Euthyphro

"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. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally issued 1999-02-01. This work is in the public domain in the United States. Sourced from Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1642).