Euthyphro : Plato - Research Paper Example

In the dialogue, the idea of holiness emerges so that the concept of morality is well understood. For instance, Socrates argues that if an act is moral because God says it is moral or right, then it implies that whatever God says is right is right. In addition, this also implies that Gods command of what is moral is arbitrary since the same God could have willed contrary commands. Therefore, when Socrates asks Euthyphro about his definition of the word piety, Euthyphro was required to identify the nature of virtue or morality by establishing on what ground does morality or virtue stand on.

It is difficult for an atheist to discover the ground on which morality stands on because they claim they can have ethics or morals without the gods but they believe that what the gods commands as holy should be respected. Certainly, an atheist can behave in a way that people perceive moral or good but it is hard to define what the term ultimately means. It may imply complying with objective standard of morality, a policy, or law given by legitimate authority without involving a transcendent lawmaker, which in this case is the gods.

This implies that there can be no transcendent lawmaker and no corresponding duty to be good (Kelly, 1981). From the dialogue, it is clear that Christians determines the pious or morality and that the commands of God are expression of his desires and will for what human beings ought to do. This is because such argument presents a metaphysical foundation of piety or morality. Human beings need to be committed to the existence of moral truths in order for them to live in accordance with the will of God (Kelly, 1981).

This is because the existence of moral truths for people since they have moral obligation to obey what God commands. This is so since, Christians believe that their moral obligation comes from God in form of commands. Thus, people ought to be moral because they are morally accountable to God in that those people who do not obey him will be punished and good people will receive rewards. The pious thing is similar thing as what the gods loves. Unfortunately, this definition of holiness or piety is strongly rejected by Socrates because he does not agree with Euthyphro as according to him, the gods may not agree among themselves.

Socrates would argue that something, which is pious, is not the same as the god-loved since what comprises the holy or pious is not what comprises the god-loved. Reasonably, what makes the god-loved is because the gods love it while on the other the pious or moral is something different. Socrates would refute this definition of piety by holding that there is a distinction between acting upon something and something being acted upon, and then if two things are similar and identical, then they share every character of the other.

Socrates wanted Euthyphro to agree that being loved fit the same pattern, therefore arguing that piety or morality is distinct from being loved by the gods since the reasons as to why the gods love certain behaviors or actions is because of the pious thing itself. This means that for Socrates, the gods love certain things or actions are an effect of the thing itself being moral or pious (Plato, 2008). As Socrates, I would stress that since there is a distin