1. Wasted time; this is obvious.

2. Why "finally?" Perhaps because Socrates was not satisfied with Euthyphro’s example-answer. But why not?

3. No paragraph break here. an idea is about to be developed.

4. Good example of Socrates’s procedure, but draw conclusions! "Socrates thus shows that Euthyphro’s answer is self-contradictory."

5. Not defined

6. Very vague

7. Much too brief an essay for a 30-point question on a final exam.

Plato’s Euthyphro is a dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro regarding holiness and piety. (1) When Socrates asks him what is piety and impiety Euthyphro gives an example instead of a definition. By encouraging Euthyphro to answer further Socrates finally (2) gets him to declare that piety is what pleases the Gods and impiety is what displeases the Gods. [Sp: gods] (3)

Pursuing this, Socrates points out there are many gods and different things please them [P: comma needed] therefore it is possible for something to be pious and impious at the same time. (4)

Using the "Socratic method" (5) of teaching it is possible to lead one to their [Gr: lead one to one’s] own conclusions and thus have an "examined life" which Socrates believes is the route (6) to knowledge. (7)

1. Good detail, but you leave out any reference to why Euthyphro thinks Socrates will be acquitted.

2. Ambiguity of "he" makes things difficult for the reader.

3. Very awkward English here!

4. This definition of the Socratic method is vague.

5. Too much time spent on stage-setting and not enough on philosophical content.

6. Very awkward English. Why doesn’t Socrates want an example?

7. This is misleading. Socrates does not have a definition of his own.

8. Why can’t he answer? What’s wrong with the answers given? What does Euthyphro learn from Socrates? What do we learn?

When Socrates meets Euthyphro outside the court, Euthyphro questions Socrates why he is there. Socrates tells him that he will be tried for impiety and corrupting the youth. Euthyphro assures Socrates of his acquittal [Sp]. (1)

Socrates then turns the tables on Euthyphro, asking why he was there. He (2) went on to explain how his father had killed a drunken slave who had murdered a house servant. Socrates asked him did his father murder a member of his family [go]. Euthyphro says [Gr: keep tenses consistent] no [P] it was only a slave, but a pious man believes it doesn’t matter if the murdered person was family or slave but the act was wrong.(3) Socrates goes about the "Socratic method" of asking questions in order to get a perfect definition of a world or concept he wants. (4) Socrates says I’m an ignorant man; explain to me what you mean by piety in order for me to defend my self [Sp] against these charges.(5)

Euthyphro goes on to tell him about what he feels the gods define [as] piety. Socrates pursues him further by telling him he doesn’t want examples of piety but a definition of piety. (6)

Socrates doesn’t tell Euthyphro what his definition of piety is. (7) He tries by questioning Euthyphro to examine why he is really going to [prosecute?] his father, Euthyphro hurries away unable to answer. (8)

1. Repeats question.

2. Says too little in too much space. (b) repeats (a).

3. Why does he ask? Socrates can draw Euthyphro’s ideas out of him by showing Euthyphro that he, Socrates, has an important reason for wanting to know what piety is.

4. (c) is not relevant to (d). You assume that Euthyphro thinks that his specific act pleases the gods; he implies that, perhaps, but he does not say it.

5. What is the significance of Euthyphro’s answer? How does it destroy his definition of piety?

6. This is your last descriptive paragraph, but you still skirt the central issues raised by the question.

7. Good conclusion; it answers the final part of the question. You should show why it is important to question: for example, perhaps Euthyphro is making a mistake in bringing his father to trial, and he doesn’t know it because he has never questioned his own knowledge of piety.

 

Socrates has been called the greatest teacher of all. I believe that in Plato’s Euthyphro, this is proven to be true. (1)

In Plato’s Euthyphro, a young man is about to turn his father in on charges of murder. This young man believes that he is doing the thing that is right or pious. (a) He meets Socrates on the steps of the court house [Sp] and has a conversation. After explaining to Socrates why he is there, Socrates asks him why he is turning in his own father. The answer: "Because it is the pious thing to do." (b) (2)

Socrates then goes on to ask the young man the meaning of piety. (3) "It is an act which pleases the gods," answered the young man. (d)

He continues: "Doing what is just, what is right. My father murdered someone, I must turn him in. No matter who commits a crime or an unjust act you must make an act of piety [Wu] by turning them in." (c) (4)

Socrates then begins to ask more questions. "If piety is an act that pleases the gods, do you not think that an act that pleases one god might not please another? After all, don’t the gods ever fight among themselves?" Euthyphro’s answer was yes. (5)

Euthyphro could no longer defend his definition of piety. Although he still might have thought that what he was doing was right, he could not explain why. Socrates taught him to question things, but he did it in a very clever way. He would merely ask questions of those who thought they knew what something meant. Socrates asked many other questions and was rarely given a solid definition. (6)

From Plato’s Euthyphro I have learned not only to question things that are not clear to me, but also look for a better and clearer definition of those things I already feel I know.

1. Much better detail than the previous paper, but still does not establish what is to be taught and learned.

2. Inaccurate. Euthyphro thought his act of bringing a murderer to court was pious.

3. This is true, and forms a part of one of Euthyphro’s definitions of piety.

4. Again, a much better description of the Socratic method than in the earlier essays.

5. This point shows what Euthyphro has learned from Socrates, a very important point, but the statement of it misses the element of self-contradiction in Euthyphro’s definitions of piety.

