Yes, but I mean making sacrifices
etc.
Does that benefit them?
No, but they love it.
Then have we not returned to the
earlier definition, then?
Let’s talk some other time
Socrates.
End
