Piety

What is Piety?

There are many different definitions and views on what piety is or means to someone. In Plato's Euthyphro, Socrates has a hard time completely agreeing with Euthyphro on his many definitions of piety. Persecuting the wrongdoer, acting in a way that is dear to all the gods, or the use of sacrifice and prayer throughout your life are the forms of piety that Euthyphro believes to be correct. However, along with Socrates, we all have our own objections. For example, piety doesn't always have to be linked to something religious. You may use your religious background to shape who you are as a person and how you will go about acting in a pious way, however pious acts are not always directly related to God or gods. In this paper I will argue that piety comes in many forms, therefore we cannot base its definition on a single source but rather on anything that will ultimately bring about some form of good in this world.

Living out the word of God is a classic example of piety. One definition of piety is to be holy, and the first thing most people think of when they hear the word "holy" is God. By being holy, you are working towards living out your life in a more positive way, which will ultimately benefit you and the lives of others. However, we then need to ask ourselves are these actions pious because God tells us to do them, or does God tell us to do them because they are pious? In contrast to Euthyphro, these actions are pious because God tells us to do them. As a Christian, you believe that God is all-powerful and all knowing. Therefore, what he believes to be good works are then pious because he is the ultimate source. Not everyone will agree with this statement because they may not believe that God is the ultimate source to what piety is, which only proves this argument more. However, for those who are devout Christians, they would agree certain actions are pious because it is what God taught us in the Bible, and therefore you are required to live out his good word.

Piety can also be described in a non-religious manner. Giving selflessly to others who are less fortunate than you is a form of piety that wouldn't necessarily be linked to God or religion. For example, building homes and doing volunteer work for those who are in poverty in places like Mexico or Appalachia is a pious action. Some people do this type of volunteer work through their church, so an argument to this might be that they are only doing it because it's what God would want from them. Sure, volunteer work and service is a "Godly" action, however some people do it because they are eager to help out the less fortunate, especially when they receive more in life than most people ever will. You can even consider celebrities or the wealthy that give money to charities and organizations that help out the sick and impoverished to be pious people. Most of the time they are doing it because they know that they have more than enough money and material objects to last them a lifetime, and they believe that giving it away to benefit others is the right or pious thing to do. A lot of these people devote a lot of time and money to help these people, such as Bono from U2 who has been raising money for years to help the people in Africa. People like him do this people they want to. It makes them happy. You can't get more pious than that.

Being just, which is a word Socrates uses to help describe piety in Euthyphro, is an action that can be directly related to piety. However, Socrates' question is what makes piety any different than justice (line 12 d)? These two things aren't any different. If you are being a just person, how is there no piety in that at all? It is not right to say that not every just action has some form of piety related to it, unless of course you consider all pious actions to be only linked to God, religion, or one ultimate source. If we live out our lives striving or at least doing our best to make things fair and equal for all those around us, that is one way of being a just person. We may also be just in way such as always following the laws that are expected of us and never acting in way that would dehumanize or demean