Plato's Interpretation Of Euthyphro

368 Words2 Pages
This Platonic dialogue mostly consists of the constant questioning of piety on Socrates’ end and trying to explain what it is on Euthyphro’s end. Plato’s principle goal was to link the inconclusiveness of the dialogue between the two and the irony Socrates employs, all while urging the readers to think independently and struggle to create an adequate definition of piety without the actual clarified answer. Socrates uses an ironic approach, called the dialectic method, where he tries to indirectly prove himself right and expose Euthyphro to his own contradictions and inconsistencies. Socrates pretends to play dumb and confesses his own ignorance, acting like a student and asking the “teacher,” Euthyphro, to teach him. Socrates’ goal was to bombard…show more content…
Socrates tried to make it look like he was praising Euthyphro in an inquiring way. Socrates was misleading and deceitful in a way because he showed overconfidence in Euthyphro’s knowledge, it is suspicious and ironic to what the audience actually thinks; the readers really sees that Euthyphro prosecuting his father is very much opinionated, which is not evident of his expert knowledge, especially since Euthyphro is considered a Sophist (Euthyphro, Chris Emlyn-Jones). Basically, Plato tries to reveal that Socrates’ method of teaching without actually teaching, being an intellectual midwife, is not only a matter of giving the right answers, but also leading the student toward the right answers, ensuring that the student can demonstrate and justify the answers (elenchus). Furthermore, this dialogue form is ideal for this kind of teaching of Socrates, where Socrates supposedly leads Euthyphro through his own reasoning, hoping to encourage Euthyphro to present, analyze, and lead him to see his own arguments and the faults in
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