PHILOS 2YY3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Euthyphro Dilemma, Filial Piety, Aporia
16 May 2018
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PHILOS 2YY3 – Jan 9 2018
Introduction and Euthyphro Problem
Euthyphro Dilemma
• Socrates encounters Euthyphro (a diviner) before the latter is set to go to court to bring
charges of murder against his father
o Socrates stops Euthyphro
o Diviner – something like a prophet, or has access to the gods and what they
desire or what, what they are like and what they command humans to do
o Serious accusation – filial piety
• Since this defies popular convention Socrates is astonished to find Euthyphro so
confident in his moral conviction and asks him how he can be so sure that he is acting
piousl iz. ightl
o How is Euthyphro so sure that he is acting rightly?
• Ieital, Soates asks Euthpho fo a defiitio of piet
o Definition of piety? What is right action?
• I askig fo a defiitio of piet Soates ats to fid a stadad fo deteiig
which actions are morally right and wrong
• Ex: in the same way a dispute about weight is decided by an appeal to a universal scale,
moral disputes could be determined by a criterion
o Metapho as a eaple, he e hae a dispute…
o How do we resolve that dispute? A scale – a metric, a standard where we can say
whether or not this way is this; this is definitely and absolutely how much it
weighs
• “Is it ot aout ight ad og, ad ole ad disgaeful, ad good ad ad? Ae ot
these the uestios aout hih ou ad I ad othe people eoe eeies… eause
we differ about them and I cannot reach any satisfactory agreement? (7d)
o Fundamental, very problem of ethics
o Poleati eause e dot hae this stadad o eti
• Euthpho eetuall gies the folloig defiitio of piet
o What all the gods love is holy and, on the other hand, what they all hate unholy
(9e)
▪ What this god loves and this god hates → doest ok, otaditio
▪ All the gods, monotheistic notion
• Socrates response:
o Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is
loved by the gods? (10a)
• The Euthyphro dilemma: Is something good/right because God commands/loves it, or
does god command/love something because it is good/right
o First instance: first disjuncts, either or, either something is good because god
commands it or loves it – dependence condition
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