Woolf Vs Socrates

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Our understanding of truth, morality and core principles can emerge from either two things: laws of nature-- genuine universal principles of the world that determine social outcomes, or social constructions--human made and society made ways of understanding the world. The trouble is, when can one recognize the source of their own morals and core principles? How can you distinguish what is right absolutely, and what has simply been taught to you? In Ancient Athens and Early 20th century England, laws of nature were being manipulated, and a social construction emerged to serve a hierarchy. In Plato’s Five Dialogues and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, Socrates and Woolf search for the truths about wisdom and creativity to reveal the misconceptions…show more content…
From the conversation, it’s clear that Euthyphro does not even understand the source of his knowledge of piety, although he claims to be very clear on the subject. He assumes that something is pious because it is god-loved and not god-loved because it is pious. This difference is crucial, because can define piety as either a social construction, or a law of nature. If the god’s love something because it is pious, then it’s something independent of the gods and therefore a genuine universal principle. Socrates proves that piety is indeed a law of nature, and proves that Euthyphro’s misconception is due to piety being manipulated in a social construction. It’s not that Euthyphro directly benefited from having that misconception, he’s just someone who adheres to beliefs taught by the social construction without any understanding of who or what it serves. It’s in this way that social construction can be so damaging. If individuals in a society are made to believe something from the time they are born, how are they supposed to realize that their knowledge is based on a lie? Piety was used as a tool to convict Socrates later in The

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