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cover of episode Dialogue on The Euthyphro: The nature of piety and our relationship with the eternal

Dialogue on The Euthyphro: The nature of piety and our relationship with the eternal

2021/5/24
logo of podcast Plato's Pod: Dialogues on the works of Plato

Plato's Pod: Dialogues on the works of Plato

Shownotes Transcript

What does it mean to be pious, and how have changes in the meaning over time motivated those who have claimed to be acting piously and affected those accused of impiety? In this live recorded discussion on May 16, 2021 of the Toronto Philosophy, Calgary Philosophy, and Online Rebels Meetup groups we considered the case of Plato's Euthyphro who is about to prosecute his father for the impiety of murder. Upon hearing of Euthyphro's case, Socrates mentions his own accuser Meletus whose charges would eventually lead to Socrates' trial and death. We discussed other historical applications of piety's meaning, including that which misled the Inquisition to condemn Galileo for holding what later proved to be true knowledge of the ordering of the heavens and orbit of the planets around the sun. Are interpretations of piety universal, even among the gods? We investigated this question, and the "Euthyphro dilemma" of the eternal order of what "is" that Socrates raises in the question: "Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods?"