6. This gets at the last part of the question.

To answer the question posed it will be necessary for me to briefly describe the Euthyphro story. Euthyphro was a young man of about 20 or so [P] and he was bringing his father to court on a murder charge. (One of his father’ slaves had murdered another and the father had put the murderer in a ditch chained, [Gr} without water or food and the murderer died.(1) Euthyphro felt that his father had done an impious act (2) so it was his duty to bring him to court. The gods would want him to do so.(3)

Euthyphro and Socrates were standing outside of the court room [Sp] and start talking, [Gr] and when Socrates finds out what he is doing he tries to show Euthyphro through his Socratic method (asking questions and letting Euthyphro give birth to his own ideas - the right ones). (4) So Socrates starts asking Euthyphro what the nature of piety is, since he is so wise as to know its meaning and Socrates says that its definition is unknown to himself.

By this back-and-forth question and answering Euthyphro finally realizes that he is not the smartest person in the world, that he is wrong about what he is doing, but he doesn’t want to admit this to Socrates so Euthyphro says he’s got to leave not and he "splits the scene."(5)

Socrates was a great philosopher. He used the art of asking questions to help people give birth to their own ideas, instead of preaching, "this is the right way" approach. By the art of conversation he helped you realize what you found to be the truth. It was for this that he was considered the greatest teacher of all.

1. Note that we learn something, too - a good point!

2. Very good presentation of the psychological aspects of the Socratic method.

3. Here the crux of the matter concerning the Socratic method is presented differently from "A" essay - 2, but just as clearly.

4. Takes time to give a concrete example of the dialogue.

5. A bit vague at this point. Why doesn’t Socrates think that this is a true definition?

6. Good concluding paragraph, although the writer has forgotten that Socrates does not know what piety is.

In the story of Euthyphro we gain a deep insight into the intelligence and wisdom of Socrates. A seemingly accidental meeting between Socrates and Euthyphro is turned into a complex philosophical dissertation [Wu] in which we (1) and Euthyphro learn a great deal. The most important thing that we learn is that there are many things to learn.

Euthyphro meets Socrates on the steps of the courthouse. He has come to prefer the charge of murder [Wu] on his father. He feels that this is the pious thing to do. In his circle of acquaintances no one has thought to officially charge Euthyphro’s father so Euthyphro felt it was the right thing to do. He is so strong in his conviction that he engages Socrates, an older and seemingly wiser man, in conversation. Being the wise man that he is, Socrates, instead of using his vast experience to lecture Euthyphro, tells Euthyphro how wise he (Euthyphro) must be since he knew the definition of piety. Socrates says the he himself doesn’t know what it is and asks Euthyphro to explain it to him.(2)

Whether Socrates really doesn’t know what piety is or not is not the point of the story. What is the point is that he gets Euthyphro to examine his own knowledge of the word and to realize that to be pious you must have the knowledge, to know what piety is.(3) Euthyphro counters Socrates[‘] argument that piety is that which pleases the gods. "What gods?" asks Socrates. "What is pleasing to one god might displease another god." Socrates goes on to give Euthyphro a lesson in knowledge. To be wise, virtuous, pious, and the like you must know what the meaning of these words are [Gr]. Euthyphro argues that his turning in of his father is pious by the very fact that he is doing it. Not many sons would turn in their own fathers[,] he argued. This makes it the pious thing to do. Socrates argues that is not a true definition of piety.(5)

With this "Socratic method" of teaching[,] Socrates gets the student, so to speak, to answer the question himself. We must look inward for the answers to the philosophical problems that plague us. That is where the answers will be found, not with the gods or with Socrates himself. By allowing Euthyphro the courtesy of explaining what piety is he exposes the fact the Euthyphro doesn’t know what he is talking about. The lesson is learned much better this way than by Socrates lecturing ad infinitum about the definition of piety itself.(6)

1. Brief, clear, well-written stage-setting.

2. Shows Socrates’s intentions, though it is unclear in the dialogue whether Socrates aim is simply to teach Euthyphro a lesson.

3. Shows how Socrates’s question grows out of the situation.

4. You should show why the question is embarrassing.

5. This shows nicely why philosophy is important, and what the practical aims of philosophical analysis are.

6. Important point: Socrates has nothing to teach, no axe to grind.

In the Euthyphro Socrates is shown using his question and answer method of teaching (dialectic) to instruct a pompous ass (Euthyphro).

Euthyphro has come to court to press charges on [Wu: against] his own father for murder. He feels he should perform this function because it is an act of true piety on his part. (1)

Socrates while awaiting his own day in court decides to instruct Euthyphro on how little the young man knows of what piety really is.(2) He begins by asking seemingly innocuous questions about the true meaning of piety. Socrates himself alleges that he needs to know the true definition of piety so that he may defend himself against the charges brought against him by Meletus.(3)

Throughout the incessant questioning by Socrates, Euthyphro falls short of giving an adequate definition of piety that can be applied to all situations, instead he tries to show examples of pious acts.

After a series of embarrassing questions (4) to which Euthyphro has no adequate answers[,] he leaves fully aware as is the reader that he possesses not adequate definition of piety about which he professed to be expert.

The point to Euthyphro is to demonstrate how the improper use of concepts can prove to be dangerous. Here we have Euthyphro about to seek an incitement of his father without even an adequate idea of what his reasons for seeking the indictment is.[gr](5)

Socrates’ method of teaching is a very subtle one. He, by his clever questioning, forces the questionee to examine his own thought and therefore teach himself the true meaning of things.

Socrates is often called the greatest of all teachers because the student does not at first even realize he is being taught until the ultimate realization of the inadequacies of his own position. Socrates is not dogmatic,(6) nor does he try to be pedantic or superior. He just tries to motivate his student, through dialectic, to examine his own thought properly.