PHIL 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Protoscience, Moral Authority
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Philosophy of the Pre-Socratics
- Naturalistic, proto-scientific explanations
- Liked to establish legitimacy by invoking the Gods
- What kinds of philosophical questions were they interested in?
o Principles and elements cosmogonies
o Change and motion
Philosophy of Plato
- Seems to be more focused on society than on nature
- Elenchus method, step-by-step logical arguments
- Not really searching for a particular truth – tendency to leave questions unanswered
Similarities? – COULD BE A TEST QUESTION
PLATO’“ Euthyphro
- “orates as aused of orruptig the youth ad ot elieig i the gods, he’s aitig
for the court
- Euthyphro is there to prosecute his father for murdering a servant, who also murdered a
man
o Euthyphro’s father ouds up the serat i a dith while asking the leaders of
Athens what to do with him – the servant dies in the ditch
- The divine sign – the voice in his head that tells him not to do something
- Euthyphro seems to believe that he is the supreme moral authority on piety and is very
confident in his actions
o Draws analogy between him and Zeus and Kronos
- Socrates has a self-interested reason for talking to Euthyphro
o Wants to use the definition of piety to give a better defense in court against the
change of impiety
- Piety: Devotion to your religion
o Osio – that which is holy and consecrated
- Euthyphro’s first aser aout piety: prosecuting the wrongdoer (5e)
o There are more acts than just prosecuting or not
o Socrates is looking for a general definition of piety that shows us what is
common among all pious actions (6d) – “orates is lookig for the for –
principle of classification that is going to allow him to separate the pious and the
impious
o 6e: Useful because it can be used as a model or blueprint to look to all other
cases of piety and impiety
- Euthyphro’s nd answer: what is dear to the gods
o Socrates points out that there is no consensus about what is just, beautiful, bad
– e a’t really say hat is dear to the gods eause there is so uh
disagreement
- Euthyphro’s rd answer: what is dear to all gods is pious and what is not dear to all gods
is impious
o Euthyphro’s dilea:
▪ Establishing priority about piety
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Document Summary
Liked to establish legitimacy by invoking the gods: principles and elements cosmogonies, change and motion. Seems to be more focused on society than on nature. Not really searching for a particular truth tendency to leave questions unanswered. O(cid:272)rates (cid:449)as a(cid:272)(cid:272)used of (cid:272)orrupti(cid:374)g the youth a(cid:374)d (cid:374)ot (cid:271)elie(cid:448)i(cid:374)g i(cid:374) the gods, he"s (cid:449)aiti(cid:374)g for the court. Euthyphro is there to prosecute his father for murdering a servant, who also murdered a man: euthyphro"s father (cid:271)ou(cid:374)ds up the ser(cid:448)a(cid:374)t i(cid:374) a dit(cid:272)h while asking the leaders of. Athens what to do with him the servant dies in the ditch. The divine sign the voice in his head that tells him not to do something. Euthyphro seems to believe that he is the supreme moral authority on piety and is very confident in his actions: draws analogy between him and zeus and kronos.
