PHIL-P 140 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Reductio Ad Absurdum
Document Summary
Plato is one of western philosophy"s most important and influential figures. He was a resident of athens in ancient greece. He was the founder of the first institute of higher learning in the western world (the. He was a student of socrates, and a teacher of aristotle"s. Socrates and other figures as fictional characters based on actual people. Some key doctrines: theory of the forms, the changing and imperfect nature of the physical world. Stage setting: socrates meets euthyphro near king archon"s court. Socrates is being indicted for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods. Euthyphro is there to indict his father for the murder of a laborer. Euthyphro"s family and friends thinks that this is impious. Euthyphro disagrees; he thinks his family and friends are ignorant of the true nature of piety. This leads socrates to ask euthyphro what piety is. The dialogue is devoted to arriving at an adequate definition of piety.
