Great Philosophers

¶ … Euthyphro, Socrates meets his friend Euthyphro outside the court of justice and explains how he (Socrates) has been called there to answer charges brought by Meletus. The discussion turns to the question of piety, and Euthyphro, who is considered an educated man and wise in the field of religion, states that piety is what is loved by the gods. Socrates seeks his assistance in defining piety so he can use what he learns from Euthyphro when he goes to court.

The issue throughout is whether the gods love something because it is pious, or is a thing pious because the gods love that thing? Euthyphro's original position is that whatever pleases the gods is pious, but Socrates points out that the gods often disagree on what pleases them, which makes their opinion difficult to cite for proof of piety. The two discuss the matter until they approach an answer, finding that piety means doing something that is a help to the gods.

However, Euthyphro cannot think of any instance where the gods need help. Euthyphro comes to see piety as knowing how to pray or how to make sacrifice. In the end, as Socrates tries to get Euthyphro to make a definitive statement about piety, Euthyphro begs off that he has to go, and Socrates expresses his disappointment that he will not have the definition he seeks. 2.

When Socrates says that the unexamined life is not worth living, he is elevating the role of philosophy and showing his own dedication to inquiry into life's meaning. Simply living life is not sufficient. The philosopher must delve more deeply and ask why the world is as it is and what more there is to life than what can be perceived by the senses. For Socrates, it is the process of inquiry that constitutes wisdom, and knowledge is what one believes, which may or may not be true.

Socrates represents the primary social value of inquiry, of the pursuit of philosophy, of the examination of the meaning of life. He also represents integrity, for when we inquire into the meaning of existence and develop a set of beliefs, we must live up to those beliefs. Because Socrates makes his statement to the court, it is clear that he is also defending the right to philosophical inquiry against the charge that he is corrupting the minds of the city's youth.

His prosecutors say that raising questions only confuses the young, while Socrates points out that accepting dogma without question is not living at all. 3. In the Crito, Plato shows Socrates's friend of that name trying to persuade him to grasp at life and to escape from his prison and thus from his execution. Socrates firmly refuses because he is determined to remain obedient to the laws of his city, though he himself has been a victim of those laws when they are applied unjustly.

Socrates says that he has had the benefit of those laws all his life and has been protected by them. If he had not wished for this protection, he could have left Athens and gone to live somewhere else. He has tacitly agreed to respect them the laws by the way he has lived under them in the past.

Everything that Socrates does or has done is based on reason, and his dedication to reason rather than emotion is what gives him the strength to argue with Crito and to explain rationally why he will not escape. Socrates notes that if he escapes and goes against the ruling of those in the city given the right to determine what is just, he will be harming the people of the city, those people he should not injure.

Injuring people, says Socrates, is no different than wrongdoing, and one should always fulfill the right and avoid the wrong. Socrates states that the question is whether he should.