Socrates And Gods.
Essay by 24 • September 14, 2010 • 262 Words (2 Pages) • 1,510 Views
Socrates and Gods.
It seems that Socrates questions gods a lot. He respects them, but notices that they don't always do good deeds, and a lot of them act different in the same situation. So how can you know what is pious based on their deeds? He is trying to get that point to Euthyphro, and he cannot get it. Socrates thinks that gods act just like people, and are not good enough to look up to them. It's clear that gods think that a murderer should be punished, but there is nowhere where you can find information about how you decide if he is guilty. He says, "How would you show that all the gods absolutely agree in approving of the act?"
It's clear that he doesn't look up to gods. He realizes that you cannot know what is right based on the stories, because all the stories tell different things. And who knows that all those stories tell what actually has happened? Socrates has a lot of questions. But Euthyphro doesn't think twice about it. He believes that whatever gods did and approve of is pious, and what they disapprove of is impious.
He also asks Euthyphro, "Is something pious because gods say so, or do gods say that it's pious because it is?" Because based on gods deeds, not everything they do is pious, and if the person did the same thing, most likely they would not approve it, or at least some gods wouldn't.
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