Euthyphro's Dilemma Before Socrates Before Socrates

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When Euthyphro visits Socrates before Socrates’ trial, the two converse over many different questions, one being the Euthyphro dilemma, which follows as, “Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?” (Cooper 11). No clear and concise definition is reached from the overall conversation, ending in Euthyphro leaving in a hurry. From this question, however, I pick the first option, as it entails a more open definition in the overall situation. This is because the second option is too broad, and has too many contrasting points for it to be relevant when tried with hypothetical statements. I specifically will discuss how the first option is a more sound concept, why the second cannot be proven …show more content…
By this, the statement that I believe to be true, is that being devoutly religious is loved by the gods because it is devoutly religious. Socrates, in The Trial and Death of Socrates, discusses the possibility of one god loving the actions of a mortal, whereas another one dislikes it (10-11). According to the second statement, no formal answer would be made to if something is labeled as pious or not, as it has to be loved by all the gods. If you leave piety up to the god’s opinions, it will theoretically lead to disagreement. Euthyphro can only counter with, “I would certainly say that the pious is what all the gods love, and the opposite, what all the gods hate, is the impious” (11). He does not discuss the middleground in which I described, which leaves room for an appropriate answer. The way in which he describes it is in a relative way, which means the way we describe the attitude of the gods, in our own terms. We define concepts directly through our actions, such as through prayer or sacrifice of our goods. Socrates directly asks about the difference between sacrifices and prayer, saying, “To sacrifice is to make a gift to the gods, whereas to pray is to beg from the gods?”, in which Euthyphro affirms his statement. Socrates later brings up the same question, but applying more context,

“..tell me, what benefit do the gods derive from the gifts that they receive from us? What they give us is obvious to all. There is for us no good that we do not receive from them, but how are they benefited by what they receive from us? Or do we have such an advantage over them in the trade that we receive all our blessings from them and they receive nothing from us?”
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