Resumen
Resumen de Euthyphro
Para quién es
For anyone who wants a first taste of Socratic questioning, or who wonders whether right and wrong depend on God or on something deeper.
De qué trata este libro
Euthyphro is a short dialogue by Plato, written in the early fourth century BC, a few years after the trial and death of his teacher Socrates. It has two speakers and one place, the porch of the King Archon in Athens, where legal cases about religion were first heard. Socrates is there because a young man named Meletus has charged him with impiety. By chance he meets Euthyphro, a confident religious expert who has come to prosecute his own father for a death.
That odd meeting sets up a simple question that Socrates asks again and again: what is piety? Along the way you get a lesson in how to test a definition, a puzzle about gods and goodness that philosophers still argue over, and a sharp portrait of a man who is sure he knows what he does not. The dialogue is short and easy to follow. Let us begin with the strange case that brings Euthyphro to court.
En este resumen
- 1A son prosecutes his own fatherFree
- 2Examples are not a definition
- 3What the gods love, and why they disagree
- 4Is the holy loved because it is holy?
- 5Piety as part of justice and as service
- 6What the dialogue teaches, and how it has lasted
Idea clave 1 de 6
A son prosecutes his own father
The dialogue opens with surprise. Euthyphro asks why Socrates, who spends his days in the Lyceum, is hanging about the King Archon's porch. Socrates explains that Meletus has indicted him for impiety, and that he is accused of inventing new gods and corrupting the young. Then he asks Euthyphro about his own business there.
Euthyphro's answer is shocking to anyone who hears it. He is prosecuting his father for murder. The story is this. A hired worker on the family farm on the island of Naxos got drunk and killed one of the household slaves. Euthyphro's father tied the man up, threw him in a ditch, and sent to Athens to ask a religious interpreter what to do. By the time the answer came, the worker had died of cold and hunger.
Euthyphro's family thinks he is mad. They say a son should never prosecute his father, and that the dead man was a killer and a stranger anyway. Euthyphro replies that they know nothing about what the gods require. He says that pollution from a killing spreads to everyone who shares a table with the killer, whoever the victim was.
Socrates seizes on this confidence. A man who acts so boldly against custom must be very sure that he understands holy and unholy things. Socrates asks to become his pupil, and adds with some humor that this would help his own defense against Meletus. The stage is set for a test of that claim, and the test will not go the way Euthyphro expects.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Who’s who
- Socrates
- An Athenian philosopher facing Meletus's charge of impiety, he questions Euthyphro about the meaning of religious duty.
- Euthyphro
- A confident religious expert prosecuting his own father, he offers definitions that Socrates examines through persistent questioning.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 9,200 words
- Reading timeAbout 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Euthyphro
What is Plato's Euthyphro about?
It is a dialogue in which Socrates asks a religious expert named Euthyphro to say what piety is. Each definition Euthyphro offers fails under questioning, and the talk leads to a basic question about how the gods relate to goodness.
What is the Euthyphro dilemma?
It asks whether the holy is loved by the gods because it is holy, or is holy because the gods love it. Later thinkers use it to ask whether morality depends on God's commands or exists independently.
Who is Euthyphro in the dialogue?
He is an Athenian who claims deep knowledge of religion and the will of the gods. He is on his way to prosecute his own father for a death on the family farm, which most people think shocking.
Why is Socrates at the court in Euthyphro?
Meletus has charged Socrates with impiety, including inventing new gods and corrupting the young. He has come to the King Archon's porch to answer the indictment, which leads to his meeting with Euthyphro.
Is Euthyphro hard to read?
No. It is one of the shortest and clearest of Plato's dialogues, with two speakers and a simple setting. The step-by-step questions make it a common first Plato text.