One of the most interesting and influential thinkers of all time was Socrates,
whose dedication to careful reasoning helped form the basis for philosophy.
Socrates applied logical tricks in the pursuit for the truth. Consequently, his
willingness to call everything into question and his determination to accept
nothing less than an adequate account of the nature of things made him one of
the first people to utilize critical philosophy. Although he was well known for
his philosophical ways of thinking, Socrates never wrote anything down, so we
are dependant on his students, like Plato, for any detailed knowledge of his
methods or ways of thinking. One of the early dialogues in which Plato had
written was Euthyphro. The Euthyphro dialogue begins with Socrates becoming
involved in a touchy conversation with an over confident young man, Euthyphro.
Socrates finds Euthyphro perfectly certain of his own ethical morality even in
the situation of prosecuting his own father in court. Socrates asks him to
define what piety, or moral duty really is. He asks for something more than just
lists of what pious actions are. Euthyphro is supposed to provide a general
definition that captures the very basic nature of what piety is. Euthyphro
claims that he knows what it is to be pious, but every answer he offers is
subjected to the full force of Socrates' critical thinking. Socrates
systematically refutes Euthyphro's suggestion that what makes right actions
right is that the gods love, or approve of them. First, there is the problem
that since questions of right and wrong often create endless disputes, the gods
are likely to disagree among themselves about moral matters just as often as we
do, making some actions both right and wrong. Socrates lets Euthyphro off the
hook on this one by agreeing with him, but only for purposes of continuing the
discussion. More importantly, Socrates instigates a formal problem for Euthyphro
from a deceivingly simple question, "Is the pious loved by the gods because
it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" Neither
choice can do the justice for which Euthyphro intends his definition of piety.
If right actions are pious only because the gods love them, then moral rightness
is completely optional, depending only on the impulses of the gods. But if the
gods love right actions only because they are already right, then there must be
some non-divine source of values, which we might come to know separately from
their love. Plato's final answer to the question of what makes a pious act pious
is to say that there is a form, piety itself, by virtue of which a pious act is
pious.