Philosophy of Religion

Euthyphro

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Plato

399 BC

A short dialogue set on the steps of the court where Socrates is about to face his indictment for impiety. He encounters Euthyphro, a priest who is prosecuting his own father for a religious offence and claims to know exactly what piety is. Socrates interrogates this claim through a series of proposed definitions, each of which collapses under questioning — and along the way poses one of the most devastating challenges in the history of philosophy of religion: the Euthyphro dilemma.