The Prompt is as follows:
Explain Socrates' argument against defining piety as what the gods love and point out the significance of it in the dialogue.
The concept to be defined in Euthyphro is that of piety. Socrates wants a universal, philosophical definition from Euthyphro since he claims to understand what piety is. In this dialogue five definitions are proposed, each of which eventually does not satisfy Socrates. However, our main concern would be to explain and point out the significance of Socrates' argument against the second definition offered by Euthyphro. The second definition says that "what is dear to the gods is pious, what is not is impious" (pg. 8; 7a). This statement of the definition is equivalent to saying that piety is what the gods love.
Immediately after Euthyphro proposes the second definition, Socrates, having confirmed earlier in the dialogue that his interlocutor believes in the Greek gods and that they fight and disagree about many things, reminds Euthyphro that "the gods are in a state of discord, that they are at odds with each other" (8; 7b). Thus, on this definition the same action could "be both god-loved and god-hated" (9; 8a). Moreover, the same things would be both pious and impious because of the above arguments and due to the fact that "different gods consider different things to be just, beautiful, ugly, good, and bad" (9; 7e). The point that Socrates and Euthyphro differ on this definition suggests that Euthyphro does not have an acceptable definition, because the goal of a definition is to provide a foundation for agreement.
Although Euthyphro's second attempt to define piety fails in the eyes of Socrates, it is a good starting point for his third attempt. This is where the significance of Socrates' argument against defining piety as the gods love lies. The second attempt acts as a building block for the third attempt in which Euthyphro proposes "that the pious is what all the gods love, and the opposite, what all the gods hate, is the impious" (11; 9e).
This is not supposed to be a term paper or a midterm paper. It's just a quiz type essay questions.
Thanks for the help
