Euthyphro
Plato
Euthyphro
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"Euthyphro" by Plato is a philosophical dialogue written around 399 BC. Set outside an Athenian court, it follows Socrates as he awaits trial for impiety. He encounters Euthyphro, a confident prophet prosecuting his own father for murder. Socrates asks Euthyphro to define piety, sparking a rigorous examination that produces increasingly refined definitions—yet none prove satisfactory. Their discussion culminates in a famous dilemma about the gods' relationship to goodness, launching a debate that continues millennia later.
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About the author
Plato (c. 428–348 BC) was an Athenian philosopher, a student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he founded the Academy — arguably the first university in the West, and one that ran for nearly three centuries. He never writes in his own voice: the thirty-odd dialogues that survive are arguments between named Athenians, usually with Socrates in the middle asking the questions. The execution of Socrates by the city in 399 BC is the event behind all of them. The Republic, the Symposium, the Phaedo and the Apology are the most read.