Euthyphro: Plato's Argument

Plato Plato makes many arguments in the Meno and the Phaedo. Some of his arguments are for the preexistence of a soul and that knowledge is gained as a result from recollection. Using the Cyclical argument, he says essentially that everything comes from their opposite state so the soul of a living must be a soul from someone who has died. The second argument is for Recollection and it claims that since we are able to see a lack of a given “thing”, then we must have a prior knowledge of what that “thing” should be. Closing with the Affinity Argument, it is reasoned that since there are two worlds; the changing world of our perception and the static world of the Forms; and the soul is more like that latter, than the soul must return to the world of Forms upon death.

In his book “The Republic”, Plato argues vis-à-vis Socrates that the philosopher is, in fact, the happiest person. He draws this conclusion when he compares it against that of a money-lover and an honour-lover. This paper will expound on the argument put forth by Socrates and in doing so will provide the reasons for my support of his argument. In Book 9 of “The Republic”, Socrates wants to find out the type of person that enjoys the most pleasant life and therefore, suggests that the soul of each individual be divided into three parts: the appetitive, the spirited and the rational.

Plato’s The Republic 1)Why, and how successfully, does Thrasymachus contend that rulers cannot make mistakes? In a dispute with Socrates, Thrasymachus states that the ruler is incapable of making mistakes. He insists that if the man is a master of their craft, if this does really know what they are doing, they will not do anything wrong. According to philosopher, the reasons why one makes mistakes is that they lack certain knowledge or experience.

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The forth crime that was charged was, disbelief ‘in the gods of the city.’ This charge is a result from the first charge of being ‘a natural philosopher.’ He indeed did not believe in any of the Olympian deities. He may have gotten out of this one if he praised any god and paid tribute to them, but he did not. Because he didn’t, he had committed treason.

When Plato wrote the Myth of Metals in the timeless classic The Republic, it was used to describe citizens of Kallipolis, a fictional utopia. As the myth follows, the citizens of Kallipolis are descendants from the same god. While this higher being was forming these individuals, he instilled within each of their souls different metals. Gold for those capable of ruling, silver for the guardians, and iron and bronze for the farmers and craftsmen.

The language in Plato’s symposium and the expression of Sappho’s poetry are similar in that they both deal with homoerotic love. Sappho, the only ancient Greek female author whose work survived, talks from the female point of observation, where as Plato’s work concentrates on the idea of love among males. In spite of the fact that both of their points of view are comparative in courses, for example, their thoughts of physical fascination and want, Plato’s work creates a better understanding of the nature of love then Sappho’s ideas. This understanding will be shown with three arguments and counter- arguments in order to demonstrate the dominance of Plato over Sappho. It will than be concluded with an overview of the main idea and a recap of the three arguments made for Plato.

Part A- Socrates In thinking of Socrates we must recognize that what we have is four secondhand sources depicting him. That of Plato, Xenophanes, Aristophanes, and Aristotle. All having radically different accounts on Socrates and his views. Out of all them we consider Plato’s to be the most possible account, even though we face a problem of different versions of Socrates.

Plato’s view on death According to Plato, Socrates didn’t fear death. He stopped fearing death when God ordered him to live the life of a philosopher. “No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that it is the greatest of all evils.” He says that this is just as bad as thinking that you’re wise, when you’re actually not.

Socrates was an Athenian philosopher; he was known to be the founder of Western philosophy. He is known from the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. We have come to know through Plato’s writing about the contributions of Socrates in the field of ethics. He became famous because of his work related to ethics. Socrates has also worked in the field of epistemology.

Piety is a difficult word to understand and define. In Plato’s Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, he brings up a dialogue that rings true even today. The question of what piety is, and how can one fully understand so they can thereby live piously. Socrates rejected Euthyphro’s definition of piety as “what is dear to the gods” because this definition was vague, and did not truly explain what piety was and because as the gods are beyond understanding and are ununified, there is no exact set of what they hold dear. Socrates has many problems with Euthyphro’s definitions, because he is looking for Euthyphro to give him an accurate definition, while Euthyphro fails to give a proper definition.

I am saying that “human beings are more than merely physical beings.” In Plato’s dialogues Phaedo and Meno “Theory of Recollection”, I began to understand that the soul carries innate knowledge. In Meno, the way that Socrates is able to prove this is by showing how a slave boy seems to have the ability to understand basic geometric principles. Socrates then concludes that the slave boy’s soul possessed the knowledge of geometry the whole time. From this, you could say that Plato hold’s deductive reasoning within ourselves that we have no business knowing, and that they must have been carried from a previous existence. Plato’s theology involves some kind of reincarnation.