Platonic Seminar: Plato's Euthyphro

"Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?" (Euthyphro, 10a)

All students are invited to join Zephyr for this Platonic Seminar on Plato's Euthyphro on the nature of piety and the relation between morality and the divine. No prior reading is required. We will read and discuss the text together.

Socrates is awaiting indictment when he runs into an acquaintance, Euthyphro, on his way to court to prosecute his father for murder. Socrates reasons that if Euthpyhro is willing to do such a thing—something most people would think impious—he must do so on the basis of his own superior knowledge of piety. Since Socrates is himself being prosecuted for impiety, he asks Euthyphro to teach him. This sets up a series of exchanges in which Socrates tests Euthyphro's claims to knowledge—and finds them wanting. These exchanges raise deep puzzles, not just about the nature of piety, but more generally about the relation between the divine and the moral.

Dinner will be provided to all attendees. Please RSVP so that Zephyr can have an accurate headcount