The Argument
The argument of this dialogue is based largely on "definition by division". Socrates goads Euthyphro to offer one definition after another for the word 'piety'. The hope is to use a clear definition as the basis for Euthyphro to teach Socrates the answer to the question, "What is piety?", ostensibly so that Socrates can use this to defend himself against the charge of impiety.
It is clear that Socrates wants a definition of piety that will be universally true (i.e., a ‘universal’), against which all actions can be measured to determine whether or not they are pious. It is equally clear that to be universal, the definition must express what is essential about the thing defined, and be in terms of genus, species, and its differentiae (this terminology is somewhat later than Socrates, made more famous with Aristotle).
Hence this dialogue is important not just for theology, ethics, and epistemology, but even for metaphysics. Indeed: Plato's approach here has been accused of being too overtly anachronistic, since it is highly unlikely that Socrates himself was such a "master metaphysician". But the more expository treatment of metaphysics we find in Aristotle has its roots in the Platonic dialogues, especially in the Euthyphro.
The stages of the argument can be summarised as follows:
Read more about this topic: Euthyphro
Famous quotes containing the word argument:
“If we could produce one or two more Madame Curies, that would accomplish far more for the advancement of women than any amount of agitation, argument and legislation.”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)
“Our argument ... will result, not upon logic by itself—though without logic we should never have got to this point—but upon the fortunate contingent fact that people who would take this logically possible view, after they had really imagined themselves in the other man’s position, are extremely rare.”
—Richard M. Hare (b. 1919)