Socrates talks to a lot of different people about a lot of different things. In each case, Socrates meets people where they are, on their terms, and tries to move them one step closer to a better understanding. Mostly this movement is towards a better understanding of goodness and ethical excellence, regardless of the subject matter at hand. If you want to understand Socrates, understand this: It doesn’t really matter what they are talking about, Socrates is talking about virtue.
A clear example of this is what we see in the Euthyphro. Socrates is talking to Euthyphro, who is busy bringing a charge of manslaughter against his father. Whilst he knows that it goes against the conventions of society that a son should bring a charge against his father, Euthyphro feels that he is doing the right thing, because it is against the divine law of the gods that a man who is guilty of manslaughter should escape punishment. For Euthyphro, the laws of gods outrank the conventions of society, and so he will do what he understands to be ‘pious’ and pleasing to the gods, regardless of what people might think. It’s clear that Euthyphro is proud of himself and sees himself as a brave upholder of a higher justice. Euthyphro is understood to be an expert on these religious matters.
Socrates questions Euthyphro. Not, of course, to attack the law of the gods or to defend the conventions of society: Plato makes that clear by opening their conversation with talk about Socrates’ own impending conviction for ‘impiety’ and ‘corrupting the youth’. Socrates is not in good standing with the conventions of society, and does not try to be, because, having investigated the ideas that we have about things, he has come to understand that the conventions of ordinary society are shadows that have no real value. Socrates looks to a higher justice, the higher justice of which Euthyphro claims to have clear knowledge. And so Socrates will test Euthyphro’s knowledge and see if it stands up to scrutiny.
Ostensibly this is a dialogue about religion and the law. The question is: what is piety? Euthyphro responds: what is pious is what is pleasing to the gods. But, says Socrates, the gods of the Greek pantheon are always squabbling with one another: they clearly disagree about what is pleasing. So which gods should we please?
Euthyphro modifies his position: what is pious is what is pleasing to all gods. But, says Socrates, is it pleasing to all gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is pleasing to all gods? Euthyphro is confused. ‘I don’t know what you mean’, he says. Perhaps Euthyphro doesn’t know as much as he thinks.
If we ask why it is pious, we say it is because the gods are pleased by it. If we ask why the gods are pleased by it, we say they are pleased by it because it is pious. See how we are trapped in a circle? The two claims amount to saying the same thing, each one entailing the other, which only means that to answer one with the other doesn’t really say anything at all. You might as well say that it is pious because it’s pious, or pleasing to the gods because it’s pleasing to the gods, as say that it is pious because it’s pleasing to the gods or pleasing to the gods because it’s pious.
Socrates asked Euthyphro a question and Euthyphro has answered with something that says nothing. Socrates, left without an answer, asks his question again. But at this point Euthyphro makes his excuses and runs away. That is the end of the dialogue.
The Euthyphro isn’t very informative: it doesn’t tell us anything about piety or religion or the law. What does it show?
It shows a man presenting himself as knowledgeable but not willing to follow the argument where it leads, not willing to hold himself to account or to scrutinise his reasons for action. Even when his knowledge has been shown to be lacking and without foundation, Euthyphro would rather continue without firm knowledge, equipped only with his firmly-held opinion. He would rather pretend to himself that he knows, and maintain this pretence to others, rather than put himself to the test. It is not a picture of ethical excellence, whatever we think about his actions.
Euthyphro brings the charge against his father because he believes it to be pious. But it turns out that he doesn’t know what piety is. Without this knowledge, he has no good reason to act as he does. He ought to realise this but he refuses to. This shows the Socratic lesson, by bad example, without stating it explicitly: You ought to act with good reason, and a kind of knowledge is necessary for that. So if you want to act well, look to improve your understanding. Which is what Socrates, with his incessant questioning, is trying to get Euthyphro to do.
Clearly no one is going to be left satisfied with Euthyphro’s response, which is only to run away at the first sign of difficulty. He has been shown to have argued in a circle, to not know as much as he thinks, and rather than face up to this he flees. The lesson is clear. Don’t be like Euthyphro. Investigate the reasons for your actions and don’t relent when it gets difficult.
Of course it’s not about the gods. Who cares to investigate what the gods think when you are so unwilling to investigate yourself? When you act from the wrong reasons, you lose even when you win. If Euthyphro wins his day in court and convicts his father, if it turns out that he has acted impiously then he will have acted wrongly and, presumably, his soul will be damned to the underworld. Shouldn’t this give him cause for concern? And yet he doesn’t care to investigate his understanding of piety.
And you, when you are chasing your goals and pursuing your desires: are you so sure they are in your interests? Have you investigated the reasons for your actions? You want to be successful: are you sure you understand what ‘success’ is? You want to be of value: are you sure you understand what ‘value’ is? You want to be good: are you sure you understand what ‘good’ is? You want to be free: are you sure you understand what it is to be ‘free’?
Do not run away from these questions: everything depends on them.
Read more: Think Well, Live Well: A Free Introduction to Philosophy
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