EUTHYPHRO: EXAMPLES OF SOCRATIC METHOD, Part 1
Part 1 Examples are not Definitions
Plato
sets the scene of Euthyphro outside the courthouse in Athens. Socrates is there to hear an indictment
brought against him by a young man named Meletus. Upon his arrival, Socrates is surprised to
run into a prophet[1] he
knows named Euthyphro. Euthyphro tells Socrates that he is there to bring a
prosecution against his own father for the crime of murder. Socrates is...
EUTHYPHRO: EXAMPLES OF SOCRATIC METHOD, Part 2
From Understanding Plato: The Smart Student's Guide to the Socratic Dialogues and the Republic
Part 2 Quarreling Deities
Socrates
repeats his request: “What are the
pious and the impious?” Euthyphro
responds by telling Socrates that "what's loved by the gods is pious,
and what's not loved by the gods is impious" (7a). Let's call this new definition D2.
Socrates
responds to D2 by saying that it implies the...
EUTHYPHRO: AN EXAMPLE OF SOCRATIC METHOD, Part 3
From Understanding Plato: The Smart Student's Guide to the Socratic Dialogues and the RepublicEUTHYPHRO: EXAMPLES OF SOCRATIC METHODPart 3Concurrence of the Gods
Euthyphro
now makes a third attempt (D3) to provide a definition. “I’d say that the pious is what all the
gods love, and its opposite, what all the gods hate, is the impious”
(9e). Socrates responds by asking a
question that some scholars have called one of the most...
EUTHYPHRO: EXAMPLES OF SOCRATIC METHOD, Part 4
From Understanding Plato: The Smart Student's Guide to the Socratic Dialogues and the Republic EUTHYPHRO: EXAMPLES OF SOCRATIC METHODPart 4 Piety is not a Skill
After
a bit of floundering about, Euthyphro finally hits on another, final definition
of piety (D4). It is “some
sort of knowledge of sacrificing and praying” (14c). The pious person is one who knows how to ask
from the gods (prayer) and how to give to them...
LEVIATHAN: THOMAS HOBBES ON THE ORIGIN OF CIVIL SOCIETY
THOMAS HOBBES 1588 - 1679
LEVIATHAN: THOMAS HOBBES ON THE ORIGIN OF CIVIL SOCIETY
from Understanding Thomas Hobbes: The Smart Student's Guide to Leviathan
Whenever you see or hear the word 'origin' you must be careful not to confuse it with the word 'meaning'. A theory about the origin of civil society is not the same as a theory about the meaning of 'civil society'. Origin theories are empirical, requiring...
CHILDREN'S RIGHTS, STATE INTERVENTION, MARRIAGE, CUSTODY AND DIVORCE
Hot off the press and hoping that the book will not be "stillborn." You can help. Buy an eBook or paperback copy now at Amazon.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F2ZWRDSW By the end of the 20th century there had been a veritable deluge
of philosophical essays and books about children’s rights, adultery,
family violence, the ethics of divorce, the limits of state intervention
in the family, gay marriage, filial duties, and...
WHY LAW FIRMS SHOULD SUE THE GOVERNMENT WHEN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER VIOLATES THE CONSTITUTION
Law firms should sue but not settle with the government when an Executive Order violates the ConstitutionAdam Unikowsky
On March 25, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive
Order entitled “Addressing Risks from Jenner & Block. ” Among other things, the Executive Order
“limit[s] official access from Federal Government buildings to employees of
Jenner,” “limit[s] Government employees...
MENO'S PARADOX AND THE THEORY OF RECOLLECTION
Plato Thinking About the AfterlifePlato's Meno: Paradox and Solution
In the dialogue Meno, Plato writes that after repeated failures to provide Socrates with an
adequate definition of virtue, the character Meno complains that Socrates may not be able to
inquire about virtue at all. If we know
what virtue is, then there is no need to inquire about it. If we don’t know what it is, then “even if
you do happen to bump right into it, how...
ROUSSEAU'S PARADOX: WE ARE BORN FREE IN CHAINS
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Last week I invited a guest to write a blog on Rousseau's The Social Contract. I asked the guest to discuss Rousseau's famous paradox that we are both born free and born in chains. The question for my guest: "How is this possible?" The name of my guest is A.I. Perplexity. Here is Perplexity's answer:
The opening line of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social
Contract" presents one of the most provocative paradoxes...
GILBERT RYLE'S REVIEW OF HEIDEGGER'S SEIN UND ZEIT
Edmund HusserlMartin HeideggerGilbert Ryle GILBERT RYLE'S REVIEW OF HEIDEGGER'S SEIN UND ZEITIn a 1929 article printed in the journal Mind, Gilbert
Ryle wrote a review of Martin Heidegger’s book Sein und Zeit (Being
and Time). Although Ryle writes that
Heidegger’s book is “a very difficult and important work, which marks a big advance
in the application of the ‘Phenomenological Method'", he says "I suspect that this advance
is an...
Checks and balances are only as good as their enforcers
When the head of state or government goes rogue, what happens next?
Consider the recent experiences of three countries where the top leader pursued an agenda far more radical than they had campaigned on, in a way that caused widespread panic. In South Korea, Yoon-Suk Yeol attempted to impose martial law, marking an attempted return to something like the country’s past military dictatorship. In the UK, Liz Truss attempted tax cuts...
Why we sometimes need to deadname
A little while ago I was at a party en femme and met an older man who didn’t know many transgender people but was interested in talking about it. He mentioned someone else he knew who’d transitioned, and asked about how to refer to that person when discussing things they’d done together before the transition. He said that in that context it felt more natural to refer to them by their old name and pronouns. While I understood that, I responded “It’s...
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