The search for a proper definition of Piety or Holiness

1
Euthyphro

• The search for a proper definition of Piety or
  Holiness

2
Preamble

• Setting Steps of the King Archons court.
• Socrates being charged with impiety, and the
  dialogue is about the meaning of piety.
• Euthyphro is there to charge his father with
  murder (which many think is impious).
• Socratic irony I realize that as well as you
  do, my dear friend, and thats why I am eager to
  become your student. I know that this Meletus
  pretends not to notice you at all, whereas he has
  seen me so sharply and so easily that he has
  indicted me for impiety (5c)
• Vainglory the conceit of wisdom.

3
Definition 1

• Whats pious is precisely what Im doing now
  prosecuting those who commit an injustice, such
  as murder or temple robbery, or those whove done
  some other such wrong, regardless of whether
  theyre ones father or ones mother or anyone
  else whatever. Not prosecuting them, on the other
  hand, is whats impious (5d-e).
• Evidence The gods treatment of their fathers.
• Problem Its not a real definition. (Its an
  ostensive definition.) Socrates wants the
  delineation of a characteristic that can be used
  to pick out any instance of impiety, not just
  this one. (6d-e)

4
Definition 2

• Whats loved by the gods is pious, and whats
  not loved by the gods is impious (7a).
• Response The gods quarrel and differ with each
  other (7b).
• Some disputes e.g., those over empirical and
  mathematical properties can be settled by the
  facts or concepts of the matter.
• Other disputes such as those about justice,
  goodness (i.e., value issues) cant be so
  settled.
• When the gods disagree about what cant easily be
  settled, then the same thing is both pious and
  impious, and this definition fails (8a).

5
Definition 3

• What all the gods love is pious what all the
  gods hate, is impious (9d)
• The Euthyphro question
• Is the pious loved by the gods because its
  pious. Or is it pious because its loved (10a)?
• I.e., what is the cause here, and what is the
  effect? Socrates answers by saying that the act
  of loving must precede (or cause) the state of
  being loved. Its not because its a loved thing
  a state that its loved by those who love it
  rather its because its loved an act that its
  a loved thing (10c).

6
Definition 3 contd

• Euthyphro then attempts to say that an action is
  loved by the gods because it is pious, rather
  than the other way around. But his choice implies
  that the state of being loved precedes the act of
  loving, which contradicts the agreed upon premise
  that the act must precede the state.
• Piety and what all the gods love are not the
  same. Essence vs. mere attribute or property
• Presumably, there are other things loved by the
  gods besides piety justice, for example so
  being loved does not differentiate a concept like
  piety from a concept like justice. Both piety and
  justice share the property of being loved, but
  Socrates is searching for the thing that makes
  piety the thing that it is and nothing else. If
  other things besides piety are loved by the gods,
  then being loved cant be the essential property
  of piety. 

7
Definition 3 contd

• Euthyphro now stumped I have no way of telling
  you what I have in mind. For whatever proposals
  we put forward keep somehow moving around and
  they wont stay put (11b)
• Aporia or befuddlement Socrates interlocutors
  often say they have been stung by a stingray from
  their slumbers.
• Aporia is the start of true philosophical
  exploration, according to Socrates, since you
  wont look for that which you think you already
  know.

8
Prelude to Definition 4 genus-species defs

• Socrates suggests that piety is a part of
  justice the pious as a whole must be just
  (11e).
• Genus species definition. Isolate a large group
  (genus) to which something (a species) belongs
  (similarity) and then note as well how the
  species differs from the genus. E.g., Aristotle's
  definition of the species humans The animal
  (genus) that thinks (differentia). S. discusses
  this _at_ 12 b-c.
• What, then, is the differentia of piety (amongst
  the genus, just things)?

9
Definition 4 contd

• Piety is the part of the just .. that is
  concerned with tending to the gods (The other
  part of justice attends to humans) (12e).
• Question What do we mean by tending to the
  gods? In other cases, tending to x always
  benefits x (dog and horse trainers). But surely
  we dont improve the gods by tending to them.
• It is rather, Euthyphro says, like the tending of
  a slave to a master (13d). But what is the end of
  this? I.e., what do the gods get from our
  attendance?

10
Definition 5

• Piety is some sort of knowledge of sacrificing
  and praying, where sacrificing is giving to
  the gods, and praying is asking from them (14b).
• Piety, then, is an expertise in mutual trading
  between gods and men (14e).
• But while its clear that we benefit from the
  gods, what benefits can we give them?
• Honor and reverence i.e., whats pleasing to
  them (15b).
• But then we are back to the definition that piety
  is what is pleasing to the gods, which has
  already been defeated.
• Aporia.