Every person faces the philosophical question of how to live in a right way. Using the method of dialectical disputes, using the example of Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro, Socrates tried to give people the necessary knowledge. The peculiarity of his method was that he did not identify himself as the primary source of knowledge. In the process of education, he played the role of a guide to the right thoughts. However, not all of the philosopher’s contemporaries supported his point of view. Because of the belief that Socrates questions the deities and their laws, the philosopher was strongly condemned.
Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro is outwardly devoted to arguments about whether it is pious to prosecute ones father. The philosopher Euthyphro started this matter because his father ordered to tie up the murderer of his slave, a free citizen, and throw him into a pit, where he died. Socrates, feigning humiliation, asked Euthyphro to explain to him the line between piety and impiety. At first, everything seems primitive to Euthyphro, and he replies that piety is to prosecute any criminal, impiety is not to prosecute (Plato, 2019). As an example, he cites a plot from the life of the gods and drives himself into a trap.
Socrates led his interlocutor into a dead-end, reasoning like a perplexed simpleton. He would ask the questions, “And the quarrels of the gods, when they occur, are of a like nature? What is this disagreement about?” (Plato, 2019). After all, if the disagreement were about more or less, it would be resolved through calculation. As among humans, the disagreement between the gods is related to the line between the just and the unjust, the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the evil. At the same time, they disagree and start a war among themselves. If this is possible among the gods, then the same thing can be both God-loving and God-hating, and therefore both pious and impious.
With the help of this method, Socrates helped people to realize many things themselves and gain specific knowledge and use the activity of philosophy as something that helps to come to a rational way of living. Its essence was that at first, by leading and clarifying questions, the interlocutor was led to a contradiction from the point of view expressed by him, and then a joint search for the truth began. For Socrates, the truth did not arise and was not in the head of an individual in a ready-made form but was born in the process of dialogue by interlocutors who jointly seek the truth.
Socrates’ philosophy concerns individuals, whom he understood as moral beings who know themselves. The essence of a person is concentrated in the soul because it is what the body serves. The soul’s value consists of knowledge, and virtue is necessary for the soul’s growth (Ranjithkumar, 2017). It is the knowledge of what is good and evil that makes a person virtuous. Therefore, Socrates sought to find and accurately define the basic concepts of morality to find out their essence.
Such a method of interviewing is called Socratic inquiry or midwifery. The philosopher, in this way, only helped to acquire the knowledge but was not the source of it (Clark, 2018). Since the answer is a positive statement, the person who answered Socrates’ questions was considered knowledgeable. The usual methods of dialogue in Socrates, which can be seen in the Euthyphro: refutation by leading to a contradiction and feigning ignorance, avoiding direct answers. Thus, Socrates, speaking the truth about his ignorance, wanted to point out the insignificance of human knowledge compared to divine wisdom. Without concealing his ignorance, the philosopher wanted to bring his interlocutors to the same state.
Euthyphro thought that the righteous and pious is that part of the just that relates to the deities’ service or the care of the gods. What concerns the care of people will be the rest of what is just. According to the young man, the gods sometimes disagree on issues of justice. Some things are loved by some gods and hated by others. By this definition, these things will be godly and ungodly, which makes no sense. Socrates says that things are not pious because the gods look at them in a certain way. Instead, they like pious actions, such as helping a stranger in need, because such actions have a particular inner property, the property of being pious.
A show of force is punishable when humility to the inevitable is laudable. Because of this, Socrates is accused and will be punished since the philosopher decided to overthrow the foundations. The man will then receive approval because he will accept the inevitable with respect, at least in one way coming to agree with the majority’s opinion. Thus, given the logical contradiction and moral implications of this dialogue regarding the nature of the gods and their actions, it can be concluded that the human mind may be sufficient to live a moral life. The reason for this is the difference in the vision of the piety of gods and people. Therefore, to live a better life, a person must understand what is good and what is wrong.
References
Clark, J. C. (2018). Socratic inquiry and the “What‐is‐F?” question. European Journal of Philosophy, 26(4), 1324-1342.
Plato. (2019). Euthyphro. Good Press.
Ranjithkumar, A. (2019). Plato’s Notion of Justice in Understanding Order and Stability in Stratified Societies: a Study of India’s Experience. International Journal of Political Science and Development, 5(4), 45-49.